MAUREEN BUNYAN: It's a steamy Sunday in Savannah on the Fourth of July. Here at The First African Baptist Church, parishioners honor an earlier tradition when they gather to pray. Their church was founded by slaves three years prior to America's Declaration of Independence. The First African Baptist Church is the oldest continuous black congregation in North America.Deacon HARRY JAMES (The First African Baptist Church): We are going to tell you a bit about the church.
BUNYAN: Pay a call on the church historian, Deacon Harry James, and you will hear first about its founder, Pastor George Lisle.
Deacon JAMES: The First African Baptist Church was started by the Reverend George Lisle, who was born a slave. His slave owner was a deacon in a white Baptist church. Lisle was permitted to join that church.BUNYAN: Dr. Andrew Billingsley is the author of MIGHTY LIKE A RIVER: THE BLACK CHURCH AND SOCIAL REFORM.
Dr. ANDREW BILLINGSLEY (Author, MIGHTY LIKE A RIVER): The whole slave system was hostile toward black expressions, including black religious expressions. But Lisle was an unusual person, didn't do it easily. He tried all sorts of ways to express himself, and he was successful in doing so and getting other people to follow him.BUNYAN: When Lisle sided with the British and had to flee, Reverend James Bryan replaced him and almost lost his life defending his right to preach the gospel to slaves. Reverend Thurmond Tillman is the 17th pastor of The First African Baptist Church.
Reverend THURMOND TILLMAN (The First African Baptist Church): The story about Andrew Bryan is that he was standing in the square being beaten for preaching the gospel. The blood was just running out of his body. And while he was standing in a puddle of his blood, as a slave, he looked to those accusers and those who were whipping him and said, "If you would rather that I not preach the gospel, you have to cut off my head," a very dangerous thing to say during that time.
BUNYAN: This is the fifth and final site of the congregation of First African Baptist Church. The building is now covered over by stucco. But when it was being constructed in 1859, slave women carried the bricks here in their aprons at night, working by candlelight and moonlight, after they had finished their chores for their masters.
Deacon JACOB MACKEY: It gives me the energy that I need to continue my work. I would encourage all African-Americans to come to this palace of worship, and this would give them the energy level that they need, perhaps, to push on and not be defeated.
