Black History Month: 8 historically significant African American churches

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Ebenezer Baptist Church — Atlanta, Georgia

A parishioner listens to a service at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in which the Rev. Raphael Warnock encouraged people to go out and vote in Tuesday's midterm elections Sunday, Oct. 31, 2010, in Atlanta, Georgia. | AP Images/David Goldman

Founded in 1886, Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta, Georgia, is most known for being the pulpit of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who served as co-pastor of the church from 1960 until his assassination in 1968.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. also pastored the congregation, which presently boasts around 6,000 members, serving in various leadership roles from 1927 until his retirement in 1975.

This year, the church again gained national attention when its senior pastor, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, won a special election and became the first African American U.S. Senator to represent the state of Georgia.

"The other day, because this is America, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else's cotton went to the polls and picked her youngest son to be a United States senator," stated Warnock in his victory speech.

"The improbable journey that led me to this place in this historic moment in America could only happen here."