By Nedra Deadwyler
“No pillar of the African American community has been more central to the history, identity, and social justice vision than the ‘Black Church.’ To be sure, there is no single Black Church, just as there is no single Black religion, but the traditions and faiths that fall under the umbrella of African American religion, particularly Christianity, constitute two stories: one of a people defining themselves in the presence of a higher power and the other of their journey for freedom and equality in a land where power itself — and even humanity — for so long was (and still is) denied them.”
— Henry Louis Gates
The landmark designation ceremony for the Old Stone Church, the historic church home of the Antioch East Baptist Church and the Candler Park home of the First Existentialist Congregation (First E), took place Saturday, June 22, 2024. Joyful singing and merry hearts soothed a blistering, hot day set aside to honor the legacy of Antioch East, its founding members, and the Black Edgewood community where the church first took root.
The Atlanta Future Places Project report made preserving Black heritage its top recommendation. And with the collaboration of local organizations and residents made the historic day possible. Some were honored and acknowledged at the event, including:
- The BiRacial History Project, an 18-year research, documentation, and community engagement and building project managed by Edith Kelman.
- Anthony Knight, current African American Heritage Initiative Coordinator in the Office of Design Studio with Atlanta’s Department of City Planning. Hired in 2022, he shaped the designation process.
- Matt Adams, Assistant Director of Historic Preservation, Office of Design, called attention to the first two Black heritage sites this year honored with a landmark designation: the Philadelphia School and the Old Stone Church.
Other First E community members attended to support and celebrate the historic moment, like Yvonne Carey Culbreath. She stood with her mother, Mother Sophie Lillian Greene Carey, as an early Antioch church family and long-term member: “I am so grateful that we had the opportunity to come. Grateful that my mother has been a member of Antioch all of her life. And now that she is 104 years old and was able to experience this is just a blessing from God.”
Charmaine Warren, who grew up in a small town in Illinois, said she “insisted on being here because I think it’s history: For one, if you don’t know where you came from you don’t know where you’re going. So anytime I can make history or give some young people some advice on history, I need to be knowledgeable about it.”
The ceremony was a public demonstration of the importance of Black history, learning, and collaborative care for all in attendance and beyond. Barbara Boone — attends First E and is a part of its Social Justice Guild — said she started to attend First E because of what she saw during her first visit: signs like “Black Lives Matter” and Old Stone Church artifacts telling the history of the church. It was a place where everyone was welcomed and according to Ms. Boone, “All these people that did not look like me but were honoring the people who had preceded them. [The community at First E] respects everyone and celebrates all things that matter.”
She went on to share examples of other events the BiRacial History Project and Antioch East Baptist Church have created together, including:
- A 2023 “Come Back Musical” celebration.
- An October 2022 event on the ballfields of Candler Park“celebrating Black families and Black property” by surveying and laying out the property lines of the Black community buildings that once stood there before residents were forced out and displaced in 1942.
“It’s said that the history was something that needed to be memorialized and historically maintained so that everyone in the future could appreciate it,” Ms. Boone concluded in her remarks.
Historic designation for African American history and heritage in the built environment serves to provide broad support for formal recognition. The Old Stone Church demonstrates the need to identify these sites in neighborhoods around the city. The public ceremony points to the long legacy of Antioch East Baptist Church and the perseverance of Black people in maintaining their spiritual heritage despite being targets of White violence; the history of the church bears witness to these stories.
AJ Leslie Sr., a longtime member of Antioch East Baptist Church, shared, “After the Ku Klux [Klan] burned the first church down, the men of the church along with some of the deacons went to Stone Mountain and brought these stones back and rebuilt this church by hand. That’s quite a feat!”
Emily Taft, an architectural historian who serves on Candler Park’s historical designation committee, expressed praise for the work of the BiRacial History Project. She said “No matter who owns it, you can’t demolish the church and you won’t be able to dramatically change it, so that means that this place will be in our neighborhood and a part of our neighborhood in perpetuity.”
The City Ordinance 101.6 provides regulation for Landmark Historic Buildings and Districts. The Director of Historic Preservation and the Urban Design Commission are the legal bodies that will manage the construction, alteration, repair, enlargement, restoration, relocation, or moving of buildings and see that usage of the Old Stone Church is aligned with the maintenance of the historic building.
The intersection of preservation legislation and engagement of collective memory is what makes the Old Stone Church significant. This is the practice of Sankofa, a tradition based on African principles of honoring the past as a guide for forward movement. Our collective humanity is more resilient in and buffered by the knowledge of a shared full historical narrative. It is through the act of gaining understanding that communities develop tools to build more inclusivity, where all residents are part of the society based in equity and equality.
The rapidity of development across the city and the encroachment into formerly segregated Black neighborhoods too often mean that these deeper stories disappear from the built environment and collective memory. Taft points out, “In the 20th century, most of the African American communities that were on the north side of the tracks shifted south and so there is very little of the African American communities that were integrated in our neighborhoods from across the city… from after the Civil War there is very little left of those on the north side of the tracks particularly.”
This is true across Atlanta. Preserving Black heritage sites not only keeps those cultural resources in neighborhoods but also provides access to the past. Black Heritage sites serve as pilgrimage and gathering sites and physical spaces designed for the community’s benefit. Remembering, learning, and sharing history is a tool to build intergenerational connections and foster community spirit.
There are only a few Black heritage resources that have been preserved with legislation. Garfield Peart, who grew up in the same neighborhood as Knight, is an architect and former Atlanta Urban Design Commissioner and Vice-Chair. “As you read the history of this structure, it was born out of unfortunately what many of our historic buildings experience,” he said. “They were built with materials that weren’t sustainable in that sense and with the technologies that we had in the late 1800s and early 1900s, like much of the rest of the city was built out of wood. So, the decision to get stone and building a stronger building not only represented an education but also represented a symbol that this structure would not be easily destroyed like the other one.”
Peart acknowledged the opportunity presented by the moment; the ceremony highlights the Stone Church as a preservation model. “The legacy, this is very significant. Not only for the city of Atlanta but for the Candler Park neighborhood,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for us to embrace our history in the city of Atlanta, to set the example for other cities in the South on how you work together both racially and culturally to build a greater city.” Typically, the act of honoring diversity in history is intentionally pushed aside. “Today’s experience was … I think a great lesson to everyone that the process of learning our history and understanding our history can be a joyful process, it’s nothing to be afraid of,” Mary Howard, a congregant of First E remarked. “It enables us to move forward with justice and harmony.”
The work of honoring the legacy of Antioch East Baptist Church continues beyond the Landmark Ceremony. Kelman arranged for the BiRacial History Project’s documentation, research, and events to be retained in the Rose Library archives at Emory University. The collection will remain accessible to the founding families, church communities of Antioch East Baptist Church and First E, and the public, in perpetuity. Community members hope they will serve as liaisons between the archival collection and the intergenerational Antioch East Baptist Church and stakeholder families. Their goal is to collaborate with the families, facilitate awareness and access to the materials, and support active engagement with the historic documents, artifacts, and exhibits, Ms. Kelman said.
District 2 Councilperson Amir Farokhi stated that “moments like this are undervalued in our city. We tend to look forward and not backwards.”
Peart said the church is emblematic of Atlanta’s building history. “Architecturally that speaks to a lot of our structures around the city, that if you take the care to build them, they’ll be around so that we can honor them in the future,” he said.
To learn more about the Early Edgewood-Candler Park BiRacial History Project’s work, visit biracialhistoryproject.org.
Nedra Deadwyler MSW, MHP is a creative person and social practitioner who builds community through public history, the arts, and active living.