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Park is Open Daily From 6AM - 9PM
229 Beach City Rd, Hilton Head Island

First African Baptist Church

  • First African Baptist Church was founded with 120 members and led by Rev. Abraham Murchison (a freed, literate, formerly enslaved person from Savannah, Georgia), who was the eventual magistrate, then mayor of Mitchelville. 
  • The church was structured with two rows of benches, a pulpit, and a ceiling with glass lamps. Men sat on one side, women on the other.
  • Each Sunday, congregants would gather in their “Sunday Best”, full of beautiful color, turbans for soulful praise and worship.

Support our efforts to preserve, promote and honor Historic Mitchelville, the first self-governed town of formerly enslaved people in the United States by sharing, donating, and volunteering.