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First African Baptist Church

Photo: Michael Rivera / CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Attractions

First African Baptist Church

Savannah, GA · Savannah$Tour: adults $15; seniors, military, students $12

About

Tracing its congregation to 1773, this brick sanctuary on Franklin Square was raised in 1859 by enslaved and free Black members who made the bricks by hand and laid them after their days in the fields. Look down on the lower-level floor and you find holes drilled in a Kongo diamond pattern, breathing air to freedom seekers hidden in the crawlspace beneath the pews. The balcony pews still carry marks read as West African script, and a guided tour walks you through the full weight of that history.

Highlights

Getting there

23 Montgomery Street, Savannah, GA 31401

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Georgia Attractions45 places

Georgia Attractions

Nearly half of these Georgia attractions are in two cities, 14 in Atlanta and eight in Savannah. Some of the rest take ten minutes, like the 56-foot Big Chicken on Cobb Parkway or the oak in Athens that legally owns itself.