Abyssinian Baptist Church is the most politically powerful Black church in American history. Abyssinian Baptist Church was founded in 1808 by a group of African American and Ethiopian merchants who refused to continue sitting in the segregated pews of the First Baptist Church on Gold Street in Lower Manhattan. They named their church for the ancient Ethiopian empire, Abyssinia, the oldest Christian nation on earth.
The congregation moved to Harlem in 1923, where its pastor, Adam Clayton Powell Sr., used the church's resources to run soup kitchens, a clothing bank, and job placement programs through the Depression. His son, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., became the first Black congressman from New York and one of the most powerful legislators in Washington during the civil rights era, using his chairmanship of the House Education and Labor Committee to push through landmark legislation. He preached here on Sunday mornings from this pulpit.
The Gothic and Tudor Gothic building, completed in 1923, holds more than 2,000 worshippers. On any Sunday morning, the choir fills the block with sound.