First African Baptist Church, Bryant, Montgomery & Saint Julian Streets, Savannah, Chatham County, GA

2017 Charles E. Peterson Prize, Honorable Mention
Significance: First African Baptist Church was built to be a safe-haven for African Americans to be free to worship beginning in a time even when they were not free themselves. It played an integral role in the establishment, progression, and reinforcement of religious freedom for African Americans in the southern United States. This building was built during a time when most African Americans lived in shanties on the outside of town in deplorable conditions. First African Baptist was the first brick building owned by African Americans in the city of Savannah and was built on the edge of town serving as a symbol of the African American civilization and movement into the city. The church was built in the high style of Romanesque Revival for what was at the time an unlikely group of patrons.

First African continued to be vital to the African American community in the twentieth century, particularly during the Civil Rights era. Savannah was a center for racial injustice before and during the Civil Rights Movement just as it had been a center for the horrors of the era of slavery a century prior. First African has been standing and strengthening its black members through the atrocities they've faced for many generations.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N2219
Survey number: HABS GA-276
Building/structure dates: 1859 Initial Construction
Building/structure dates: after. 1870- before. 1879 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1888 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: 1925 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: after. 1940- before. 1949 Subsequent Work