Freedom Trail Tour
Although I have lived in Atlanta all of my life, there was much knowledge gained from the Freedom Trail Tour. The tour began at the First African Baptist Church on Wright Square in Atlanta. The church was established at a time in history when blacks seldom owned property. The church was erected, through much trial and tribulation, by slave labor (which included many diverse tribes from Africa) for blacks to have a place to worship. The church is the oldest black church in the United States and serves as a mainstay and foundation for all black churches throughout the world. History leads one to believe that the blacks from African were illiterate, uneducated individuals, a fact that is proven untrue several times over, especially when looking at the work of the slaves in the creation of First African Baptist Church. The ingenuity in building the church, to this day, baffles engineers and architects. The Arabic script on the side of the church pews on the second level of the church shows that our African brothers and sisters were truly literate. The church served on the route for the Underground Railroad in Atlanta, unbeknownst to the told history of Atlanta and its Underground Railroad system. The founders of First African went on to create places of worship for millions of blacks throughout the US and neighboring islands in the Americas. Upon leaving the church, it was impressed upon the tour group that the property on Bryan Street, adjacent to the church, used to be a slave trading post. The property was subsequently purchased by blacks and served as a base for the all-black school system in Atlanta. The black school system made it evident the blacks highly valued education and had the feeling that if their children were to be properly taught, blacks had better teach their own due to their thirst and need for their children to have the best education possible. I also learned of Bishop Henry McNeil Turner who has a monument...