Congregants celebrate the reconstruction of one of America’s oldest Black churches

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WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — The reconstruction of one of the nation’s oldest Black churches, where congregants gathered in secret before building a meeting house in Virginia, was celebrated Friday.

Hundreds of residents gathered for a community-wide re-dedication of the original First Baptist Church of Williamsburg, which was established in 1776 by enslaved and free African Americans in defiance of laws that prevented them from congregating.

In 1805, its original parishioners built the church house, known as the African Baptist Meeting House, with recycled bricks and materials they scrounged. A tornado in 1834 destroyed the church, which was rebuilt in 1856 before it was turned into a parking lot a century later by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, a living history museum, because it didn’t match the 18th century aesthetic of the town at the time.

Since then, the 16-foot by 32-foot church has been reconstructed, after archaeologists in 2021 uncovered the church’s original foundation, as well as 62 graves linked to the congregation.

“What this day means and shows is that Black history…