Philadelphia’s Mother Bethel AME Church is one of five African American churches chosen to receive a $1 million grant from the African American Cultural and Heritage Action Fund.

The church’s pastor, the Rev. Carolyn Cavaness, said the action fund is associated with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and was made possible in part by Lilly Endowment Inc., for the purpose of helping historic African American churches preserve their historic assets and legacies through sustained stewardship planning.

Mother Bethel is located at 419 S. Sixth St. near Lombard Street in South Philadelphia. The property is considered the oldest continuously Black-owned parcel of land in the United States. It is also where the AME Church was founded by the late Rev. Richard Allen and the Free African Society of Philadelphia in 1794.

“He was an American hero born into slavery, but he purchased his freedom through his hard work,” Cavaness said. Allen was known for “the Great Walkout” of November 1787 with Absalom Jones at the age of 27. The two were tired of segregation, even in houses of faith, and Allen branched out to form the first African Methodist church in the nation.

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