Let Freedom Ring Foundation Williamsburg, VA

Hello and thank you for visiting our page! We are the Let Freedom Ring Foundation, established to maintain the building, artifacts and landscape of the Historic First Baptist Church of Williamsburg. We are members and caretakers for this historic trust, which is currently on both the State and National Registers of Historic Places. Our Board of Directors consists of church members, friends, community partners and historians in Williamsburg, the Colonial Capital of Virginia. We have the honor of being one of the first churches organized in America by free and enslaved African Americans in 1776, the same year that our country gained its independence. We need your help.

After more than 240 years, the Historic First Baptist Church is a living museum with 21st century challenges. Although we have persevered through the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement, we now need your help. Our church was one of the best kept secrets in the Nation until President Barack Obama rang our Freedom Bell to open the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. We are now charged with sharing our history with visitors from across the United States and around the world.

In 1962, civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a sermon from the pulpit of this historic church and Rosa Parks visited during the Civil Rights era. In more recent times, the church is still making history. In 2017, the first African American bishop of The Episcopal Church, Rev. Michael Curry, delivered a moving sermon at First Baptist Church. In 2019, Virginia State Poet Laureate, Henry Hart wrote a poem for Williamsburg’s Independence Day celebration and mentioned the church’s Freedom Bell in the opening and closing verses. Dr. Katherine Rowe, the first female President of the College of William & Mary also visited the church in 2019, and delivered a message with a passionate statement, “African American History is American History and there is a need for everyone to understand this.”

Since 2016, more than 7,000 visitors have come to ring the Freedom Bell. Our church belongs to the Nation and commemorates the African Americans who broke the law and gathered to worship.

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has done some work to tell the story of 18th century Blacks in Williamsburg, but there is still a great deal of work that needs to be done to tell the whole story. We will update and repair our building and improve the experience of visitors who come to ring the Freedom Bell and learn the story of the Historic First Baptist Church. We also plan to train tour guides to conduct tours, since many of our members are now aged. We would  love to build a museum next to the church so that all of the artifacts can be protected, preserved, and displayed properly to tell the story of a race, left with no other place to worship than under a brush arbor. These repairs and renovations will require a funding stream and that is where your support is needed. Any contribution you make will go directly into the project(s) and all donations are tax deductible, as we are a 501 (c)(3) organization.

For more information, visit us on Scotland Street in Williamsburg, Virginia for a tour or view our Foundation’s website at http://firstbaptistchurch1776.org/foundation-home/. Additional information about the Historic First Baptist Church can be found at http://firstbaptistchurch1776.org/. We stand ready to answer any questions that you have.