Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church - View this location on map Founded in 1793, Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (1889) is a living memorial to Richard Allen (1760-1831), former slave, Methodist minister, preeminent Black leader, and founder of the first permanent national association of Afro-Americans, the Free African Society, in 1787. Allen bought the land and founded Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church to let African Americans worship in their own way. The church has served the African-American community as a social organizer, championing racial equality and civil rights on the local and national level. It served as a stop on the Underground Railroad, and has hosted many famous leaders including Frederick Douglass, Lucretia Mott, Rosa Parks, and Colin Powell, among others. 419 Richard Allen Ave. (South 6th Street), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Historical

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