Doors Open black history tour will focus on city's AME churches
Church video
The spiritual history of Pittsburgh’s black community will be on full display Jan. 19, when nonprofit Doors Open and local African Methodist Episcopal church officials partner to host a “Ride with the King” black history tour the Saturday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Bonnie Baxter of Pittsburgh got the idea for Doors Open after attending a similar event while living in Chicago. In October 2018, more than 50 buildings throughout Downtown were part of a Doors Open event. It offered the public an opportunity to take guided tours, attend lectures and view exhibits about the architecture of the buildings as well as what takes place inside.
“People buy tickets and then they can help themselves to the building tours,” Baxter said. “We have about 400 volunteers at those buildings and when people come in, they get either a behind-the-scenes experience or just a chance, as we say in Pittsburgh ‘to be nebby.’”
Baxter also has put together a series of “Insider” tours, organized around a single location.
After talking with staff at Bethel AME Church in Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood, “I thought the time might be right to pull the trigger on an ‘Insider’ tour at the church,” she said. “And with just the little bit of history they gave me, we started thinking that several AME church tours would be a really good opportunity.”
Bethel AME traces its history back to a very small congregation in 1808. Organizers received its charter in 1818, and it is Pittsburgh’s oldest black church.
Bethel’s first pastor, Paul Quinn, eventually became a bishop “and he really helped to grow the AME church west of the Alleghenies,” said Bethel’s current pastor, Rev. Irwin McIntosh Jr.
“He was very active with the Underground Railroad as well,” McIntosh said. “I’m still trying to find out if Bethel was one of the churches he used in that work. But the AME churches were very active in speaking out against slavery, and very active in the civil rights era.”
Other participating churches will be St. James AME in East Liberty and Brown Chapel AME on Pittsburgh’s North Side.
McIntosh said the churches’ primary goal today is reaching out to members of the community.
“The church was the gathering place for people seeking upward mobility in the black community, and we need to bring those folks back,” he said.
Self-guided and bus tours will take place from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tickets range from $5 to $20 depending on age and type of tour, and are available at DoorsOpenPgh.org.
“We’re presenting the African-American story, but keeping it very specific and telling it through these local churches,” Baxter said.
Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick at 724-850-2862, pvarine@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MurrysvilleStar.
Patrick Varine is a TribLive reporter covering Delmont, Export and Murrysville. He is a Western Pennsylvania native and joined the Trib in 2010 after working as a reporter and editor with the former Dover Post Co. in Delaware. He can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com.
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