Freedmen's Convention (1865, 1866)
St. Paul AME Church became the site of the first North Carolina Freedmen’s Convention in the Fall of 1865. Abraham Galloway, who escaped slavery and became a Union Army Master Spy, called the Convention to order on September 29, 1865, at St. Paul AME, also called the Methodist African Church at the time. Galloway would later become one of the first Black men to serve in the North Carolina legislature. More than 100 delegates from across the state attended the four-day convention to express the desires of North Carolina’s freedmen.
Above all, the delegates asked for education for their children, safety for their families, care for their elderly and orphaned, the right to work for fair wages, and the right to vote. The 1866 Convention was also held in St. Paul AME Church. Delegates gave official thanks to the church for their hospitality. The women of St. Paul were instrumental in providing visiting delegates with the comforts of home.
In September 2025, to celebrate the 160th anniversary of the first North Carolina Freedmen’s Convention, the North Carolina Highway Historical Marker program placed a new historical marker in front of the church. An earlier marker had been placed a block away and did not include the name of the church. The new marker, unveiled during a special ceremony at St. Paul, reads: “Delegates resolved to seek civil rights for the State’s freedpeople met here. St. Paul A.M.E. in 1865 and 1866.”
“I consider that there has never been and never will be a more important assembly than this one convened here. We have met here to deliberate on the best interests of our people. We come here from the hills, from the mountains and from the deserts. We come together as one man, and our watchword is ‘equal rights before the law’.” ~ Rev. J.W. Hood, President 1865 Freedmen’s Convention