Ebenezer Baptist Church Tours and Activities

Light streams through the stained glass windows of Ebenezer Baptist Church, illuminating the altar where Martin Luther King, Jr. was baptized as a child and served as pastor in adulthood. America’s most famous Civil Rights leader grew up in this church, and his legacy lives on inside its walls today, where the church serves as one of the foremost landmarks of the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta and in the United States.

The church was founded in 1886 during the Reconstruction Era in the South after the Civil War, and by the mid-20th century, Martin Luther King, Sr. was leading the congregation from the pulpit on Sundays, setting the stage for his son to take over. MLK, Jr. joined his father as a co-pastor from 1960 until the fateful day of his death in 1968. His funeral, too, was held here. The church has since been restored to look as it did in the 1960s during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, and MLK Jr.’s voice greets visitors as they walk through the storied doors, his sermons and speeches playing on a loop on loudspeakers in the Church. Ebenezer Baptist Church still holds sermons today, a testament to the conviction and passion of the congregations that have kept this unique historical landmark alive for well over a century.