HistoricSiteMarkers
Early Republic

Rev. Jehu Jones, Jr. (1786-1852)

Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania

Marker Inscription

First African American Lutheran pastor in the US. Founder of nation's first African American Lutheran congregation, St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church. It built its brick edifice here in 1834 and worshiped at the site with Jones as its pastor until 1839.

Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

The Story

In 1834 the Rev. Jehu Jones, Jr. led his congregation in building a brick church on this site — the home of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, the nation's first African American Lutheran congregation. Jones, the first Black Lutheran pastor in the United States, shepherded the community here through the 1830s, a time when free Black Philadelphians were building enduring institutions amid deep racial hostility. His church stood as a landmark of Black faith and self-determination.

Why it matters

Jones and St. Paul's opened Lutheran ministry to African Americans and added to Philadelphia's remarkable roster of independent Black churches that anchored free Black community life before the Civil War.

The story behind this marker

AI context

The era

In the early decades of the American republic, Philadelphia was home to one of the largest and most vibrant free Black communities in the nation. Even amid deep racial hostility and the daily indignities of prejudice, free Black Philadelphians were building enduring institutions — schools, mutual aid societies, and above all, churches.

These congregations were far more than places of worship. They were centers of community, education, and self-determination, spaces where Black Americans could lead, organize, and shape their own futures at a time when so many doors were closed to them.

It was in this climate of both hardship and remarkable achievement that a new congregation took shape, adding another chapter to the city's extraordinary story of Black faith and independence in the 1830s.

People & events

The Rev. Jehu Jones, Jr. holds a distinct place in American religious history as the first African American Lutheran pastor in the United States. He was the founder of the nation's first African American Lutheran congregation, St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church.

In 1834, Jones led his congregation in building a brick church on this site, giving the community a permanent home of its own. He served here as pastor, shepherding the church and its members through the challenges of the decade, and worshiped at this site with his congregation until 1839.

That achievement — a Black pastor leading a Black Lutheran congregation in its own brick edifice — was a quiet act of enormous consequence, carried out in a era when such institutions had to be built against powerful resistance.

Its place in the American story

Jones and St. Paul's opened Lutheran ministry to African Americans, expanding the reach of a major American denomination to a community that had been excluded from full participation. It was a first, and firsts of this kind mattered: they established that Black Americans could lead within these traditions on their own terms.

The congregation also joined Philadelphia's remarkable roster of independent Black churches — institutions that anchored free Black community life before the Civil War and became foundations of leadership, education, and mutual support.

In a nation still bound by slavery and pervasive discrimination, the founding of a self-governing Black congregation was an assertion of dignity and self-determination. Jones's church stands in that larger story as a landmark of Black faith and independence.

If you visit

Stand at this site and picture the brick church that rose here in 1834, built by a congregation determined to have a home of its own. It represented years of faith and effort by people who claimed a place for themselves in a city and a country that too often denied them one.

As you take in the surroundings, remember that this was one of many Black churches that made early Philadelphia a stronghold of free Black community life. Each one was an act of hope and resolve, and together they shaped the city's history in ways still felt today.

For anyone tracing the roots of African American history and faith, this is a meaningful stop. It honors a pioneering pastor and a pioneering congregation — a reminder of how much was built, against long odds, on ground like this.

Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.

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