On this day, the African Meeting House was founded in Boston. It is today the oldest black church edifice still standing in the United States.

Boston's white congregations of the day segregated blacks to balcony seats and denied them the full privlidges of church membership. The African Meeting House would come to be popularily called "The Black Faneuil Hall", and function as a civic, social and religious hub for Boston's black community, and the anti-slavery movement.

Ironically, at its public dedication floor-level pews were reserved for all those "benevolently disposed to the Africans," while the black members sat in the balcony of their new meeting house.

The federalist style design is based on a pattern published by Asher Benjamin, who designed the nearby Charles Street Meeting House.