OUR HISTORY   

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 During slavery, it was customary for whites to provide special places for the Negro slaves to worship.  Sometimes these places were in the rear of white churches.  Sometimes, it was in the balconies or specially built pews that were separated from the rest of the congregation, and at times, it was a special building on the plantation or some other designated spot where the building was separate.  Sometimes blacks served as ministers and often the ministers were white.  When whites served blacks as ministers, their primary goals were to indoctrinate the blacks as to why they should love, obey, and remain forever loyal to their white masters.

   After the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation, many white families moved away from the southern states.  They no longer had the free services of blacks.  Being destitute themselves, most of the slave owners sought employment in cities or places north.  They abandoned their lands and homes in their pursuit of work.

   To safeguard their financial interest, the Freedom Bureau of the United States War Department was established to care for the large number of Negroes.  These Negroes, uneducated, depended on the government to relieve their sufferings and hunger.  The Bureau established schools and hospitals. The Bureau was authorized to assign forty (40) acres from abandoned lands formerly owned by whites to each Negro male.  The bureau, however, made no provisions for the religious training of blacks.  Mrs. Mitchell Heape noticed this and presented the church building and lot to former slaves.  The leaders became Methodist and thus St. John African Methodist Episcopal Church had its beginning.  St. John remained an African Methodist Episcopal church from its inception in 1865.

   On September 19, 1874, to ensure that everything was legal, the congregation purchased the lot and building from a member of the Heap family for $38.00.  The name of this person was Mrs. Francis Owens.

   The first trustees were brothers Peter Wright, Henry Polite, Isaac Hooks, Peter Thomas, Alfred Wright, Joshua Young, Arthur Givens, and Tony Cordray.

   There is no record of who the ministers were during these times.

   The first building, destroyed by fire in 1904, was rebuilt under the leadership of Rev. C. M. Boyd.  That building was destroyed in the late 1950’s by Hurricane Gracie.  

 Worship Services were held in the Ellis Community School until the present building was erected.

   Some of our former ministers serving since 1865 were:  Rev. S. E. Greathart, Rev. C. M. Boyd, Rev. Jackson, Rev. S. E. Bennett, Rev. Stewart, Rev. A. L. Brown, Rev. Robinson, Rev. J. H. Nero, Rev. C. W. Gillianson, Jr., Rev. R. Johnson, Rev. S. B. Burgess, Rev. Tingman, Rev. P. J. Hammitt, Rev. St. Julian Heyward, Rev. S. L. Green, Rev. Marshall B. Randall, Rev. Willie E. Smith, Rev. Richard Williams, Rev. A. F. Woodbury, Rev. Ernest Smalls, Rev. John Paul Brown, Rev. J. O. Johnson, Rev. Jerry Williams, Rev. Harry Burns, Rev. Robert White, Rev. Martinez J. Masterson, Rev. Jack Lewis, Jr. Rev. Gregory M. Kinsey. The current Pastor the Reverend Dr. James Mack, Jr. was appointed to St. John on September 19, 2020, by Bishop Samuel L. Green, Sr. Some of the highlights under his leadership: a 501(3-C) were established, assessments were faithfully paid, social media was expanded, and the replacement of the roof. 

   Some of our associate ministers were Rev. Casey Brown, Rev. Thomas E. McClary, Rev. Ruby Brown, Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, and Rev. Vara Burns.
   
   Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney began preaching at St. John at thirteen and was appointed pastor at eighteen. In 1996, he became the youngest African American man elected to the South Carolina General Assembly at the age of twenty-three. Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney was a politician and a pastor who served as a Democratic member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from January 1997 to January 2001. He served from January 2001 to June 17, 2015, (the date of his death) as a member of the South Carolina Senate, representing the 45th District in which St. John Church Community is a part. He was the senior Pastor at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC when he was assassinated by white supremacist Dylann Roof in a racially motivated terrorist mass shooting at an evening Bible study. The 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama delivered the eulogy and sang “Amazing Grace at Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney’s funeral.