While the church’s presence in Yakima dates back to 1906, the roots of the faith go back to the early days of the United States.

The origin of the African Methodist Episcopal Church begins with the Free African Society, a mutual aid organization for newly freed slaves that was founded in Philadelphia in 1787. Its founders, preachers Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, envisioned the society as providing spiritual support, fellowship, and financial assistance to families coping with illness and death, but not necessarily as a stand-alone church, given its relatively small size and religiously diverse membership.

Most members of the society were Episcopalians; Allen and other members were Methodists. But white Methodists in Philadelphia, while supporting the abolition of slavery, did not fully welcome black adherents into their congregations, segregating blacks in churches and cemeteries.

When it was suggested that the Free African Society should become an Episcopal-leaning congregation, Allen instead wanted to continue following Methodist teachings. In 1794 Allen became the first pastor of Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia. In 1816, following a court ruling allowing his congregation to be independent from white Methodist churches, Allen organized the first African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The denomination established churches in California in the 1850s, eventually expanding to the Pacific Northwest.

AME members in what is now Yakima formed a church on December 6, 1906. Among its earliest members was the family of Jasper Evans, a Civil War veteran who settled in Selah. Evans’ daughter, Della Mae Evans-Woods, served as the church’s organist for 25 years.

For the first 11 years, the church met to worship and study the Bible in rooms above a barbershop at 7½ S. Second St., where the Cowiche Canyon Kitchen restaurant is located today. . Its pastor, the Reverend S. E. Bailey, and other church officers filed statutes with the county auditor on January 19, 1910.

The growing church moved to the corner of South Sixth and Beech Streets, with the cornerstone being laid on July 10, 1917.

Like Mount Hope, Bethel AME not only served as a place of worship, but also as a community center. The two churches would serve as meeting places for a variety of community organizations, including the NAACP, a Prince Hall Masons lodge, and social clubs.

Today, under the leadership of the Reverend Don Davis Jr., the congregation continues to serve the community through a ministry of food, tutoring and mentoring for young people.