Rev. Morris Brown, a prominent local Black religious leader, founded the church in 1816 despite laws that prohibited freed and enslaved Black people from worshipping without white supervision. After the church was burned down in the aftermath of an uprising of enslaved Africans in 1822 and all-Black churches were outlawed in 1834, the congregation met in secret until 1865, when it reorganized as Mother Emanuel. The congregants moved into their permanent Gothic Revival church designed by John Henry Devereux in 1891. The congregation became instrumental in advancing civil rights during the 20th century, and Booker T. Washington and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke in the sanctuary. On June 17, 2015, Mother Emanuel was the site of catastrophic trauma when a self-proclaimed white supremacist shot and killed nine church members. According to the congregation, the church’s response to the massacre “sent a message to the world about how people of God react to acts of hate and unspeakable violence.”

Mother Emanuel has and continues to support the community through clothing and food drives for low-income families, an outreach ministry for incarcerated individuals, concerts, forums on racial justice, and community health services. Following the 2015 massacre, Mother Emanuel refocused its outreach on helping survivors heal. In collaboration with the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center at the Medical University of South Carolina and the Charleston Dorchester Mental Health Center, Mother Emanuel opened the Empowerment Center on the church campus. This center serves as a central research hub for survivors of the massacre, providing mental health counseling, grief support, and advocacy work.

A $250,000 National Fund grant with $700,348 in matching funds raised by the congregation allowed Mother Emanuel to make critical structural repairs. Work included repairing and strengthening roof trusses and framing, along with installing new and renovating existing restrooms and performing exterior repairs to stucco and painting. This work has become increasingly pressing as people continue to visit the site to pay respect to the victims of the massacre.