A three-day celebration honoring the life and legacy of pioneering Los Angeles philanthropist and First AME Church founder Bridget “Biddy” Mason will begin Friday with events highlighting her contributions to the city and the Black community, it was announced Tuesday.
The “I Am Biddy” celebration, organized by First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles, will continue through Saturday and Sunday with programs commemorating Mason’s journey from enslavement to becoming one of the city’s earliest Black landowners, entrepreneurs and civic leaders.
The celebration will begin at 11 a.m. Friday with a wreath-laying ceremony at Evergreen Cemetery, where members of First AME Church, community leaders and descendants of the Owens-Mason family will gather to honor Mason’s life, organizers said.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Heather Hutt is scheduled to deliver remarks, and the program will include a dramatic portrayal of Mason’s life by performer Lorinda Hawkins.
On Saturday, First AME will host a fundraising brunch at the FAME Community House in the Adams-Normandie area to support plans to transform the facility into a center for community engagement, cultural preservation, education, healing, gang intervention and business incubation, organizers said. The event will include presentations on Mason’s legacy, architectural renderings of the proposed renovation and live entertainment.
The celebration will conclude Sunday with an “I Am Biddy” musical worship service at First AME Church featuring the church’s mass choir, youth and congregation. Organizers said the production will trace Mason’s life from Georgia to California through music, dance and storytelling. Attendees will also receive commemorative reproductions of Mason’s 1856 freedom papers.
Born into slavery in 1818, Mason won her freedom in a Los Angeles courtroom in 1856 after challenging efforts to force her back into slavery. She later became a successful nurse, midwife, entrepreneur and real estate investor and helped establish First AME Church, becoming one of the city’s most influential early Black civic leaders.
Organizers said the celebration comes as Los Angeles continues to recognize Mason’s role in the city’s history, including a proposal under consideration to rename a downtown public space in her honor.