The building may be new, but the congregation is steeped in history. Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta is known as the pastoral home of Martin Luther King Jr. On a random Sunday in March, those packed into the pews of its sun-filled, cavernous space included matriarchs in all their finery, restless children sitting astride their parents, and a handful of members of the 133-year-old congregation who have long, proud ties to the King family.

King never stepped foot inside the modern structure, but he still casts a shadow. The red-brick sanctuary was built in 1999 for the now 6,000-strong congregation and stands opposite the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, whose architecture it echoes. That’s where the civil rights icon was co-pastor with his father, the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., from 1960 until his assassination in 1968. The precinct, dedicated as a national historic site in 1980, is the spiritual anchor of the surrounding Sweet Auburn neighborhood, a once-vibrant black community undergoing gentrification, where trendy coffee shops, grungy dive bars, and street art line its tram track.