WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — A church founded by enslaved and free Black Virginians in 1776 stands again after it was paved over for a parking lot, the Associated Press reported.
Hundreds gathered Friday to rededicate the reconstructed original First Baptist Church of Williamsburg, known as the African Baptist Meeting House.
The congregation formed in defiance of laws that barred Black people from gathering. Members built the meeting house in 1805 from recycled bricks. A tornado destroyed it in 1834, and it was rebuilt in 1856 before the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation turned the site into a parking lot about a century later, according to the AP.
Archaeologists uncovered the church’s original foundation in 2021, along with 62 graves linked to the congregation. The 16-by-32-foot church has since been rebuilt.
“What this day means and shows is that Black history is American history,” said the Rev. Reginald F. Davis, pastor of First Baptist, which has a 215-member congregation.
“This is a reclamation, a reclaiming of the narrative,” said Janice Canaday of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
The ceremony included the Nassau Street Remembrance Choir, and a new interpreter debuted as Gowan Pamphlet, the enslaved preacher who led the early church.
Sources: KTAR News/AP. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Pbritti / CC0 via Wikimedia Commons.
