Lee Street Baptist Church traces its roots to 1865, when newly freed enslaved people organized the Anglo African Baptist Church. The Rev. Charles Henry Johnson served as pastor from 1890 to 1932. Later renamed Lee Street Baptist Church, the congregation moved to its current location on West Mary Street in 1966.
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State historic markers honor Black church, civil rights leader
When Rev. Charles Henry Johnson moved in 1890 from Richmond to Bristol, which served as a railroad town, he became the minister of a little wooden church started by 39 freed slaves. A few pastors had come through Lee Street Baptist Church, which was organized 25 years earlier in 1865, but Rev. Johnson stuck, according to a Dec. 17, 2017, article in the Bristol Herald Courier.
