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Historical Highway MarkersBethlehem Primitive Baptist Church and CemeteryJ-44
This church originated in 1868 when 27 African Americans withdrew from nearby White Oak Church and selected the Rev. York Johnson, a former slave, as their pastor. Johnson founded the Union Branch of the True Vine, a mutual aid society, reportedly with the assistance of the Freedmen's Bureau. The church established a cemetery, enabling African Americans to exercise newfound autonomy over burial practices and funerals. Buried here are veterans of World Wars I and II and Korea. The church’s sanctuary, built in 1870, was replaced in 1951. Here the Stafford County branch of the NAACP was founded, and community members met to plan strategies for the desegregation of local public schools.
Department of Historic Resources, 2018 See a problem? Report it to HighwayMarkers@dhr.virginia.gov. |
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References/Bibliographic Citation: Norman Schools, Virginia Shade: An African American History of Falmouth, Virginia (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2012). Norman Schools and Frank White, Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Church and Cemetery Historic District nomination form (2018), DHR ID 089-0360. J.R. Kosch, “History of White Oak Primitive Baptist Church, 1789-1989” (1989). White Oak Primitive Baptist Church minutes, 1868. Fredericksburg Star, 29 April 1885. Gordon White, “Civil War to Civil Rights thru the Eyes of Gordon White” Ruth Coder Fitzgerald, A Different Story: A Black History of Fredericksburg, Stafford, and Spotsylvania, Virginia (Morris Plains, NJ: Union Publishing House, 1979). Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, RG 393, National Archives. John White, “A Brief History of the Union Branch of the True Vine,” Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Church archives. |