Plymouth Church

Front: In 1867 over 100 African Americans, most former members of the Circular Church, founded Plymouth Church, among the oldest black Congregational Churches in the South. Plymouth is an example of the independent black churches formed at the dawn of emancipation. Early pastor Francis L. Cardozo was also involved in the operation of Avery Normal Institute, a school for black students. This Gothic Revival church building was completed in 1872. Reverse: Plymouth parsonage, built in 1886, was home to church leaders. Pastors who lived here were active in anti-lynching and equal rights campaigns. Plymouth also hosted a number of prominent black figures. W.E.B. Du Bois, a founding NAACP member, visited in 1925, and Paul Robeson, a singer and activist, stayed here while campaigning for presidential candidate Henry Wallace in 1948. In 1957 the congregation moved to a new location one mile north on Spring Street.