Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church

Front inscription

Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church was organized in 1869 when the African American members of Philippi Baptist Church requested permission to form an independent congregation. Fifty-two African American members, most of them recently emancipated freed people, formed the core of the original congregation.

Reverse inscription

From the early days the church also supported a school for African American children. In 1939 the Baptist Young People’s Union formed a Johnston chapter in the small two-room schoolhouse that once stood on the property. Rev. E.M. Gordon served the longest tenure of any pastor here, from 1968 to 2014.