Greater St. James A.M.E. Church

Front inscription

This church was founded in 1883 by a Rev. Hill and twenty-five charter members. Early services were held in a member’s house on E. Main Street. The congregation purchased a lot at the corner of Lake and N. Church Streets in 1885 and built its first sanctuary, a frame building, that year. That church was renovated and enlarged in 1917. It was further renovated, adding a steeple, in 1948-50.

Reverse inscription

In 1951 Rev. J.A. DeLaine (1898-1974) was transferred from Pine Grove A.M.E. Church in Summerton after playing a leading role in Briggs v. Elliott, the Clarendon County school desegregation case that led to Brown v. Board of Education (1954). Unknown persons burned the church in October 1955. Rev. G. Lee Baylor was the pastor when a new sanctuary, named Greater St. James, was dedicated here in 1957.