February 22, 1960, bore witness to an event that would forever change the social, political, and economic life of a city, a state, and millions of inhabitants. The arrest of 34 Virginia Union University students during a sit-in protest at the most upscale department store in Richmond, Virginia, heralded the upending of a long-established way of life and a change of direction from which there would be no turning back. The students would see their actions galvanize a community into effecting wide-ranging reforms in desegregation and play a significant role in ending the nearly 70-year grip on power of one of the nation's strongest political machines. Bafflingly, their achievement faded into obscurity, and only in recent years has its importance been recognized.

This inventory of the Church Archives of Virginia, Negro Baptist Churches in Richmond, is the second publication in the church series of the Historical Records Survey of Virginia. It is based, as far as possible, on primary sources. These sources have been supplemented by statements made to our researchers by officers and members of the churches, whose archives were surveyed, and by officers of the associations to which the churches belong. -- Preface.

How slaves created the organized black church while still under the oppression of bondage.

That churches are one of the most important cornerstones of black political organization is a commonplace. In this history of African American Protestantism and American politics at the end of the Civil War, Nicole Myers Turner challenges the idea of black churches as having always been politically engaged. Using local archives, church and convention minutes, and innovative Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping, Turner reveals how freedpeople in Virginia adapted strategies for pursuing the freedom of their souls to worship as they saw fit—and to participate in society completely in the evolving landscape of emancipation. Freedpeople, for both evangelical and electoral reasons, were well aware of the significance of the physical territory they occupied, and they sought to organize the geographies that they could in favor of their religious and political agendas at the outset of Reconstruction. As emancipation included opportunities to purchase properties, establish black families, and reconfigure gender roles, the ministry became predominantly male, a development that affected not only discourses around family life but also the political project of crafting, defining, and teaching freedom. After freedmen obtained the right to vote, an array of black-controlled institutions increasingly became centers for political organizing on the basis of networks that mirrored those established earlier by church associations. We are proud to announce that this book will also be published as an enhanced open-access e-book on a companion website hosted by Fulcrum, an innovative publishing platform launched by Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. The Fulcrum version of the book can be located using this link: https://doi.org/10.5149/9781469655253_Turner.

First African Baptist Church has served the Richmond community since 1780, proving to be a pillar of strength for African Americans in the former Confederate capital. The First African Baptist Church congregation endured slavery, the tumultuous years of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and repression from the white supremacist regime that dominated Virginia politics and persevered as a vibrant force through civil rights struggle and the daunting challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. Such notables as Lott Carey, L. Douglas Wilder, Maggie Lena Walker, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Mary Lumpkin, and Henry "Box" Brown were church members.