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African American Heritage Trail, Washington, DC
Campbell African Methodist Episcopal Church
2562 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, SE
Campbell AME, established in 1867 as Mount Zion AME, was an outgrowth of its overcrowded parent church, Allen Chapel AME, founded in 1850. When it moved to a location near the present one in 1890, Mount Zion was renamed for AME Bishop Jabez B. Campbell. Frederick Douglass attended Campbell's dedication ceremonies and occasionally spoke at the church.
In 1950, under the leadership of Rev. Samuel Everette Guiles, the church organized the Campbell Civic Club, and began hosting NAACP strategy meetings and rallies to fight public school segregation. Church members were plaintiffs in Bolling v. Sharpe, a companion case to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (1954).
Barbara (left) and Adrienne Jennings, two of the Bolling plaintiffs, celebrate the Brown decision with their mother, Luberta Jennings. |