Three Historical Markers for Pleasant Plains Church and School

One hundred and sixty-four years after its founding, Pleasant Plains Baptist Church will unveil three historical markers honoring the church, its school and the schoolhouse's first teacher. It remains remarkable that Pleasant Plains, a church of people of color, rose ten years before the Civil War.  There is evidence that its school existed in 1859 when the teaching of people of color was illegal.  The current schoolhouse on US 13 is a 1920 Rosenwald version that served until 1950.

In 1866 a year after the war ended, Pleasant Plains leaders built its first schoolhouse.  William David Newsome, who previously taught refugees at a freedmen's colony on the North Carolina coast, returned to his community to become the schoolhouse's first teacher. He mentored others who would teach at Pleasant Plains and other community schools, and he oversaw those schools as well.  Newsome collected Freedmen's Bureau payments for these schools.   He was among the first people of color to serve in the North Carolina general assembly.

Pleasant Plains Church also fostered other churches of color in northeastern North Carolina. In 1886, Pleasant Plains leaders, including Newsome, established the first independent high school for people of color in North Carolina, now Calvin Scott Brown High School STEM, and it is still serving its mission.

The markers are provided by grants from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation as part of its Hometown Heritage Marker Grant Program.  The Chowan Discovery Group, which has already erected 12 historical markers, is the nominator.  The unveilings were on  August 24, at Pleasant Plains Baptist Church,  801 US-13, Ahoskie, N.C.