First Waughtown Baptist Church will commemorate 160 years in Winston-Salem during this weekend’s homecoming celebration. The church’s spiritual heritage dates back to the end of the Civil War and the public announcement of freedom delivered in Salem on May 21, 1865.
Church leaders formed the congregation the following year, holding services in the cabin of John and Mary Linebach Fries. Historian Spencer McCall says it was the area’s first Black-owned and controlled institution.
“That was an amazing effort for people of color at that time, just one year beyond freedom,” says McCall. “And also to have marriages performed and have funerals performed under their own guise, their own leadership, sanctioned by a minister who looked like them.”…