African Zion Baptist Church
Malden, WV
Organized in the 1850s as the first black Baptist Church in western Virginia by the Wayne, Isaac, Sullivan, Johnson and other African- American families during the era of slavery. In 1872, a legendary early minister, Rev. Lewis Rice, built the present church building. It is a one-story frame structure built atop a stone foundation. It has a gable roof topped by a wooden bell tower.
Booker T. Washington attended the church as a boy and returned from Hampton Institute to teach and later be married to a Malden, West Virginia girl, Fannie Norton Smith.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Nearby Attractions:
Nearby Attractions:
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