Call Church of God in Christ

🏛️The era

In 1915, when this congregation took shape, Newton County sat deep in the piney woods of far East Texas, close to the Sabine River and the Louisiana line. Timber shaped the region. Sawmills, logging camps and rail spurs dotted the forest, and small communities like Call grew up around the work of cutting and milling pine.

For African American families in that world, life in the early twentieth century meant hard labor, segregation under Jim Crow laws, and few public institutions they could call their own. The church filled that gap. It was a place of worship, but also a meeting hall, a school for leadership, and a refuge where Black families could organize their own affairs with dignity.

The same years saw a religious awakening spread across the country. Pentecostal Christianity, with its emphasis on spirited worship, prayer, and the work of the Holy Spirit, was drawing new believers in cities and rural crossroads alike. The Church of God in Christ, a young and fast-growing Black-led denomination, was carrying that message into communities like this one.

👥People & events

The story begins with Elder W. G. Law, who led the effort to establish the congregation in 1915. In those first years a church often met wherever it could, in homes, borrowed buildings or open air, held together by the faith and persistence of its members rather than by brick and mortar.

Twenty years later, A. C. and Coella Armstrong gave the congregation something lasting: land. Their 1935 deed came in the depths of the Great Depression, when a gift of property was a real sacrifice and a powerful statement of belief in the church's future. With ground of its own, the congregation could build a permanent home.

In 1948 the church took a new name, Call Community Center Church of God in Christ, which suggests how it saw its role in town: not only a sanctuary, but a center for the whole community. In 1955 and 1956 it hosted a district meeting of its parent denomination, an honor that brought visiting believers to this small East Texas place.

And then there is the quiet line carved into the marker's base: a group of dedicated women were the early workers. Their names are not given, but their role is unmistakable. They were the ones who kept the doors open, raised funds, taught, cooked, prayed, and carried the work forward day after day.

🇺🇸Its place in the American story

The Church of God in Christ grew from roots in the late 1800s into one of the largest Pentecostal denominations in the United States, with its headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee. Much of that growth came not from big-city cathedrals but from small congregations like this one, planted in farm towns, mill towns and timber camps across the South.

The tribute to the church's women speaks to a pattern seen across Black church history nationwide. Women were often the backbone of congregations, organizing prayer bands, missions and fundraising, and sustaining churches through lean years, even when formal leadership titles went to men. The Church of God in Christ built a strong tradition of women's work, and this marker honors that legacy at the local level.

The congregation's support for missionary work at home and abroad also shows how a small rural church could see itself as part of a much wider world. From a clearing in the East Texas pines, members reached outward, linking their community to a national and international movement.

🧭If you visit

Call is a small community in the forests of Newton County, and the drive itself is part of the experience: tall pines, quiet two-lane roads, and the feeling of a corner of Texas that still moves at its own pace. Take your time and enjoy the green.

When you find the marker, look for the inscription on its base honoring the early women workers. It is easy to miss, and it may be the most moving line on the whole marker. Remember this is an active place of worship, so be respectful of services and private gatherings.

This stop fits well into a road trip through deep East Texas, a region rich in timber history, river country along the Sabine, and small churches and cemeteries that preserve the stories of African American communities. Pair it with other historical markers in Newton County for a fuller picture of life in the piney woods.