Lee Chapel A.M.E. Church
Brownwood, Brown County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named for Bishop Benjamin Franklin Lee (1841-1926), Lee Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1888. Led by the Rev. George E. Smith, who also organized the first school for blacks in Brownwood, the congregation first held worship services in Mt. Zion Baptist Church. Later services were held in a brush arbor at Smith's home. The first church building, originally located at Cordell and Henderick streets, was moved to this site in 1906. An integral part of the city's history, Lee Chapel A.M.E. Church continues to serve its community. (1989)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1888 and named for AME Bishop Benjamin Franklin Lee, Lee Chapel gathered Brownwood's Black community first in a Baptist church and then in a brush arbor at the home of its pastor, the Rev. George E. Smith—who also founded the town's first school for Black children. In 1906 the congregation's building was moved to this site, where the church has continued to serve ever since. Its story braids together worship, education, and community survival under segregation.
Why it matters
Churches like Lee Chapel were the bedrock of African American life after emancipation, sheltering the schools, leaders, and institutions that Jim Crow society denied Black Texans elsewhere.
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Related people
- · Benjamin Franklin Lee
- · George E. Smith
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Rufus F. Hardin High School
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Brownwood's first school for African-American children began in 1885 in the home and yard of George Smith, a man born into slavery in Virginia who had served as a Buffalo Soldier before becoming a teacher and school trustee. Classes moved through churches and a succession of buildings — with Rufus F. Hardin taking over as principal in 1896 — until a 1917 fire led to a new schoolhouse and, in 1918, the first graduating class of five. Renamed for Hardin in 1934, the Romanesque Revival stone school saw its grades integrated into Brownwood's schools between 1955 and 1966.
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