HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Lemuel W. Boone

Hertford County, Hertford County, North Carolina

Marker Inscription

Lemuel W. Boone 1827 1878. Baptist leader. In 1866 he organized first black Baptist association in N.C.; trustee, Shaw University. Grave 2 mi. SE.

Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources

The Story

A Baptist leader in the years just after emancipation, Lemuel W. Boone organized North Carolina's first Black Baptist association in 1866, giving newly freed congregations a shared institution of their own. He also served as a trustee of Shaw University, one of the South's early colleges for African Americans. His grave lies about two miles southeast.

Why it matters

Boone helped build the independent Black church and college structures that anchored African American community life across the Reconstruction South.

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