Mount Lebanon A.M.E. Zion Church
Elizabeth City, Pasquotank County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Mount Lebanon Church. A.M.E. Zion. Organized about 1850 as mission to serve black Methodists. Since 1856 congregation has met 1 1/2 blocks N.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
Mount Lebanon Church traces its roots to around 1850, when it began as a mission serving Black Methodists in the port town of Elizabeth City. Affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion denomination — a Black-led church born of the fight for religious independence — its congregation has gathered a block and a half north since 1856. Such churches were among the earliest institutions Black Americans built and controlled for themselves.
Why it matters
Independent Black churches like this one were cornerstones of African American community life, offering worship, education, and organizing space through slavery, emancipation, and the long struggle for civil rights.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Food & drink
- Masala Bay Grill13.6 mi away · 1972 Caratoke Highway, Moyock, NC
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related events
- · Organization of Mount Lebanon Church (c. 1850)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Hugh Cale
Elizabeth City, NC
Hugh Cale served in the North Carolina legislature during the Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction years, winning seats between 1876 and 1891. In 1891 he sponsored the bill that created the state-supported school for Black teachers that grew into today's Elizabeth City State University. His grave lies about six-tenths of a mile west of this marker.
Joseph C. Price
Elizabeth City, NC
Born in Elizabeth City in 1854, Joseph C. Price rose to become one of the most celebrated Black orators and educators of his generation. He was a founder and the first president of Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina, championing higher education for African Americans in the decades after emancipation. His eloquence carried him across the country and abroad before his death in 1893 at just thirty-nine.
Peter Weddick Moore
Elizabeth City, NC
Born into slavery in 1859, Peter Weddick Moore became an educator and, from 1891 to 1923, the founding head of the state normal school that grew into Elizabeth City State University. Over three decades he built an institution devoted to training Black teachers for eastern North Carolina. His grave lies about a third of a mile southeast.
Elizabeth City State University
Elizabeth City, NC
Elizabeth City State University began in 1891 as a state-supported normal school to train Black teachers, part of the wave of institutions founded across the South after Reconstruction to educate a rising generation of African Americans. It grew into a four-year college by 1939 and attained university status in 1969, tracing the long arc from segregated teacher-training school to full public university.