Description
The First Baptist Church on Harrison Street in Petersburg, one of the oldest and largest African American congregations in the United States, stands in ruins after an early morning fire on May 1, 1866. This engraving, published in the May 19, 1866, edition of Harpers Weekly, was accompanied by an article describing a series of fires set that morning in several black churches and Sunday school buildings in Petersburg. Some white Virginians who feared black activism expressed their anger by targeting African American churches and schools.
