Pleasant Grove Baptist Church and Cemetery

Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, constituted by 1882, was built here on land purchased in 1888. The congregation, organized by African Americans who had settled in the Centerville community after Emancipation, belonged to the Norfolk Virginia Union Baptist Association, one of the earliest associations of Black Baptists in the South. In 1962, Pleasant Grove member Junius Gills led a successful effort to desegregate area public schools; organizational meetings were held here, and members of the church were among the first Black children to integrate the schools. Buried in the cemetery are many community members, including persons formerly enslaved and veterans of World Wars I and II.

Department of Historic Resources, 2022