“Zion Baptist Church, among the oldest of the African-American congregations in Portsmouth, was organized in 1865, some two years after the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves was signed by President Lincoln. The original pioneers, numbering 318, having known a basement form of worship, were amicably granted a letter of separation from the White mother church, Court Street Baptist.”
— Zion Baptist Church, “Church History,” accessed September 13, 2021
Court Street Baptist Church was founded in 1789, burned down and was rebuilt in 1901. Two photographs accompany Virginia Historical Inventory survey report: VHIR/19/0219 which has been digitized and is available at the Library of Virginia.
1st U.S. Colored Cavalry 
[…] Copeland, 1 May 1885“As one of the deacons of the church to which she belongs, namely the (Zion Baptist) of this city … she has never been remarried, nor cohabited with any man since I have known […]
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[…] a strange place and I did not know anyone there. My associates were in Portsmouth. I belonged to Zion Baptist Church….Q. When did your daughter marry and I mean with whom you are now living?A. She married Dec […]
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[…] visited clt’s house where she now resides. Subsequently he knew her (1870) as a member of Zion Baptist Church of Portsmouth of which he was church clerk five years and also as a deacon in said church. According […]
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[…] declare that she is old and is to be pitted [sic] … I further declare that she belongs to Zion Baptist Church Colored, the same church which I am a member and the congregation numbers over 2,000 souls … I […]
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