Rebuilding one of the nation’s oldest Black churches begins at Juneteenth ceremony

By BEN FINLEY

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — The rebuilding of one of the nation’s oldest Black churches, whose congregants first gathered outdoors in secret before constructing a wooden meetinghouse in Virginia, started Thursday with a ceremonial groundbreaking.

The First Baptist Church of Williamsburg officially established itself in 1776, although parishioners met before then in fields and under trees in defiance of laws that prevented African Americans from congregating. Free and enslaved...