1941

Pleasant Plains Indian Church 1941.

1941

The Pleasant Plains Indian Church burnt down in 1941, unfortunately with the loss of records, almost no written documentation exists for the beginning of the church.

National Register of Historic Places Registration Form.

1949

Construction of the new church began on April 4 1949.

Pleasant Plains Church 1851-2001 Booklet

1949

In 1949 the Pleasant Plains School closed down. The school was operated by the ancestors of present-day Meherrin Nation members. No slaves or descendants of slaves were permitted to attend for fear that they would learn to read and write. According to oral history, there was a “comb test” to determine eligibility, and there were a few white students, who were from Indian families, and were “Indian” or “Mulatto” on paper. This was an effort at self-determination- Indian families having a say in the education of their own children. The Pleasant Plains Indian School is not to be confused with the C.S. Brown School. In attendance were members of the Bizzell, Boon, Brown, Collins, Flood, Hall, Hunter, Lewis, Manley, Reid, Reynolds, and Weaver families, etc; ancestors of enrolled Meherrin Tribal members. The Pleasant Plains School operated for a number of years across the street from the Pleasant Plains Church.

The Pleasant Plains Indian School is registered as a National Historic Place with the United States Department of Interior – Nation Park Service for its local educational importance as the only graded public school that served both local African American and Native American students in the Pleasant Plains community of Winton, North Carolina from 1920 to 1949.