Bible Way congregation recognizes leaders

By Bernard Baker

Published: November 9, 2008

Chief Apostle Lawrence G. Campbell preached on a Spring Street corner when he arrived in Danville 55 years ago.

Campbell had left a job with the Atomic Energy Commission in Washington, D.C., to take a janitorial job at the Memorial Hospital of Danville scrubbing floors and cleaning blinds.

In time, his tiny church, Bible Way, was able to rent a classroom at the former Lee Street School for $5 a month — potbellied stove and all. The congregation eventually built a small church of their own.

On Friday, a packed house in the new Bishop Smallwood E. William Fellowship Hall thanked Campbell and First Lady Gloria Campbell for their decades of ministry and community service.

“It’s a phenomenal night,” Campbell said Friday before the event.

Campbell never dreamed that Bible Way would be where it is today when he looked back at those early years of living in public housing. He said the evening provided a welcome sense of history to see where the congregation was born and what challenges face them in the future.

Bible Way was at the forefront of the Danville Civil Rights movement. The church worked to integrate public school and accommodations.

Church member Faye Brown talked about the coincidence of the Campbell family being honored the same week that Barack Obama was elected president.

“These are the pillars Barack Obama is standing on,” said Phyllis Hamlett, administrative leader for the church. “Barack Obama was elected by the people. Apostle Campbell and Mother Campbell were elected by God to be our leaders.”

Mayor Sherman Saunders thanked the Campbells for their leadership in Danville and for all they did in the “dark times” of the 1950s and 1960s.

Saunders said the family has also instructed people about God and the importance of service.

The Rev. Thurman Echols, a Danville native and pastor of Moral Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Axton, said the Campbells needed to be saluted for all they’ve done for Danville.

“This is your time,” Echols said.

Echols recalled the time when Campbell and the Rev. A.L. Dunlap tried to visit then-Mayor Julian Stinson during the Civil Rights period. Stinson refused to meet with them.

Echols said they had the courage at a perilous time to stand up and fight injustice.

“He’s been a role model for so many of us,” he said.

Contact Bernard Baker at or (434)791-7986.