[3] In 1865, the US Congress established Freedmen's Bureau to administer various camps to house formerly enslaved African Americans, including Freedman's Village, a site on General Robert E. Lee former estate in Arlington, Virginia.

[4] Harper's Weekly reported the village also included a hospital, a "home" for the aged, and other public buildings.

[7] Mount Zion Baptist Church has worshiped in four permanent locations, surviving two forced relocations mandated by the federal government.

[1] The first location was in Freedman's Village, on the Lee Custis estate, land known today as Arlington National Cemetery.

In 1930, a new church was built on Arlington Ridge Road, which the federal government condemned in 1942 for land to build the Pentagon.

[6][8] Mount Zion Baptist Church continues into the twenty-first century having been led by a series of senior pastors.

[11] At some point, Robert was sold to Richard H. Lynch of Washington County, Virginia who published a $100 reward in 1863 for the return of a runaway slave, 24-year-old Robert Laws, who was described as "5 feet 7 inches high and weighs about 175 pounds" and likely headed to Middlesex County, Virginia.

[6] Once new repairs were completed on the church, a new cornerstone was laid on Sunday, October 10, 1875, at a ceremony led by the abolitionist Rev.

He presented his ministerial credential to the Alexandria (VA) court in 1884 and was granted license to perform marriage ceremonies.

During this time, he represented the church in meetings with other African American ministers in the Washington metropolitan area.

[10] His tenure was cut short from injuries sustained in a "trolley car accident below [Arlington's] Clark Street Station.

Gordon returned to Gordonsville, Virginia in Orange County and made brooms, which were noted for "being of superior quality and make.

Graham was also a clerk at the US Department of the Treasury and took in boarders,[32] including Julia T. Hammonds, who received a US patent for an apparatus for holding yarn skeins.

The couple had eight children James Jr., William, Jesse, Christina, Charles, Richard, Alfred and David.

He also joined Mount Zion Baptist Church in 1903 and held various roles such as Sunday School superintendent, choir member and deacon.

Green was called to ministry and served as the seventh senior pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church from 1914 until he passed in 1950.

Ernest Clarence Smith, former pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. (1928–1977), and Mamie O. Davis.

Other Mount Zion Baptist Church pastors have included:[2] Mount Zion Baptist Church was designated a historic landmark in 1986, with a marker placed on the property on 17 September 1986 by the Arlington Historical Landmark Review Board.

The marker noted the church's founding in Freedman's Village and status as the oldest African American congregation in Arlington, Virginia.

[39] Through the Years, a play written and directed by Louise L. Gray, dramatized the history of Mount Zion Baptist Church, from its founding in Freedman's Village through major milestones.