CAMPBELL, LEE LEWIS (ca. 1865-1927). Lee Lewis Campbell, black Baptist pastor, was born in the mid-1860s in Milam County, Texas. He attended Bishop College in Marshall and then went to the University of Chicago. Sometime afterwards he returned to Texas and in 1887 married Ella Williams. They had three sons and one daughter. Campbell was ordained to the Baptist ministry at Cameron, Milam County. In 1892 he became pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Austin, a position he held for thirty-five years. In Austin he founded St. John's Institute and Orphanage. He was president of the General Baptist State Convention and vice president of the National General Baptist Convention. He was also president of St. John's Encampment Colored Association, in which 10,000 African Americans came to Austin to discuss race relations. Campbell was also moderator of the St. John's Association, which had over 230,000 members across the state. He founded the Austin Herald in 1889. It was published every Saturday by the Publication Board of the General Baptist Convention of Texas in Austin. Campbell was ill the last two years of his life and died at Seton Infirmary on August 9, 1927, after surgery. His funeral on August 14 was attended by over 5,000 people. In 1939 L. L. Campbell Elementary School in Austin in his honor.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Austin Herald, March 10, 1917. Negro Scrapbook, Barker Texas History Center, University of Texas at Austin.
