- 16th Street Baptist Church
Infobox_nrhp | name =Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
nrhp_type =nhl
caption =Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in 2005
location=Birmingham, AL
lat_degrees = 33 | lat_minutes = 30 | lat_seconds = 59.69 | lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 86 | long_minutes = 48 | long_seconds = 53.26 | long_direction = W
area =
built =1911
architect= Wallace A. Rayfield; Windham Bros. Construction Co.
architecture= Romanesque
designated =February 20 ,2006 cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=-1027013068&ResourceType=Building
title=Sixteenth Street Baptist Church |accessdate=2007-10-28|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service]
added =September 17 ,1980 cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2007-01-23|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]
governing_body = Private
refnum=80000696Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is a large, predominantly
African American Baptist church in Birmingham in theU.S. state ofAlabama . In September 1963, it was the target of the racially motivated16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four girls in the midst of the American Civil Rights Movement. The church is still in operation and is a central landmark in theBirmingham Civil Rights District . It was designated as aNational Historic Landmark in 2006.citation|title=PDFlink| [http://pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/80000696.pdf National Historic Landmark Nomination: Sixteenth Street Baptist Church] |1.72 MiB |date=November, 2004 |author=Amie A. Spinks |publisher=National Park Service]Beginnings
The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was organized as the First Colored Baptist Church of Birmingham in 1873. It was the first black church to organize in Birmingham, which was founded just two years before. The first meetings were held in a small building at 12th Street and Fourth Avenue North. A site was soon acquired on 3rd Avenue North between 19th and 20th Street for a dedicated building. In 1880, the church sold that property and built a new church on the present site on 16th Street and 6th Avenue North. The new brick building was completed in 1884, but in 1908 the city condemned the structure and ordered it to be demolished.
The present building, a "modified Romanesque and Byzantine design" by the prominent black architect
Wallace Rayfield , was constructed in 1911 by the local black contractor T.C. Windham. The cost of construction was $26,000. In addition to the main sanctuary, the building houses a basement auditorium, used for meetings and lectures, and several ancillary rooms used for Sunday school and smaller groups.As one of the primary institutions in the black community, Sixteenth Street Baptist has hosted prominent visitors throughout its history.
W.E.B. DuBois ,Mary McLeod Bethune ,Paul Robeson andRalph Bunche all spoke at the church during the first part of the 20th century.Civil rights era and the 1963 bombing
During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church served as an organizational headquarters, site of mass meetings and rallying point for blacks protesting widespread institutionalized racism in Birmingham, Alabama and the South. The reverends
Fred Shuttlesworth , who was the chief local organizer, andMartin Luther King, Jr. were frequent speakers at the church and led the movement.On Sunday, September 15, 1963, Thomas Blanton,
Bobby Frank Cherry andRobert Edward Chambliss , members of theKu Klux Klan , planted 19 sticks ofdynamite outside the basement of the church. At 10:22 a.m., they exploded, killing four young girls–Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair–and injuring 22 others. They were there preparing for the church's "Youth Day". A funeral for three of the four victims was attended by more than 8,000 mourners, white and black, but no city officials.This was one of a string of more than 45 bombings that for more than a decade had terrorized progressive agitators as well as citizens who did nothing more than buy a house in a new neighborhood. (Dynamite Hill, a neighborhood in transition, was the area of numerous house bombings.) The taking of indisputably innocent lives shocked the city, the nation and the world. The bombing is credited with increasing Federal involvement and helping the passage of civil rights legislation. President Johnson secured passage of the
1964 Civil Rights Act the following year.Following the bombing, more than $300,000 in unsolicited gifts were received by the church and repairs were begun immediately. The church reopened on June 7, 1964. A stained glass window depicting a crucified black Christ [http://www.region2020.org/images/stainedglass.jpg(image)] , designed by the Welsh artist
John Petts , was donated by the citizens ofWales and installed in the front window, facing south.Current status
In 1980, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was added to the
National Register of Historic Places . In 1993, a team of surveyors for theHistoric American Buildings Survey executed measured drawings of the church for archival in theLibrary of Congress . Because of its historic value in the moral crusade of civil rights, on February 20, 2006, the church was officially designated as aNational Historic Landmark by theUnited States Department of the Interior .As part of the
Birmingham Civil Rights District , Sixteenth Street Baptist Church receives more than 200,000 visitors annually. Though the current membership is only around 200, it has an average weekly attendance of nearly 2,000. The church also operates a largedrug counseling program. The current pastor is Reverend Arthur Price. Across from the church atKelly Ingram Park is theBirmingham Civil Rights Institute , which plans events that teach and promote the history of human rights.Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is engaged in a $3 million restoration of the building. It has had persistent water damage problems and faces failure of the brick exterior. As of February 2007, the first phase of restoration, mainly below-grade waterproofing, had been completed, and work on the exterior masonry was begun. Additional funds are being sought to handle unexpected problems uncovered during the work and to provide for ongoing physical maintenance.
ee also
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List of National Historic Landmarks in Alabama References
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* Norris, Toraine (February 17, 2006). "Sixteenth Street Baptist named U.S. landmark." "Birmingham News"External links
* [http://www.bplonline.org/resources/subjects/currentevents/16.asp Archival material] at the Birmingham Public Library
* [http://www.bcri.bham.al.us/ website] of theBirmingham Civil Rights Institute
* [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hh:@field(DOCID+@lit(AL0966)) Sixteenth Street Baptist Church] at the Historic American Building Survey
* [http://www.proseandphotos.com/birmingham.htm Guide to Birmingham's Civil Rights District]Further reading
Michael S. Harper 's poem "American History" talks about the church bombing
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