16th Street Baptist Church

Historic church in Alabama, United States July 2025 September 2026 16th Street Baptist Church nhl 16th Street Baptist on a nice day (II).jpg 16th Street Baptist Church in August 2024 Birmingham, Alabama dms region:US-AL_type:landmark inline,title USA Alabama Birmingham#Alabama#USA 1911 / 1873 Wallace Rayfield; Windham Bros. Construction Co. Romanesque February 20, 2006http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=-1027013068&ResourceType=Building Sixteenth Street Baptist Church October 28, 2007 National Historic Landmark summary listing National Park Service dead https://web.archive.org/web/20080111045116/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=-1027013068&ResourceType=Building January 11, 2008 September 17, 19802007a 80000696 ARLH June 16, 1976201304 April 28, 2013 The 16th Street Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. In 1963, the church was bombed by Ku Klux Klan members. The bombing killed four young girls in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement. The church is still in operation and is a central landmark in the Birmingham Civil Rights District. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2006.Amie A. Spinks (November 2004) 80000696 National Historic Landmark Nomination: Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, National Park Service Since 2008, it has also been on the UNESCO list of tentative World Heritage Sites.https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5241/ Civil Rights Movement Sites UNESCO World Heritage Centre en December 17, 2019 Beginnings thumb|left|Building used by 16th Street Baptist Church from 1884 to 1908 The 16th 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 under the supervision of its pastor, William R. Pettiford,Simmons William J. William J. Simmons (teacher) Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising GM Rewell & Company Cleveland, Ohio 1887 460–465 6293247 https://archive.org/details/menmarkeminentp00turngoog but in 1908, the city condemned the structure and ordered it to be demolished. Pettiford was pastor from 1883 to 1904. 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, the 16th Street Baptist Church has hosted prominent visitors throughout its history. W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Paul Robeson and Ralph Bunche all spoke at the church during the first part of the 20th century. Civil rights era and the 1963 bombing 16th Street Baptist Church bombing thumb|The Wales Window for Alabama donated by the people of Wales after the 1963 bombing of the church. The south-facing window was designed by Welsh artist John Petts and depicts a black Jesus with his arms outstretched. The right hand symbolizes oppression, his left is asking for forgiveness. The words "You do it to me" refer to the biblical parable of the sheep and the goats. During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the 16th Street Baptist Church served as an organizational headquarters, site of mass meetings and rallying point for African Americans protesting widespread institutionalized racism in Birmingham, Alabama, and the South. The ministers Fred Shuttlesworth, who was the chief local organizer, Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) leader Martin Luther King Jr., and SCLC leader James Bevel, who initiated the Children's Crusade and taught the students nonviolence, were frequent speakers at the church and led the movement. On Sunday, September 15, 1963, Thomas Blanton, Bobby Frank Cherry and Robert Edward Chambliss, members of the Ku Klux Klan, planted 19 sticks of dynamite outside the basement of the church. At 10:22 a.m., they exploded, killing four young girlsAddie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair. Twenty-two other victims suffered injuries. 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 within the decade. The neighborhood of Dynamite Hill was the most-frequently targeted area during this time. The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church increased Federal involvement in Alabama. President Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act into law the following year; and in 1965 the Voting Rights Act was passed, making literacy tests and poll taxes illegal. Restoration 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 black Jesus, designed by John Petts, was donated by citizens of Wales and installed in the front window, facing south.McCasland Jessica Paker Eva April 1, 2020 Wales Window for Alabama: Breaking the Window of Racism https://magiccityreligion.org/2020/04/01/wales-window-for-alabama/ live June 19, 2021 Magic City Religion en https://web.archive.org/web/20200804104327/https://magiccityreligion.org/2020/04/01/wales-window-for-alabama/ August 4, 2020 Current status thumb|Basement exhibition at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, with pictures of the events of the Civil Rights Movement and the 1963 bombing of the church. The church was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on June 16, 1976. On September 17, 1980, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1993, a team of surveyors for the Historic American Buildings Survey executed archival quality measured drawings of the church for the Library of Congress. Because of its historic value on a national level in the moral crusade of civil rights, the church was officially designated a National Historic Landmark on February 20, 2006, by the United States Department of the Interior. On January 1, 2008, the US Government submitted it to UNESCO as part of an envisaged future World Heritage nomination and as such it is on UNESCO's tentative list of World Heritage Sites. In 2017, the church became part of the newly created Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument.January 13, 2017 President Obama signs proclamation creating Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2017/01/birmingham_civil_rights_nation.html Erin Edgemon June 19, 2021 AL.com en As part of the Birmingham Civil Rights District, the 16th Street Baptist Church receives more than 200,000 visitors annually. Though the current membership is only around 500, it has an average weekly attendance of nearly 2,000. The church also operates a large drug counseling program. The current pastor is the Reverend Arthur Price. Across from the church at Kelly Ingram Park is the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, which plans events that teach and promote the history of human rights. The 16th Street Baptist Church engaged in a $3 million restoration of the building in the first decade of the 21st century. Persistent water damage problems and exterior brick facing failure were addressed. The first phase of restoration, mainly below-grade waterproofing, was completed in 2007, followed by work on the exterior masonry. Additional funds were sought to handle unexpected problems uncovered during the work and to provide for ongoing physical maintenance. See also List of Baptist churches in Alabama List of National Historic Landmarks in Alabama List of national monuments of the United States Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument References Taylor Branch 1988 Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954 -1963 Simon & Schuster New York 0-671-68742-5 https://archive.org/details/partingwatersame00bran_0 registration Robert G. Corley 1979 The Quest for Racial Harmony: Race Relations in Birmingham, Alabama, 1947-1963 Ph.D. Dissertation University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA Glenn T. Eskew December 1997 But For Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill, NC 0-8078-4667-8 Wilson Fallin July 1997 The African American Church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1815-1963: A Shelter in the Storm Garland Publishing New York 0-8153-2883-4 Christopher M. Hamlin April 1998 Behind the Stained Glass: a History of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Crane Hill Birmingham, AL 1-57587-083-5 Henderson, Jesse (May 21, 2021). "Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Sunday Worship: Redefining History and Reaching Community." Magic City Religion. Diane McWhorter 2001 Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution Simon & Schuster New York, NY 0-684-80747-5 Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution Norris, Toraine (February 17, 2006). "Sixteenth Street Baptist named U.S. landmark." Birmingham News Further reading Michael S. Harper's poem American History talks about the church bombing Q122064121 External links Archival material at the Birmingham Public Library website of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Guide to Birmingham's Civil Rights District 16th Street Baptist Church, 1530 Sixth Avenue North, Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL, with 16 drawings, 18 photographs, 2 photo caption page and 35 data pages at Historic American Engineering Record Category:African-American history in Birmingham, Alabama Category:National Register of Historic Places in Birmingham, Alabama Category:Baptist churches in Alabama Category:Civil rights movement Category:National Historic Landmarks in Alabama Category:Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Category:Religious organizations established in 1873 Category:Churches completed in 1911 Category:19th-century Baptist churches in the United States Category:Properties on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage Category:Romanesque Revival church buildings in Alabama Category:Neo-Byzantine architecture in Alabama Category:Baptist churches in Birmingham, Alabama Category:Civil rights movement museums Category:Historic American Buildings Survey in Alabama Category:1911 establishments in Alabama Category:African-American tourist attractions in Alabama Category:Birmingham campaign