First Baptist Church (Montgomery, Alabama)

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View of the front of the church

The First Baptist Church is a Baptist church on North Ripley Street in Montgomery . It was founded in the center of Montgomery in 1867 as one of the first black churches in this region and was an alternative to the older Baptist church in the city, in which African Americans felt discriminated against and treated as secondary. The First Baptist Church played an important role in the civil rights movement (the Civil Rights Movement ) in the United States .

In the first decades after its foundation, the First Baptist Church developed into one of the largest "black churches" in the southern states , the number of its parishioners rose to several thousand. Almost a hundred years later, in the 1950s and 1960s, it became a meeting place for the civil rights movement. It was connected to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Freedom Ride of May 1961. The church is therefore listed by the Alabama Historical Commission in the "Alabama Register of Landmarks & Heritage".

history

Cornerstone of the First Baptist Church on the corner of Ripley Street and Columbus Street.

The community was founded in 1866; the first parishioners had gathered for worship at Montgomery's other Baptist church on Perry Street during the slavery . Before the Civil War , blacks were only tolerated on the balcony of that church, they were only allowed to clean and sweep on the main floor of the church. In 1867, 700 Afro-American communion recipients marched to an empty lot on the corner of Ripley Street and Columbus Street and declared themselves a "First Baptist Church (Colored)" and founded "the first 'free negro' institution in town". The wooden church itself, facing north on Columbus Street, was called Columbus Street Baptist Church.

The first pastor was Nathan Ashby. He became the first chairman of the Colored Baptist Convention in Alabama, which was organized in his church on December 17, 1868. Ashby retired in 1870 after becoming paralyzed . He was succeeded for a short time by JW Stevens and in 1871 by James H. Foster for twenty years. Foster is believed to be responsible for the increase in parishioners from a few hundred to several thousand. His successor Andrew Stokes gained even more supporters.

The first wooden church was destroyed by fire. Between 1910 and 1915, Pastor Stokes rebuilt the church, now facing east on Ripley Street. Parishioners were asked to bring one brick a day to build the church - the nickname Brick-A-Day Church originated here. The neo-Romanesque style church was designed by WT Bailey of Tuskegee University .

First Baptist Church and the Civil Rights Movement

Ralph Abernathy, pastor of the First Baptist Church (1952–1961).

From 1952 to 1961 the congregation was led by civil rights activist Ralph Abernathy , a good friend of Martin Luther King , who preached a few blocks away at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church from 1954 to 1960 . During the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956) the church was the site of mass gatherings and Abernathy became a confidante of Edgar Nixon . After the boycott and the desegregation of the buses in Montgomery, there were occasional attacks and shots on buses. After such a shooting on January 10, 1957, there were bombings on Bell Street Baptist Church, Mount Olive Baptist Church, Hutchinson Street Baptist Church and First Baptist Church and the rectory where Abernathy lived. Raymond C. Britt, Jr. was charged with bombing the First Baptist Church, Henry Alexander and James D. York were responsible for the bombing of Abernathy's house, and D. Eugene Loe, the City Prosecutor, dropped the charges.

In the spring of 1958, the basement of the church was where John Lewis entered the civil rights movement. Lewis, who was active at American Baptist College and Fisk University in Nashville , Tennessee , intended to enroll at Troy State University to desegregate the college. He was invited to Montgomery and met Abernathy and King in the pastor's office at First Baptist Church.

On May 21, 1961, the Freedom Ride participants sought refuge in the Church. They were previously confronted by violent clashes at the Greyhound Bus Station in central Montgomery. 1,500 believers and activists came together in the church, including Martin Luther King. The building was besieged by 3,000 whites who threatened to set it on fire. In the building's basement, King, in the company of Abernathy, Wyatt Tee Walker , James Farmer, and John Lewis, telephoned United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy while bricks were thrown through the windows and wafts of tear gas were drawn into the building. The mob was kept in check by US marshals whom Kennedy had set in motion; around midnight, the Alabama National Guard finally managed to disperse the crowd. The events of May 20-21, 1961, including the Siege of the Church, played a vital role in the desegregation of interstate travel.

  • Historical marker, front side

  • Historical marker, back

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ entry on May 5, 2000. Properties on the Alabama Register of Landmarks & Heritage ( English , PDF) Alabama Historical Commission . P. 76. Archived from the original on December 18, 2010. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Accessed in 2009-31-10. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.preserveala.org
  2. ↑ Donnie Williams, Wayne Greenhaw: The thunder of angels: the Montgomery bus boycott and the people who broke the back of Jim Crow ( English ). Chicago Review Press, 2006, ISBN 9781556525902 , p. 101: " They were never allowed on the main floor of the sanctuary unless they were sweeping or mopping "
  3. ↑ Peter John Ling: Martin Luther King, Jr ( English ). Routledge, 2002, ISBN 9780415216647 , p. 32: “ the first 'free Negro' institution in the city. "
  4. ^ Charles Octavius ​​Boothe: The cyclopedia of the colored Baptists of Alabama: their leaders and their work ( English ). Alabama Publishing Company, 1895, ISBN 9780415216647 , p. 37 (Retrieved December 15, 2010).
  5. ^ Charles Octavius ​​Boothe: The cyclopedia of the colored Baptists of Alabama: their leaders and their work ( English ). Alabama Publishing Company, 1895, ISBN 9780415216647 , pp. 57-58 (accessed December 15, 2010).
  6. ↑ Townsend Davis: Weary Feet, Rested Souls: A Guided History of the Civil Rights Movement . Norton, 1999, ISBN 9780393318197 , p. 38 (Accessed December 15, 2010).
  7. ↑ a b Historical Marker at the First Baptist Church.
  8. ↑ Jim Carrier: A traveler's guide to the civil rights movement ( English ). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2003, ISBN 9780156026970 , pp. 243-244 (accessed December 15, 2010).
  9. ↑ Donnie Williams, Wayne Greenhaw: The thunder of angels: the Montgomery bus boycott and the people who broke the back of Jim Crow ( English ). Chicago Review Press, 2006, ISBN 9781556525902 , p. 58 ( Accessed December 15, 2010).
  10. ↑ Donnie Williams, Wayne Greenhaw: The thunder of angels: the Montgomery bus boycott and the people who broke the back of Jim Crow ( English ). Chicago Review Press, 2006, ISBN 9781556525902 , pp. 260-261 (accessed December 15, 2010).
  11. ↑ Donnie Williams, Wayne Greenhaw: The thunder of angels: the Montgomery bus boycott and the people who broke the back of Jim Crow ( English ). Chicago Review Press, 2006, ISBN 9781556525902 , p. 264 (accessed December 15, 2010).
  12. ↑ John Lewis , Michael D'Orso: Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement ( English ). Harcourt Brace & Company, New York City 1998, pp. 68-69.
  13. ^ Arthur M. Schlesinger : Robert Kennedy and His Times ( English ). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002, ISBN 9780618219285 , pp. 296-300 (accessed December 15, 2010).
  14. ^ Charles E. Cobb: On the road to freedom: a guided tour of the civil rights trail ( English ). Algonquin Books, 2008, ISBN 9781565124394 , p. 226 (Retrieved December 15, 2010).

Coordinates: 32 ° 22 ′ 55.5 "  N , 86 ° 17 ′ 55.1"  W.