16th Street Baptist Church in 2005

16th Street Baptist Church is a large, predominantly African American Baptist church in Birmingham in the U.S. state of Alabama. It was the target of the racially-motivated 1963 16th 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 the Birmingham Civil Rights District. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2006. An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black), is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... A Baptist is a member of a Baptist church. ... Nickname: The Magic City, Pittsburgh of the South, BHam Official website: http://www. ... A state of the United States (U.S. state) is any one of the fifty states, four of which officially favor the term commonwealth which, along with the District of Columbia, form the United States of America. ... Official language(s) English Capital Montgomery Largest city Birmingham Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 30th 135,775 km² 306 km 531 km 3. ... A Jewish cemetery in France after being defaced by Neo-Nazis. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing was a terrorist incident that proved to be a turning point of the U.S. civil rights movement of the 1960s. ... The civil rights movement in the United States has been a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all citizens of United States. ... USS Constitution. ...

Beginnings

16th Street Baptist Church was first 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. In property law, condemnation is identical to eminent domain. ...

The present building, a "modified Romanesque and Byzantine design" by the prominent black architect Wallace Rayfield was constructed by the local black contractor T.C. Windham in 1911. 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. Interior of the Saint-Saturnin church St-Sernin basilica, Toulouse, 1080 – 1120: elevation of the east end Romanesque sculpture, cloister of St. ... The 11th-century monastery of Hosios Lukas in Greece is representative of the Byzantine art during the rule of Macedonian dynasty. ... Wallace A. Rayfield (born Macon, Georgia around May 10, 1874—1941) was the second formally educated practicing African American architects in the United States. ... See also: 1910 in architecture, other events of 1911, 1912 in architecture and the architecture timeline. ...

As one of the primary institutions in the black community, 16th Street Baptist has hosted prominent visitors throughout its history. W.E.B. DuBois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Paul Robeson and Ralph Bunche all spoke at the church during the first part of the 20th century. W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an African American civil rights activist, sociologist, historian, writer, editor, poet, freemason, and scholar. ... Mary McLeod Bethune For the wife of John Joseph Caldwell Abbott, see Mary Bethune Abbott Mary Jane McLeod Bethune (July 10, 1875–May 18, 1955), born to former slaves a decade after the end of the American Civil War, devoted her life to ensuring the right to education and freedom... USPS Black Heritage stamp Paul Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was a multi-lingual American actor, athlete, Bass-baritone concert singer, writer, and radical civil rights activist. ... Ralph Bunche, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1951 Ralph Johnson Bunche (August 7, 1904 – December 9, 1971) was an American political scientist and diplomat who received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his mediation in Palestine in the late 1940s that led to an armistice agreement between the Jews and...

Civil rights era and the 1963 bombing

Main article: 16th Street Baptist Church bombing

During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, 16th Street Baptist Church served as an organizational headquarters and rallying point for blacks protesting widespread institutionalized racism in the United States. Fred Shuttlesworth and Martin Luther King, Jr. were frequent speakers at the chruch. The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing was a terrorist incident that proved to be a turning point of the U.S. civil rights movement of the 1960s. ... Fred Shuttlesworth (b. ... Martin Luther King, Jr. ...

On Sunday, September 15, 1963, Bobby Frank Cherry and Robert Edward Chambliss, members of the Ku Klux Klan, planted 19 sticks of dynamite in 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. A funeral for three of the four victims was attended by over 8,000 mourners, white and black, but no city officials. Bobby Frank Cherry (June 20, 1930 in Mineral Springs, Alabama - November 18, 2004 at Kilby Correctional Facility, Montgomery) was convicted in 2002 for the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. ... The 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing was a terrorist incident that proved to be a turning point of the US civil rights movement of the 1960s. ... Members of the second Ku Klux Klan at a rally during the 1920s. ... Dynamite recovered in a mine in Eastern Oregon. ...

It was one of a string of bombings that had terrorized progressive agitators in the city for more than a decade, but in this case, the taking of indisputably innocent lives shocked the city, the nation and the world. The bombing is credited with helping push forward passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. (Redirected from 1964 Civil Rights Act) President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ...

Following the bombing, over $300,000 in unsolicited gifts were received and repairs were begun immediately. The church reopened on June 7, 1964. A stained glass window depicting a crucified black Christ, designed by the Welsh artist John Petts, was donated by the citizens of Wales and installed in the front window, facing south. The race of Jesus has been a subject of debate since at least the 19th century. ... For an explanation of often confusing terms such as Great Britain, Britain, United Kingdom and England, see British Isles (terminology). ...

Current status

In 1980, 16th Street Baptist Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1993, a team of surveyors for the Historic American Buildings Survey executed measured drawings of the church for archival in the Library of Congress. On February 20, 2006, the church was officially dedicated as a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior. The National Register of Historic Places is the USAs official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects worthy of preservation. ... The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) is an office of the National Park Service. ... The Great Hall interior. ... USS Constitution. ... The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is a Cabinet department of the United States government that manages and conserves most federally-owned land. ...

As part of Birmingham's Civil Rights District, which is promoted by the city for heritage tourism, 16th Street Baptist Church receives over 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 large drug counseling program. The current pastor is Reverend Arthur Price. Heritage tourism involves visiting historical or industrial sites that may include old canals, railways, battlegrounds, etc. ...

16th Street Baptist Church is currently raising funds for a major restoration of the building, which has had persistent water damage problems and is facing failure of the brick exterior. The first phase of restoration, which will follow preservation guidelines set by the United States Department of the Interior, is expected to cost just under $2 million. Additional funds are being sought to handle unexpected problems uncovered during the work and to provide for ongoing physical maintenance. Restoration can be one of several things, depending on context: In criminal justice, restoration is another term for restorative justice. ... The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is a Cabinet department of the United States government that manages and conserves most federally-owned land. ...

References

• Branch, Taylor (1988). Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954 -1963, New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0671687425.
• Corley, Robert G. (1979). The Quest for Racial Harmony: Race Relations in Birmingham, Alabama, 1947-1963, Ph.D. Dissertation, Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia.
• Eskew, Glenn T. (December 1997). But For Birmingham: The Local and National Movements in the Civil Rights Struggle, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807846678.
• Fallin, Wilson (July 1997). The African American Church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1815-1963: A Shelter in the Storm, New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 0815328834.
• Hamlin, Christopher M. (April 1998). Behind the Stained Glass: a History of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, AL: Crane Hill. ISBN 1575870835.
• Brief History of 16th Street Baptist Church
• Norris, Toraine (February 17, 2006). "Sixteenth Street Baptist named U.S. landmark." Birmingham News

External links

• Archival material at the Birmingham Public Library
• website of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
• 16th Street Baptist Church at the Historic American Building Survey
• Guide to Birmingham's Civil Rights District

  Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is a large interpretive museum and research center that features the struggles of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. ...