First Baptist Church (Montgomery, Alabama)
First Baptist Church | ||
---|---|---|
Style Romanesque Revival | | |
Completed | 1910–1915 (present building) | |
Clergy | ||
Pastor(s) | E. Baxter Morris | |
Designated | May 10, 2000[1] |
The First Baptist Church (also known as the Brick-A-Day Church) on North Ripley Street in Montgomery, Alabama, is a historic landmark. Founded in downtown Montgomery in 1867 as one of the first black churches in the area, it provided an alternative to the second-class treatment and discrimination African-Americans faced at the other First Baptist Church in the city.
In the first few decades after its establishment the First Baptist Church became one of the largest black churches in the South, growing from hundreds of parishioners to thousands. Almost a hundred years later, in the 1950s and 1960s, it was an important gathering place for activities related to the
History
The congregation first organized in 1866; early parishioners had worshiped during slavery at the other First Baptist Church in Montgomery, on Perry Street. Before the American Civil War, blacks were allowed only on the balcony of that church: "they were never allowed on the main floor of the sanctuary unless they were sweeping or mopping."
The first pastor was Nathan Ashby, who also became the first president of the Colored Baptist Convention in Alabama, founded in his church on December 17, 1868.[5] Ashby retired in 1870, after being struck by paralysis. He was followed, briefly, by J.W. Stevens, and starting in 1871, James H. Foster was the pastor for twenty years. Foster is credited with increasing membership from a few hundred to several thousand; his successor, pastor Andrew Stokes, added even more.[6]
Fire destroyed the first frame church. Between 1910 and 1915, the church was rebuilt (now facing east, toward Ripley Street) under the leadership of pastor Stokes. Members of the congregation were asked to each bring a brick a day to build it—hence the church's nickname, the "Brick-A-Day Church."[7] The building was designed in the style of the Romanesque Revival by W.T. Bailey of the Tuskegee University.[8]
Civil Rights Movement
From 1952 to 1961, the church was led by civil rights activist
In the spring of 1958, the basement of the church was the site of the formal initiation of John Lewis into the civil rights movement. Lewis, who had been active at American Baptist College and Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, was planning to enroll at Troy State University in an attempt to desegregate the school, and was invited to Montgomery: at First Baptist Church in the pastor's office in the basement, he met Abernathy and King.[13]
First Baptist Church Siege
On May 21, 1961, the church was a refuge for the passengers on the
Robert and
At around 4AM, assistant attorney general William Orrick, worked out a deal with the Adjutant General of the National Guards, Henry Graham, to release everyone in the church. National Guard trucks and Jeeps were sent to retrieve the Freedom Riders and parishioners out of the church.[19]
Historical marker
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Historical marker, front view
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Historical marker, back view
References
Notes
- ^ "Alabama Register of Landmarks & Heritage Listings as of April 7, 2023" (PDF). ahc.alabama.gov. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
- ^ "Properties on the Alabama Register of Landmarks & Heritage". Alabama Historical Commission. www.preserveala.org. Archived from the original on September 4, 2012. Retrieved October 25, 2012.
- ^ Williams and Greenhaw 101.
- ^ Link 32.
- ^ Boothe 37.
- ^ Boothe 57-58.
- ^ Townsend 38.
- ^ a b Historical marker at the First Baptist Church.
- ^ Carrier 243-44.
- ^ Williams and Greenhaw 58.
- ^ Williams and Greenhaw 260-61.
- ^ Williams and Greenhaw 264.
- ^ Lewis 68-69.
- ^ Farmer 204.
- ^ Schlesinger 296-300.
- ^ Lewis 160.
- ^ Cobb 226.
- ^ Arsenault 237.
- ^ Arsenault 242.
Bibliography
- Arsenault, Raymond (2006). Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. Oxford UP. ISBN 9780199755813.
- ISBN 978-0-415-21664-7.
- Carrier, Jim (2003). A traveler's guide to the civil rights movement. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 243. ISBN 978-0-15-602697-0.
- Cobb, Charles E. (2008). On the road to freedom: a guided tour of the civil rights trail. Algonquin Books. p. 226. ISBN 978-1-56512-439-4.
- Davis, Townsend (1999). Weary Feet, Rested Souls: A Guided History of the Civil Rights Movement. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-31819-7.
- Farmer, James (1985). Lay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement. TCU Press. p. 204. ISBN 9780875651880. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-618-21928-5.
- Ling, Peter John (2002). Martin Luther King, Jr. Routledge. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-415-21664-7.
- ISBN 978-0-618-21928-5.
- Williams, Donnie; ISBN 978-1-55652-590-2.