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In our November issue I asked if anyone knew where this photograph came from. Apparently, none of our readers, including myself, is familiar with Birmingham, Alabama. Baptist churches there played a key role in providing meeting places for civil rights activists in the 1950s and 1960s. After searching civil rights history on the Library of Congress website, I discovered the photo pictured -- the 32nd Street Baptist Church. There are more than 500 churches affiliated with the Baptist religion in the Birmingham area.

A few miles away from the this church is the 16th Street Baptist Church, site of the 1963 bombing that killed four children. A bill passed recently by Congress established the area around these downtown sites as the Birmingham National Historic Park. The bill itself revealed some interesting history about the civil rights movement there. The following text came from that bill:

Congress finds the following:

(1) The Birmingham Civil Rights District is an area of downtown Birmingham, Alabama, where significant events in the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s took place. Many sites in this area are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the A.G. Gaston Motel, Kelley Ingram Park, 16th Street Baptist Church, Bethel Baptist Church, the 4th Avenue Historic District, and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

(2) In the 1960s, Birmingham was regarded as one of the most segregated cities in the South. Parks, pools, playgrounds, hotels, theaters, and elevators were segregated by race. Discrimination extended to public housing and employment. Despite some change in the early 1950s, segregation remained firmly in place and violence was frequently used to maintain the status quo.

(3) From 1945 to 1963, Birmingham witnessed 60 bombings of African-American homes, businesses, and churches designed to intimidate Civil Rights advocates. The violence earned the City the nickname “Bombingham”. In early 1963, Alabama Governor George Wallace declared, “Segregation Now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation Forever!”.

(4) In the spring of 1963, Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth requested that the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) make the City of Birmingham the epicenter for an ambitious new Civil Rights campaign. “Project C” (C for confrontation) was designed to eliminate segregation through mass protests, marches, and sit-ins. The A.G. Gaston Motel served as headquarters for Project C, and was home base for much of the SCLC leadership including Dr. King.

(5) The A.G. Gaston Motel opened in 1954 and was regarded as a “historic monument to black entrepreneurship” in a time of racial segregation. The Motel was built and owned by Arthur George Gaston (1892–1996), a prominent African-American businessman, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

(6) The Project C campaign began on April 6, 1963, when police arrested 45 protestors who marched from the A.G. Gaston Motel to downtown Birmingham. One week later, during the Good Friday march, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was arrested and jailed by Birmingham police. While in prison, Dr. King wrote his famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”. He wrote the letter as a response to the “Call to Unity” statement from eight White Alabama clergymen who opposed segregation. They believed that the battle for equality should be fought in the courts, not by outsiders trying to stir up civil unrest. As a response, Dr. King wrote “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.”.

(7) Phase two of Project C began in May of 1963 with a series of mass protests in which children played a leading role. On May 2, 1963, over 900 children were arrested by

police, overwhelming the capacity of the City’s jails. In response, Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor ordered firefighters and police to prevent new waves of marchers from leaving Kelly Ingram Park.

(8) On May 3, 1963, youth protestors in Kelly Ingram Park were violently dispersed by police dogs and powerful water cannons. Images of the brutal police response to peaceful protestors spread across the country, shocking the conscience of the Nation and the world.

(9) Fearing civil unrest and unrepairable damage to the City’s reputation, the Birmingham business community and local leaders agreed to release the peaceful protestors, integrate lunch counters, and begin to hire African-Americans. On May 10, 1963, the A.G. Gaston Motel served as the site to announce this compromise between local White leaders and civil rights advocates. The Motel was bombed later that day.

(10) Amid continued racial tensions, on September 15, 1963, a bomb detonated at the 16th Street Baptist Church as children were entering the basement on their way to worship. Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robinson, and Cynthia Wesley, who were all 14, and Denise McNair, 11, were tragically killed. The explosion injured 22 others and left significant damage to the church. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., travelled to Birmingham to deliver the eulogy for the four little girls. This act of domestic terrorism shocked the conscience of the Nation and the world, and became a galvanizing force for the passage of historic Civil Rights Act of 1964.

(11) Located just south of 16th Street Baptist Church is the 4th Avenue Historic District. The district was the center for Black-owned businesses, which served Black customers during the City’s long period of enforced segregation. Specifically, the district was the home of one of the most well-known African-American owned radio stations in the state. Black radio stations and disc jockeys played a critical role in mobilizing support for the civil rights movement. DJs sent coded messages as to the whereabouts of police, roadblock locations, and rally information.

(12) Also located in Birmingham is Bethel Baptist Church. Led by Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, this church served as the headquarters for the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights from 1956 to 1961. It was also a place of refuge for displaced and injured members of the 1961 Freedom Ride, and was the target of multiple bombings in the 1950s and 1960s. Reverend Shuttlesworth’s church, as well as many other Birmingham Churches such as the New Pilgrim Baptist Church, hosted mass meetings leading up to many of the civil rights marches throughout the City. The students and faculty of Miles College, a Historically Black College in the Birmingham area, supplemented the efforts of the local churches. Miles College was one of the few institutions of higher education open to African-Americans in the area, and produced many community leaders.

(13) In 1992, decades after the Civil Rights Movement, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute opened its doors. The Institute stands at the center of the Birmingham Civil Rights District, acting as a hub for children, students, adults, and scholars who come to learn about

the American Civil Rights Movement. The 27,000-square-foot permanent gallery within the Institute was designed to bring visitors back to the 1950s when Birmingham was deeply segregated. The Institute serves more than 140,000 individuals each year, and encourages new generations to examine our country’s civil rights history, as well as issues such as equality and justice.

(14) The preservation, historic interpretation, and management of the Birmingham Civil Rights National Historical Park’s important historical resources require the collaboration of Federal and municipal entities, as well as community organizations.