On the night of March 21, 1968, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. sought refuge from the Ku Klux Klan inside a small, shotgun-style home in the depot neighborhood of Greensboro, AL. (This occurred just two weeks prior to the assassination of Rev. King in Memphis, TN.) Mrs. Theresa Burroughs, a close friend of the King [...]
Antioch Baptist Church, which opened in 1885, is one of the oldest African-American churches in Wilcox County. It sits on a rise on the outskirts of Camden, in the heart of Alabama’s Black Belt region. The church has served the spiritual needs of the community for many generations. In the 1960s, it became a crossroads [...]
This famous school, founded in 1893 by Dr. William J. Edwards, a graduate of Tuskegee University, opened as the Colored Literary and Industrial School in a one-room log cabin on the R. O. Simpson plantation. Initially there were three students, but with private donations, Dr. Edwards and his supporters increased the school’s property base and [...]
Born in Rosebud in 1874, Rosa Young graduated valedictorian from Payne University in Selma. She opened a private school with seven students, which grew in three years to 215 students. With the help of the Lutheran Church, Young founded thirty rural schools in Alabama. She is buried in front of the Lutheran Church at Rosebud. [...]
Coretta Scott King (1927-2006) grew up on the farm of her parents, Obadiah “Obie” Scott and Bernice McMurray Scott, in the community of Heiberger located north of Marion, AL. The Scott family attended Mt. Tabor AME. Zion Church located next door to their home. Today, there is an 8-foot bronze statue located in front of [...]
This church was built by freed slaves in 1873, Berean is an offspring of Siloam Baptist Church. Siloam and local Baptists gave $1000 for the building of the Berean. Berean was an important site for civil rights meetings in the sixties. This church is located at 804 Washington Street in Marion, AL (GPS coordinates N32.628722,W87.318833). [...]
The Oak Grove School is a historic two-room Rosenwald School building. It was built to the designs of Samuel Smith from Tuskegee Institute in 1925 to serve the local African American community. The money to build the school was provided by the Julius Rosenwald Fund. The school was open until 1968. It then was used [...]
The Lincoln Normal School was a historic African American school in Marion, Alabama. Lincoln Normal was founded in 1867 by freed slaves as a school for African-American children. In 1870, the school expanded to include teacher training and for a time became known as the Lincoln Normal University for Teachers. The program primarily focused on [...]
On February 18, 1965, the 26 year old Marion native, Jimmie Lee Jackson, was shot by an Alabama State Trooper while participating in a civil rights march in Marion. He later died as a result of infection caused by the gun shot. His death was one of the primary catalysts for the 1965 Selma to [...]
Located adjacent to the town square, Zion United Methodist Church was a focal point for civil rights meetings in the Sixties. The night march that ended with the shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson started at this church. This church is located at the corner of Pickens & Martin Luther King Drive in Marion (GPS coordinates [...]
Located near the southern tip of Clarke County just west of Carlton, AL is the Mt. Nemo Baptist Church and Cemetery. In the cemetery, there are three graves that have very unusual markings. The headstones on these graves contain “death mask”. These headstones were crafted by Isaac Nettles, Sr. (born 1885 and died 1957). Nettles [...]
Bethsaida Baptist Church was founded in 1831 at a site very close to the present building. Elder Hawthorne was the first pastor, and some of the founding families were the Albrittons, Lees, Purefoys (Purifoys), McCondichies, and Fowlers. Mr. A. Scarbrough sold property to Edward Hobdy and Dr. William Gulley, who then donated it to the [...]
