Tag Archives: civil rights
Antioch Baptist Church at Camden, AL
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 …
Atticus Finch Monument at the Old Courthouse in Monroeville, AL
Harper Lee, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was born and raised in Monroeville, AL. The fictional town of Maycomb is modeled on Monroeville. Atticus Finch, the central character in To Kill a Mockingbird, is a lawyer …
Berean Baptist Church at Marion, AL (built 1873)
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 l …
Brown Chapel AME Church at Selma, AL
Brown Chapel AME Church, with its imposing twin towers and Romanesque Revival styling, was built in 1908 by black builder – of whom little is known – A.J. Farley. This church and its congregation played a major role in the events that led to the adopti …
Coretta Scott King’s Childhood Home & Memorial near Marion, AL
Coretta Scott King (1927-2006) grew up on the farm of her parents, Obadiah “Obie” Scott and Bernice McMurray Scott, located north of Marion near the community of North Perry. The Scott family attended Mt. Tabor AME. Zion Church located next door to th …
Edmund Pettus Bridge at Selma, AL
The Edmund Pettus Bridge spans over the Alabama River at downtown Selma, AL. It is a steel through-arch bridge that was designed by Henson K. Stephenson and erected in 1939. The bridge was named for Edmund Winston Pettus, a former Confederate Brigadier …
Jimmie Lee Jackson Grave near Marion, AL
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 th …
Morning Star Baptist Church at Demopolis, AL (built 1920; listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage)
This church was built in 1920. In 1964, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke at the Morning Star Church and it became a center for the civil rights movement in the Demopolis area. This church was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritag …
Selma Interpretative Center at Selma, AL (Welcome Center to the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail)
The Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail was established by Congress in 1996, to commemorate the events, people, and route of the 1965 Voting Rights March in Alabama. The March route is a component of the National Trails System, and is administe …
The Gee’s Bend Quilt Mural Trail
Gee’s Bend is a small rural community located in a curve in the Alabama River in the northern part of Wilcox County, AL. Founded in the early 1800s, it was the site of cotton plantations. After the Civil War, the freed slaves became tenant farmers an …
The Safe House Black History Museum at Greensboro, AL
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 Mem …