RuralSWAlabama

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 …

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 …

Bethel Hill Missionary Baptist Church at McKinley, AL (erected 1894, remodeled in 1936.)

This church is located on Marengo Co. Rd. 38 approximately 0.4 miles from the junction with Co. Rd. 63 and approximately 8 miles northeast of Thomaston, AL in the community of McKinley (GPS coordinates 32.299380, -87.535042). Located beside the highway …

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 …

Clark Chapel United Methodist Church at Gainesville, AL (ca. 1867)

Clark Chapel United Methodist Church was founded in 1867 by freed slaves shortly after the Civil War ended. The church pictured below is believed to be the original 1867 building constructed by the church congregation. It still has its original pews. T …

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 …

Dulaney AME Church near Rosebud, AL in Wilcox County (built c. 1914; listed on the ARLH)

This church was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks & Heritage (ARLH) on April 18, 2007. According to the Alabama Historical Commission’s PreserveALA.org website, the church was built circa 1914. The Dulaney AME Church is located on the nort …

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 …

Emory School at Cedarville, AL in Hale County (ca. 1915; a historic Rosenwald School)

Emory School, also known as the Tunstall School, is a historic Rosenwald School building located in rural Hale County, AL about midway between Greensboro and Gallion. It was built ca. 1915 under the Julius Rosenwald School Building Fund program to serv …

First Baptist Church on M. L. K. Street at Selma, AL (built c. 1894, listed on the NRHP)

This Gothic Revival-style church building was constructed in 1894 by a local black architect, Dave Benjamin West. This church, along with its nearby neighbor, Brown Chapel AME Church, played pivotal roles in the Selma marches that helped lead to the pa …

First Colored Missionary Baptist Church at Uniontown, AL (built 1907, listed on the NRHP.)

According to the August 5, 1866 minutes of the Uniontown Baptist Church, the Colored portion of the church requested that their White Brothers grant letters of dismissal to them and assist them with forming a separate and independent church.  The reque …

First Congregational Church of Marion (built 1871; listed on the NRHP)

This church congregation was established in 1869 at the Lincoln School by freed slaves and representatives of the American Missionary Association. The church building was completed in 1871. It is the oldest and most unaltered of the churches built by A …