Bethel Baptist Church in Collegeville, a neighborhood in Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...

, served as headquarters from 1956 to 1961 for the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights

Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights

The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights was a Civil Rights organization in Birmingham, Alabama, United States, which coordinated boycotts and sponsored federal lawsuits aimed at dismantling segregation in Birmingham and Alabama through the 1950s and 60s...

 (ACMHR), which was led by Fred Shuttlesworth

Fred Shuttlesworth

Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, born Freddie Lee Robinson, was a U.S. civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism as a minister in Birmingham, Alabama...

 and active in the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement

African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)

The African-American Civil Rights Movement refers to the movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring voting rights to them. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South...

. The ACMHR focused on legal and nonviolent direct action against segregated

Racial segregation

Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...

 accommodations, transportation, schools and employment discrimination. It played a crucial role in the 1961 Freedom Ride

Freedom ride

Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decisions Boynton v. Virginia and Morgan v. Virginia...

 that resulted in federal enforcement of U.S. Supreme Court and Interstate Commerce Commission

Interstate Commerce Commission

The Interstate Commerce Commission was a regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including...

 rulings to desegregate public transportation. The church buildings were bombed on three separate occasions, first on December 25, 1956, again on June 29, 1958, and finally on December 14, 1962.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark

National Historic Landmark

A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...

 in 2005.

Pastors

• P. M. Johnson, 1904-
• Lucious Jones
• Rev. Hawkins
• C. Z. Craig
• Rev. McKinley, 1910-
• Rev. McDaniel
• Milton Sears, 1916–1938
• J. S. Gamble, 1939–1941
• Chester Laster, 1942–1952
• Cornelious Brown (acting), 1952
• Reese Smith (acting), 1952–1953
• Fred Shuttlesworth
  Fred Shuttlesworth
  Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, born Freddie Lee Robinson, was a U.S. civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism as a minister in Birmingham, Alabama...
  
  , 1953–1961
• Herbert Gooden (pulpit conductor) 1961
• V. C. Provitt, 1961-
• Carter Gaston, 1975–1987
• William Battle (interim) 1987-1988
• Thomas Wilder, Jr, 1988–present

External links

• Bethel Baptist Church Collegeville website
• Bethel Baptist Church at BhamWiki.com