1530 6th Ave N
Birmingham, AL 35203, USA

Sixteenth St Baptist Church, 1530 Sixth Ave North, Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL

The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church has served most of this century as the religious and cultural center of Birmingham`s African-American community, and now also, as a landmark to Birmingham`s Civil Rights District. Built in 1909-11, it was designed by Wallace A. Rayfield, a graduate of Howard University and Pratt Institute, and the first African-American to establish an architectural practice in Birmingham. The church was erected in an eclectic style reminiscent of Byzantine and Romanesque forms by successful African-American contractor Thomas C. Windham. Located downtown near the former center of the African-American business district, Sixteenth Street Church has been known throughout its history as "everybody`s church." Many distinguished Americans such as Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Jackie Robinson, Marian Anderson, Mary McLeod Bethune, and W.E.B. DuBois were heard there. The church began to receive national attention in 1963 when it became the principle site for organizing civil rights demonstrations led by the Reverends Fred Shuttlesworth and Martin Luther King, Jr. The Bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church that killed four young girls attending Sunday School resulted in the national and international condemnation of segregation.