First African Baptist Church
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
The First African Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, became a hub for civil rights demonstrations, rallies and marches because its pastor, T.Y. Rogers Jr., was the head of the community’s campaign to end segregation in the city.
Rogers became the congregation’s pastor in 1963, and Martin Luther King Jr. gave the sermon at Rogers’ installation program. The following year, Rogers and other black residents formed the Tuscaloosa Citizens for Action Committee, which Rogers headed, to protest the “Whites Only” signs that the county courthouse installed in front of the bathrooms.
First African Baptist became the campaign headquarters for many of the committee’s actions, including a pivotal June 9 rally outside the church. Rogers was arrested after he refused to call off the rally, and police pushed the crowd back into the church. Later, police sprayed fire hoses and threw tear gas canisters through the church windows to force protesters outside so they could be arrested.
The violent confrontation helped spur action on several pending court cases, and on June 26, a federal judge ordered Tuscaloosa County to remove the whites-only signs on the courthouse bathrooms.
Mason Temple Church of God in Christ
Memphis, Tennessee
Much has been said about Martin Luther King Jr.’s final — some say prophetic — speech, which he delivered April 3, 1968, at Mason Temple Church of God in Christ in Memphis, Tennessee. He delivered the speech, which he wasn’t scheduled to give, the night before his assassination on the balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel.
In the address, King said, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land.”
The Mason Temple was built between 1940 and 1945 as the centerpiece of the six-building campus that serves as the denomination’s headquarters. The massive building acted as a hub of civil rights activities in the 1950s and 1960s. King wasn’t even scheduled to speak on the night of April 3, 1968, but when the crowd demanded to hear him, Ralph Abernathy, who was supposed to speak, called King at the motel and asked him to come address the crowd.
Brown Chapel AME Church
Selma, Alabama
The Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama, both the building and its congregants, played integral roles in the marches that led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
The 1908 brick building, with its two white-domed towers and intricate facade, was the starting point for the Selma-to-Montgomery marches. On the morning of March 7, 1965, known as Bloody Sunday, about 600 protestors gathered at Brown Chapel in defiance of the governor’s ban on protest marches to march to the state capital of Montgomery. At the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, troopers and deputies met the nonviolent protestors and beat them with billy clubs, bullwhips and barbed-wire-wrapped tubing.
As news of Bloody Sunday spread across the country, and as the violent attack was televised nationally, thousands of supporters flocked to Selma. Two days later, Martin Luther King Jr. led a symbolic march to the infamous bridge, and two weeks after Bloody Sunday, he led the five-day march to the capital.
Brown Chapel welcomes visitors, especially on the Sunday during the city’s annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee held the first weekend every March. Groups can also arrange guided tours through the church’s tour coordinator.
