Bethel Baptist Church: National Historic Landmark nomination

              Bethel Baptist Church, Collegeville neighborhood, Birmingham, AL
National Historic Landmark: additional documentation
Prepared by Dr. Carroll Van West, MTSU Center for Historic Preservation at request of Birmingham Historical Society and Alabama Historical Commission
April 2003
As discussed in the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement, 1933-1978, Multiple Property Submission, prepared for the Birmingham Historical Society and the Alabama Historical Commission in 2002, African-American churches and their surrounding neighborhoods represented one of the few spaces within the strictly segregated cityscape of Birmingham where African Americans could gather somewhat safely to discuss and plan their reactions to the significant events of the day. Churches were significant for enhancing group identity, nurturing African-American culture, and providing educational outlets outside of the more restrictive environment of the public schools. In the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, local churches often served as safe havens for Civil Rights activism.
Of the sixty-plus historic churches associated with the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, approximately thirty of those remain extant today and of those left, Bethel Baptist Church is certainly the most important ACMHR-associated church in the city. It also is one of the most pivotal resources associated with the city’s Civil Rights history.
Assessing Bethel Baptist Church within the property types identified in the