Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church is a church at 410 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Selma,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, United States. This church was a starting point for the

Selma to Montgomery marches The Selma to Montgomery marches were three Demonstration (protest), protest marches, held in 1965, along the highway from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital of Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery. The marches were organized by Nonviolence, nonvi ...

in 1965 and, as the meeting place and offices of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) during the Selma Movement, played a major role in the events that led to the adoption of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The nation's reaction to Selma's "Bloody Sunday" march is widely credited with making the passage of the Voting Rights Act politically viable in the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

. It was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on June 16, 1976 and later declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

on February 4, 1982. The structure sustained significant damage from

termites Termites are a group of detritophagous eusocial cockroaches which consume a variety of decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, leaf litter, and soil humus. They are distinguished by their moniliform antennae and the sof ...

and

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while it was unoccupied during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, and it was included on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's annual list of America's 11 Most Endangered Places in 2022.Discover America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2022
National Trust for Historic Preservation (May 4, 2022).

Description

The Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church is located northeast of downtown Selma, on the east side of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard between St. Johns Street and Clark Avenue. It is a large masonry structure, built out of red brick with white stone trim. Stylistically it is basically Romanesque Revival, built in the shape of a Greek cross with Byzantine influences. Its facade has its entries recessed behind an arcade of three rounded arches, and is flanked by a pair of square towers topped by octagonal lanterns and cupolas. The only major exterior alteration is a functional addition to the rear, housing kitchen and other facilities. The church was built in 1908 to a design by A. J. Farley. Its congregation arose out of a combined African-American and white congregation of Methodists which separated by race in 1866. Its first sanctuary was built on this site in 1869. It is best known today for its role as the site of organizational meetings related to several major events in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), one of the principal organizations of civil rights activists, used the church as its Selma headquarters during protest activities organized in 1964 and 1965 that led to the eventual passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Alabama National Register of Historic Places in Dallas County, Alabama Churches completed in 1908 20th-century Methodist church buildings in the United States National Historic Landmarks in Alabama Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Buildings and structures in Selma, Alabama Properties on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage African Methodist Episcopal churches in Alabama Tourist attractions in Dallas County, Alabama Selma to Montgomery marches 1908 establishments in Alabama

Description

See also

References