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Historic Bethel Baptist Church

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth was agitating for racial justice in Birmingham for years before Dr. King came to town, and the church where he preached was a focal point of action in the period immediately previous to the Birmingham campaign: it was the designated point of contact in Alabama for the Freedom Riders, who in 1961 successfully forced the desegregation of interstate buses in the South, and was firebombed by white supremacists no fewer than three times, including on Christmas Day 1956.

history

Address: 3233 29th Ave N
Getting there: one block east and one block north from the present-day Bethel Baptist Church building
Hours: Tours Mon Wed Fri 10AM-3PM, Tue Thu by appointment
Website: bethelcollegeville.org (opens in a new tab)

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Listing from Wikivoyage: Birmingham (Alabama), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Updated 28 Sept 2026. Something wrong? Tell us.

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