By Ed Walsh
If you’re in Montgomery, Alabama, visit the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, an architecturally significant 19th-century structure.
This is the church where Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the church’s 20th pastor, began his quest for civil rights.
Historical information on the church as well as the Civil Rights movement itself are on display.
Note that the pulpit is a modest affair where the Reverend first gave his message of hope and brotherhood.
The church was later to become a center point for the Montgomery bus boycott that lasted 381days in 1955, with King directing proceedings from his office in the lower part of the church.
Check out the large mural in the church that shows King’s civil rights crusade which took him from Montgomery to Memphis.
It shows the prejudices and segregated facilities that existed at the time. This is one historic sight worth seeing in that crucible of the Civil Rights Movement.
Ironically the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, to give it its full name, was founded in 1877 in a slave trader’s pen.
In 1879 the Church’s trustees bought a lot for $270 in a spot where the current church now stands. Means were tight and a small building made of wood was the place for worship and for education.
It wasn’t until 1889 that the current red brick building was finished and it also wasn’t until 1974 that the building was finally designated a National Historic Landmark.
Although the church was originally called the Second Colored Baptist Church, it was later renamed to Dexter Avenue Baptist Church when Market Street was renamed to Dexter Avenue after the founder of the city himself, Andrew Dexter.
Dr. King’s name was later added to the title to honor him. Guided tours of the church and the parsonage are available.
And be sure to visit the nearby Dexter Parsonage Museum. It was home to twelve pastors of the Baptist Church from 1920 to 1992.
It was also home to Dr. King who lived here during his Montgomery years, yet that period for him wasn’t without incident.
Although he preached peace and non-violent resistance, King’s opponents did not. You can still see signs of the bombing on the parsonage that took place when his wife and baby were home.
Both the church, with its original stained glass windows, and the parsonage, stand as a quiet reminder of King’s peaceful quest for the right to equal treatment for everyone, no matter the color of his skin.
It’s a quest the continues even today.