Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
*On this date in 1877, we celebrate Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. This Baptist church in Montgomery, Alabama, is affiliated with the Progressive National Baptist Convention.
Freedmen and free people of color organized the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church congregation. It was first known as the Second Colored Baptist Church. The church trustees paid $270 on January 30, 1879, for a lot at the corner of Dexter Avenue and Decatur Street. The first church building was a small wood-frame building. The congregation began constructing a new building in 1883; the brick building was not completed until 1889.
The church began serving the broader Black community on October 3, 1887, when it hosted the first registration of students for Alabama State University. In 1899, William H. McAlpine became pastor; he was a co-founder of Selma University. Vernon Johns, an early American Civil Rights Movement leader, served as pastor from 1947 to 1952. He was succeeded by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., pastor of the church from 1954 to 1960.
He organized the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott from his basement office. Near the church is the former Dexter Parsonage, home to twelve church pastors between 1920 and 1992. It now operates as the Dexter Parsonage Museum, which interprets church history. The church was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1974 because of its importance in the American Civil Rights movement of American history. In 1978, the official name was changed to the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in memory of Dr. King Jr.
The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It is located steps away from the Alabama State Capitol. On January 1, 2008, the US Government submitted the church to UNESCO as part of an envisaged future World Heritage Site nomination because of this critical history. It is on the UNESCO "Tentative List of World Heritage Sites."
