Dateline: Bessemer, Alabama. 1950s and 1960s.
As "a lightning rod in the civil rights struggle during the 1950s and '60s," Bethel Baptist Church in Bessemer, Alabama, was bombed three times:
- Christmas Day, 1956 (parsonage destroyed, Rev. Shuttlesworth, who was inside, was not injured);
- June 29, 1958 (bomb detected and detonated in the street); and
- December 13, 1962 (windows shattered, nearby houses damaged).
The cost of repair: $1.4 million.
Yet, the black congregants of this church near Birmingham stood up and paid the bill, taking money from their wages as steelworkers in this highly industrialized city.
According to local historian Odessa Woolfolk, they did so because Bethel "was the soil in which the [Civil Rights] movement took root."
The first services were held at Bethel Baptist in 1926. The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth became pastor in 1953.
As an outspoken leader in the Civil Rights Movement, it was Shuttlesworth who was the lightning rod, often referred to as "the Wild Man from Birmingham."
Bombing the church building was white segregationists' way of expressing their dislike for the reverend's nonviolent actions, summarized by his sentiment: "They couldn't outlaw the movement of a people determined to be free."
In June 1956, Shuttlesworth established the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR). Four months later, ACMHR filed suit on behalf of two black men who were denied civil service examinations and the right to apply for jobs as police officers.
In 1957, he was among the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He, along with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ralph Abernathy, were the "big three" of that organization.
The "It Began at Bethel" brochure says that he
"was bombed, beaten, and jailed more than any other civil rights minister. ... He is said to have taken more cases to the U.S. Supreme Court than any other individual in the history of the court."
When Birmingham newspapers editorialized that "Shuttlesworth should be jailed," he replied, "The press is so deeply slanted toward segregation. ... We must use our hands, our feet, our heads, our heart, our telephones, and our friends. Let us spare nothing to move on now toward the goal of freedom, justice, and equality."
Of then-governor George Wallace, Shuttlesworth proclaimed he "has made himself popular by defying government, championing the cause of bigotry and backwardness in the North, cursing the Supreme Court, and leading Alabama further down the road of racial hatred."
As a contrast to violence fueled by segregation, "It Began at Bethel" states that the church "was a common place where common people set out to do battle, non-violent battle, in the greatest revolution of our times. The fact that they set for themselves a lofty goal and that they persevered and prevailed is an important lesson for the future generations to learn at Bethel."
To have "persevered and prevailed" in Bessemer is also a tribute to the people of that city. As our Living Legacy Pilgrimage bus made its way through the community, we easily identified the landscape as a brownfield of industrial steel factories.
Our tour guides explained that the church and many of the homes were completely surrounded by railroad tracks with, until recently, not a single automobile overpass across any of them.
People have died and homes have burned to the ground while emergency vehicles waited to cross the tracks while trains slowly moved by, they told us.
In 2004, the National Park Service designated Bethel Baptist Church as a National Historical Landmark and granted funds to help stabilize the severely deteriorated structure so it could be opened to visitors.
It was open to us on the Living Legacy Pilgrimage, standing as an "American Treasure," a brick icon to fairness, adorned with stained glass windows.
There, we heard the church's current caretakers remind us of Shuttlesworth's words: "Bethel was the movement and the movement was Bethel. We could always go to Bethel. Her doors were open."
Excerpt from Birmingham Daily Bulletin, a segregationist publication, July 25, 1963:
In regard to "race mixing" and store boycotts:
"One lady called our office yesterday to complain that she entered PIZITZ'S rest room and found two big Negro mammies using the facilities. ... No decent White woman wants to use the same bathroom used by Negroes, this is just common sense. It is an insult in the extreme. ... We can report that over 100 people phoned this office yesterday and told us they were cancelling their accounts with any store that practiced race mixing."
Rev. Shuttlesworth on non-violent demonstrations:
"Let no one be deceived: It was neither church prayers nor conciliating committees which brought about the Civil Rights Bill. it was non-violent demonstrations -- marching feet, praying hearts, singing lips, and filling the jails which did it."
Next blog: Segregation Stories: Dr. Martha Warfield and Dr. Ben Wilson
