16th Street Baptist Church is a historic church in Birmingham, Alabama, that is known for its significance in advancing the civil rights movement in the United States. The events that took place at this location played a key role in placing a worldwide spotlight on the injustices taking place in the South and in spurring the passage of the Voting Rights Acts of 1964.
Experience the history of 16th Street Baptist and understand its many roles throughout history. From being the first church for African Americans in Birmingham Alabama, to a meeting place for organization in the Civil Rights Movement, and now as a monument to progress and forgiveness. Never before has the church’s story been able to be told in such an immersive way. With the use of virtual and augmented reality the tour will take users on a journey through time, back to the beginning of the city and the church's roots. Witness the progression of the church from its original structure located at 3rd avenue north to its current building located on the corner of 6th avenue and 16th street. Learn about important individuals like William Pettiford whose leadership of the church, economic contributions and educational developments helped the Black community grow as it helped the Birmingham community grow. Wallace Rayfield, the second formally trained African American architect who designed the 1911 church building and its parsonage structures, and designed more than a thousand churches, schools, residents, offices for both blacks and whites throughout the world. The tour will take users through the church’s role in the Civil Rights Movement and will show just how important that role was. The church was a meeting space for activists to organize and was the epicenter of many of the actions taken by anti-segregationists. Learn about the events that led up to the horrific bombing that led to the death of four little girls, and how that changed not only the city but the world. This experience will offer the user the ability to understand the entire legacy of the church, and how that legacy is still continuing to this day. The church still has an active congregation and still stands today as a physical beacon of progress, perseverance, and peace.
The church is a central landmark in Birmingham’s Civil Rights District and is a central part of the National Park Service’s Birmingham Civil Rights Monument. It is a part of the United States Civil Rights Trail and was added to the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage on June 16, 1976. On September 17, 1980, the church was also added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1993, a team of surveyors for the Historic American Buildings Survey executed archival quality measured drawings of the church for the Library of Congress. Because of its historic value on a national level in the moral crusade of civil rights, the church was officially designated a National Historic Landmark on February 20, 2006 by the United States Department of the Interior. On May 24, 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to the four young girls who were killed in the church bombing in recognition of the fact that the girls' deaths served as a major catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement and invigorated a momentum ensuring the signing into passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.