The Church on the Corner

Martin Luther King once said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”(November 17, 1957) (Polyfit)

This was part of a speech given at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in downtown Montgomery, Alabama. Just a block away from the State Capitol, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church is an important Civil Rights landmark; a historic site where King led a movement from behind the church’s wooden pulpit to create a better America and a better community for his parish.

The story of the church goes back even further, however, to people like Rosa Parks and Vernon Johns who laid the foundation for King, and who made the church such a dynamic and powerful force in the pursuit of justice.

Situated in the center of Alabama, in the heartland of Dixie, Dexter was on the frontlines of the battle against American apartheid. This paper will focus on the history of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and the role it played in the Civil Rights Movement.

Situated in Downtown Montgomery at the corner of Dexter Avenue and Decatur Street, (Dexterkingmemorial) Dexter Avenue Baptist Church is located on the site of a former slave trading pen (BlackPast.org). This historical fact continues to cause controversy.

The 50′ by 110′ lot was purchased on January 30, 1879, by a sect of the “Brick-­a-­Day’ for the tidy sum $270. Established in 1883, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church was originally called the Second Colored Baptist Church. The Church’s name was changed “after Market Street was renamed Dexter Avenue in honor of Andrew Dexter, founder of the city.

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” The first mass was held on Thanksgiving Day in 1889. (BlackPast.org) “The church intended on creating a safe missionary environment in the community’ with a focus on education and the welfare of the community. (BlackPast.org) The brick building standing today was constructed about five years after the establishment of the church. The building is made out of wood with a brick facade made up of old street bricks. (Montgomery Advertiser) Dexter Avenue Church is located just a block away from the government headquarters of Montgomery, within view of the State Capitol building.

The location is significant. Being centered in the racially divided South with a mostly African-American congregation, Dexter has received, “consistent threats from the white community” over the years to move the church. The church has held its ground, refusing to move. This has “marked a tacit defiance of Jim Crow segregation and an early bend towards activism.”(BlackPast.org) The mission of the church changed over the years, becoming more political. ‘A joint anti-lynching campaign with the NAACP in 1920 led to a break with strictly accommodationists practices.” (BlackPast.org)

Towards the middle of the Twentieth, Century Dexter established a reputation for activism under the pastorship of Vernon Johns. John’s fierce words and courage helped ignite the Civil Rights’ resistance. ( Stanford King). Thirty-six-year-old Martin Luther King became pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in 1954. After accepting the pastorship, King told his parish, “I have no pretense to being a great preacher or even a profound scholar. I certainly have no pretense to infallibility— that is reserved for the height of the divine rather than the depth of the human.” He continued, “I come to you with only the claim of being a servant of Christ, and a feeling of dependence on his grace for my leadership. I come with a feeling that I have been called to preach and to lead God’s people.”

As a new pastor and activist, King brought with him change. He recommended that “every church member become a registered voter and a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He also organized a social and political action committee,” (Stanford King) to keep his congregation informed. “On the evening of December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a Montgomery seamstress on her way home from work, refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white man and was subsequently arrested.” (BlackPast) The next day, a meeting was held in the basement of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Community activists and leaders from the NAACP attended, including Rev.

David Aberthany, E.D. Nixon, and Martin Luther King. They founded the Montgomery Improvement Association, and turned the church’s basement into its headquarters and made the decision to start the Montgomery bus boycott to fight the city’s segregated bus policy. “MIA president, King organized and helped direct the boycott from his office in the lower half of the sanctuary.”( BlackPast)

All the members of Dexter Baptist parish participated. People stopped taking city buses, they got around town by carpooling and walking, determined to fight “until the buses were no longer segregated.” Martin Luther King stood behind the wooden pulpit and preached, “How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” These words fired up the African-American community of Montgomery and propelled the bus boycott forward. Meanwhile, boycott supporters challenged the legality of bus segregation in court.

“Their case, Browder v. Gayle, was eventually heard by the U.S. Supreme Court which ruled on November 13, 1956, in favor of the plaintiffs. The boycott ended on December 20, 1956, 381 days after it had begun. The buses in Montgomery were now integrated.’ (BlackPast) In 1960, King went back to Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church (USAToday) and Dexter’s pastorship was taken over by Herbert H. Eaton (1960-1965) (Dexter King Memorial). Voting rights for African-Americans became a major concern.

From 1961 through 1964, the ‘Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) led a voter registration campaign in Selma, Alabama. Selma was a small town with a long record of opposition to black people voting. ‘When efforts by voting rights activists were frustrated by stiff resistance from the county law enforcement officials, Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) were persuaded to make Selma’s intransigence a national concern. SCLC hoped to use the momentum of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to win federal protection for a voting rights statute.”(BlackPast) The Selma to Montgomery marches brought national attention to the problem of African-Americans being disenfranchised of their voting rights.

After a bloody struggle, ten years after becoming a pastor, and ‘upon arrival in Montgomery after the historic Selma marches, King delivered his speech in front of the Alabama Capitol, facing Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.’? ‘Alabama Governor George Wallace would not allow King to stand on the Capitol steps so marchers loaded the pulpit onto a trailer bed and placed it on the street in front of the steps where King delivered his speech on March 25, 1965.’ (Montgomery Advertiser) Dexter Avenue Baptist Church stood a short distance away, triumphant.

From the early days of Jim Crow resistance, the anti-lynching campaign in the 1920s, through to the bus boycott in 1955 and the Selma Marches, the Dexter Avenue congregation were a critical part of the struggle for Civil Rights. ‘As a planning site, and as a force of community change, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church was integral to the Civil Rights movement in Alabama, and the nation as a whole.” (BlackPast.org)

The legacy of the church continues today. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976. (Montgomery Advertiser) “The Church remains very much the same when King was a pastor. Some of the stained glass windows, pews and chairs in the church today were there when King preached to his congregations in the church’s sanctuary on the second floor.” (Montgomery Advertiser) ‘During the 50th anniversary in 2015, King’s daughter, Bernice King, delivered her father’s speech from the Capitol steps from behind the same lectern, and, upon the conclusion, Governor George Wallace’s daughter, Peggy Sue Wallace, and Bernice embraced.'( Montgomery Advertiser) The pulpit also starred in the movie Selma, the historical re-enactment of the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March that was filmed in part in Montgomery. (Montgomery Advertiser)

Dexter Church continues to participate in the events of the day and provides a place of worship and activism in the community. By holding events like it’s Martin Luther King Day celebration and allowing visitors from all over the world to come inside and explore its history, the church continues to inspire and lead. Dexter Avenue Baptist Church is a living breathing part of the city of Montgomery with a dedicated congregation that is still working for change and attempting to live up to its treasured legacy.