First Baptist Church - The Movement's Open Door

A stop on Selma: Bloody Sunday and the Vote, a free self-guided tour.

Long before the cameras came to Selma, local people were organizing, and this Gothic Revival church, built in 1894, was among the first places willing to shelter them. The Dallas County Voters League, led by people such as Amelia and Samuel Boynton, Marie Foster and teacher Frederick D. Reese, had pressed for the right to vote for years. In 1961, only about 130 of roughly 15,000 voting-age Black residents of Dallas County were registered.

In 1963, under its pastor, Rev. M. C. Cleveland, First Baptist became the first church in the city to open its doors to the league's meetings. That same year the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee sent young organizers Bernard and Colia Lafayette to Selma, and this church hosted SNCC's mass meetings and workshops in nonviolence. Planning for the 1965 campaign took shape in these rooms.

After the march, First Baptist stayed on as SNCC's base and became a place where families who had lost their jobs during the movement could find food and clothing.

Getting here: Walk up Martin Luther King Jr. Street about two blocks to the church at the corner of J. L. Chestnut Jr. Boulevard.

Did you know?: The Voters League was revived by an eight-member steering committee later remembered as the Courageous Eight, including Amelia Boynton, Marie Foster and Frederick D. Reese.

Photo op: Step across the street to fit the church's Gothic windows and the National Park Service marker into one frame.

More on Wikipedia: First Baptist Church · Dallas County Voters League · Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee · Bernard Lafayette

First Baptist Church - The Movement's Open Door

Stops on this tour