4 churches connected to Civil Rights Movement could make UNESCO World Heritage List
Four churches in Alabama and Georgia are among 11 national Civil Rights Movement sites that the U.S. government could nominate for inclusion on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage List.
The U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced Tuesday that the National Park Service was authorized to prepare potential nominations for Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia; 16th Street Baptist Church and Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama; and Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
Other Civil Rights Movement sites being considered for nomination are the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama; the Greyhound Bus Terminal in Anniston, Alabama; Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas; Monroe Elementary School in Topeka, Kansas; the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home in Jackson, Mississippi; the Robert Russa Moton High School/Museum in Farmville, Virginia; and the Lincoln Memorial and Grounds in Washington, D.C.
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"The U.S. sites that mark the civil rights movement are integral in helping us tell a full and complete story of American history," Haaland said. "We are honored to be entrusted with the responsibility of preserving these stories as part of our enduring effort to pursue a more perfect union. A nomination of these sites to the World Heritage List would further recognize the pain, redemption and healing associated with these historical sites and honor the civil rights heroes who bravely sat, marched and fought to secure equality for all Americans."
U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, A-Ala., praised the selection of the five sites in her state that are being considered for recognition by UNESCO.
"As a daughter of Selma and Representative of Alabama's Civil Rights District, I take very seriously my role as a protector of our rich Civil Rights legacy, which is why I have made it a top priority to secure federal funds and protections for Alabama's historic civil rights sites" Sewell said in a statement.
"I am thrilled that these five locations are moving through the process of becoming UNESCO World Heritage sites. Such a designation, if approved, would ensure that what happened here in Alabama will be a part of world history for generations to come."
According to the FBI, at around 10:24 a.m. on Sept. 15, 1963, a dynamite bomb exploded in the back stairwell of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in downtown Alabama. The blast killed four African American girls on the other side of the wall and injured more than 20 inside the church. The bombing was treated as an act of racial hatred as the church was a critical civil rights meeting place and had frequently faced bomb threats.
Reacting to the news Wednesday, Rev. Arthur Price Jr., who leads the 16th Street Baptist Church, told The Christian Post that he was humbled that the federal government is considering his church and others for nomination.
"Let me just say that we're deeply honored by the [consideration for] nomination," Price said. "For years, international visitors have stopped by to tour 16th Street Baptist Church. So gaining [UNESCO] World Heritage designation will probably increase our international visibility and help spread our story around the globe. As a site where we are historically conscious, we join members of our community working for racial justice."
Price said he was not surprised the church and its story would have such global significance.
"I have been here for 22 years. And when we look at some of the people that visit the church, we get people from Europe, from Australia, from Japan, from China, from India, who make a pilgrimage here to learn about the history of the Civil Rights Movement, and especially what happened to 16th Street Baptist Church," he said.
Price noted when the revered anti-apartheid activist and former South African President Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and told about the progress made in Birmingham, he stated that if Birmingham could change, South Africa could change.
"There are people around the globe that have studied the Civil Rights Movement, and who empathize with what went on here some 61 years ago, when a terrorist bombed the church and killed four little girls," Price said.
In order to be selected for UNESCO's World Heritage List, "sites must be of outstanding universal value" and meet at least one of 10 selection criteria.
Price said he doesn't know all the inner workings of how UNESCO sites are ultimately selected. Still, he believes the church is comparable in significance to the Grand Canyon and other sites already on the list.
"If it's strictly based on what our church means in history, I would advocate that the same way people want to see the Grand Canyon, or the Sphinx or the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Eiffel Tower. People actually make a pilgrimage to Birmingham, Alabama, which is in the South, to see the 16th Street Baptist Church, a site where it literally changed the trajectory of American history," he said.
Price made it clear that the Civil Rights Movement is a faith movement.
"The Civil Rights Movement was indeed a spiritual, faith movement led by spiritual and faith leaders with Dr. Fred Shuttlesworth at Bethel, whose house was bombed and church was bombed and who asked Dr. King to come to Birmingham to desegregate the parks and schools," Price explained.
"When you think about the Montgomery [Bus] Boycott, Dr. Martin Luther King led that Montgomery boycott ... from the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, as surely was a faith movement, using the Exodus motif that God was going to deliver his people to freedom."
He said that all the churches are in agreement with the Civil Rights Movement sites being nominated for recognition by UNESCO because they are all chapters in a powerful story of survival.
"We believe that the civil rights story is a complete story with all of our sites," Price said. "If it wasn't for Dexter, then you don't have Bethel. If you don't have Bethel, you don't have 16th Street. If you don't have Ebenezer, you don't have any of this. So all of the sites recognize that we are chapters of the civil rights story, and that these chapters would be incomplete without the other sites."
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