Old Sardis Baptist Church
Old Sardis Baptist Church is a historic Baptist church at 1240 4th Street North in Enon Ridge that was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights was created here at a mass meeting on June 5, 1956.
Until 1975 the building was the home of Sardis Baptist Church (also known as Sardis Missionary Baptist Church). In that year the growing congregation relocated to Graymont Avenue. Some members wished to remain in the historic location left Sardis Baptist Church and incorporated as Old Sardis Baptist Church.
Old Sardis dates its founding to the organization of Sardis Baptist Church in 1884. Its building was erected around 1910.
In 2022 the Old Sardis Revitalization Community Development Corporation was awarded grant funding from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund to commission a historic structures report as a guide for preserving the church building. In 2023 the Alabama Historical Commission approved $192,000 in grant funding for the church's preservation.
Pastors
- Willie Smith, 1998
- Camara J. Blue, 2022
External site
- Old Sardis Baptist Church website
References
- White, Marjorie Longenecker (1998) A Walk to Freedom: The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, 1956-1964. Birmingham: Birmingham Historical Society. ISBN 0943994241
- Garrison, Greg (August 24, 2023) "Birmingham church that hosted first civil rights mass meeting gets preservation grant." AL.com