St Paul United Methodist Church

St Paul United Methodist Church is a Methodist church located at 1500 6th Avenue North, on Block 38 in Birmingham's Civil Rights District.

The congregation was organized in 1869 and established itself at the corner of 1st Avenue and 21st Street North. In 1888 the church moved to a new building on 6th Avenue North, between 23rd and 24th Streets. That building was destroyed in a tornado in 1899. The congregation purchased another lot on 8th Avenue North, but exchanged that property for the present lot on 15th Street by 1902, when it began meeting in a tent. The first building on the present site was completed in 1904 or 1905, but was condemned in 1920 and demolished.

Construction of the present church building began in 1925.

The present building was dedicated in 1904 and remodeled in 1951.

Walter White, executive secretary of the NAACP, spoke at St Paul Methodist at the close of the Southeast region leadership training conference in February 1953. By 1956 the church began hosting mass meetings as part of the Civil Rights Movement. During the pivotal 1963 Birmingham Campaign the church hosted meetings as well as training sessions for demonstrators, including young people who participated in the Children's Crusade. It was the starting point for the Palm Sunday march led by N. H. Smith, A. D. King and John Porter following Martin Luther King's arrest.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference co-founder Joseph Lowery was pastor of St Paul Methodist Church in 1965.