A. J. Dickinson

Alfred James Dickinson was pastor of First Baptist Church of Birmingham from 1901 to 1918.

Dickinson was considered a liberal and a reformer by the standards of the day, having involved himself in Social Gospel and progressive causes. He was also respected for his humility. On the other hand he firmly believed in a moral imperative for racial segregation and disenfranchisement of African Americans. He held that the power of the vote should only be entrusted in a select few with the moral and intellectual means to exercise it for the betterment of all.

Dickinson was also leader of a strenuously anti-Catholic political organization called the "True Americans" that succeeded in installing former East Lake mayor Nathaniel Barrett into the presidency of the Birmingham City Commission on a campaign of removing Catholics from public service and firmly establishing the sanctity of the Sabbath by keeping cinemas closed on Sundays.