The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham is the centerpiece for a week of events commemorating the 60th anniversary of the bombing that killed four Black girls and galvanized the civil rights movement. It's also celebrating its 150th birthday.
Ahkeem Lee, 27, grew up at the church and developed a love for history after giving church tours. Lee said he continues to learn interesting tidbits of church history. For instance, he recently learned esteemed Black educator Arthur Harold Parker was a Sunday School superintendent at the church.
“I feel like because I have gained the wealth of knowledge of the church history and went to for history, I think it’s absolutely very important for me to be able to continue to educate young people,” Lee said., Price said the congregation must move outside the four walls of the church and serve. They work with local teachers to ensure they have the supplies they need, offer health screenings and dispense food.
The church has partnered with family court “where we take what the world deems as ‘deadbeat dads.’” If men agree to take courses at the church, instead of jail time, they receive probation and a chance to return to their families and “man up and be the man that God wants them to be,” Price said. Congregants in the Wall Builders program at 16th Street Baptist work with people arrested for low quantities of drugs. They teach job readiness skills and apply for new jobs. Besides working with local law enforcement, the church also partners with the FBI to do civil rights seminars.
“We try to keep people educated and enlightened about some of the inequalities, inequities, and misappropriations that’s going on in the world,” Price said.The building will be the focal point for a week of events remembering the deaths of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley after KKK members set off a bomb in the basement on Sept. 15th, 1963.
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