First Baptist Church

A hub of civil rights activities in the early 1960s, this church was a host for the Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee and was the first congregation to open its doors for meetings and activities of the Dallas County Voters League. In 1964, meetings were held here and at Brown Chapel to plan the mass demonstrations which culminated in the Selma-to-Montgomery March in 1965.

First (Colored) Baptist Church's story began humbly in the basement of the white First Baptist Church in downtown Selma, where enslaved members organized in 1845 under Rev. Samuel Phillips, who was freed from slavery for his service in the Mexican War. After the Civil War, the congregation built its own church and housed the first public school for black children.  In 1894, the growing congregation needed a larger sanctuary, and member David Benjamin West designed and built the Gothic Revival-style brick building which has remained as the church's present home. The design featured a  Victorian-styled sanctuary and chancel raised 8 feet above the first floor fellowship room and housed beneath a steeply pitched cross gable roof. Our church is considered one of the most architecturally significant late-19th-century black churches in the state, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, In 2018, it was one of four Selma structures named to the watch list of the World Monuments Fund, an organization committed to preserving global historic sites.

https://www.nps.gov/places/alabama-first-baptist-church.htm