It Began at Bethel

It Began at Bethel. March Route for Moral Justice. Birmingham's rise to national prominence in the modern American Civil Rights Movement began several years after Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth arrived in March 1953 to pastor Bethel Baptist Church, founded in 1904. The church's prior pastors were influential in the Birmingham community, but none matched Rev. Shuttlesworth's zeal. He combined spiritual teachings with practical applications to combat rigid racial inequality in Birmingham. , Paired marker , Circa 1960 , From mid-1956 to 1961, Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham's Collegeville neighborhood served as headquarters for the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR), founded by Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth and other like-minded church leaders who directly challenged racial segregation and the humiliation of second-class citizenship for African Americans. Churches provided these clergymen with an economic base and an organized group of people who could fund the movement and mobilize masses of people. Together, this group of people committed themselves to the struggle of winning racial equality in Birmingham and in American society. , “Bethel was the movement and the movement was the church.”, Rev. Fred. L. Shuttlesworth , Bethel Baptist's pastor from 1953 to 1961., Lesson F1: Describe how childhood experiences can shape your life in later years.