Bethel's Pastor Leads the Leaders

Bethel's Pastor Leads the Leaders. March Route for Moral Justice. Alabama's chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) were particularly effective in filing federal lawsuits that challenged racial segregation laws and advocating for voting rights. NAACP members also played central roles in the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott. Alabama's Attorney General John Patterson petitioned a state judge to ban NAACP chapters for failing to register as a "foreign" or out-of-town organization. But that move came after Rev. Shuttlesworth refused to hand over its membership rolls to authorities because he feared members would face harassment and threats to stop their push for integration and equal rights. The statewide ban on the NAACP convinced Rev. Shuttlesworth that the time had come for more direct action. , Paired marker , 1956 , A few days after the court order banning the NAACP in June 1956, Rev. Shuttlesworth believed he was divinely directed to call fellow local pastors and lay leaders together to discuss their options. They all believed that a new, more aggressive group should replace the NAACP, as well as do more than the conservative Baptist Ministers Conference and the Jefferson County Betterment Association. Unlike these organizations, their new organization would tackle racial segregation head-on for immediate change rather than work within the racial caste system for gradual change. , "We want a beginning now! We have already waited 100 years!", Original Declaration of Principles Alabama , Christian Movement for Human Rights, Lesson F2: Why is Bethel Baptist Church so important to the modern Civil Rights Movement that it is listed as a National Landmark?