Bell Street Baptist Church

Bell Street Baptist Church was organized on August 12, 1883. Under the leadership of Rev. A. L. Hawkins, the early congregation met in a house in Cooks Alley. In 1922, during Rev. G. R. Hill’s tenure, the congregation moved to a building on Talladega Street. After a destructive fire on August 28, 1936, the church moved to Bell Street and took its present name. On February 12, 1945, a tornado destroyed the building. A church at the present location on Oak Street was completed on January 29, 1946. , Rev. Uriah J. Fields was called as pastor on July 3, 1953. In December 1955, Fields helped organize the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) at the start of the boycott against segregated city buses. Rev. Fields was the MIA’s original recording secretary. The congregants of Bell Street helped sustain the boycott. After city authorities made it more difficult for African American taxi drivers to transport boycotters, the church purchased an automobile and became a dispatch station for a fleet of private vehicles. , On January 10, 1957, three weeks after the integration of city buses, Bell Street was bombed, along with three other Montgomery churches. The congregation raised the money to rebuild on their own. The new edifice was completed on May 10, 1958, under the leadership of Rev. Fields.