Birmingham Churches and Their Cornerstones 43
St. Francis of Assisi was founded as a mission to African Americans in Bessemer, Alabama, in 1940 by the Conventual Franciscan Friars of the Province of St. Anthony of Padua, Seven years later the cornerstone for its modern church building was laid. When the interior was renovated around 2001, my wife and I attended the reconsecration.
The size of the church and its adjacent school and friary along with the simplicity of inscriptions on its cornerstone, which does not include a list of names, contrasts markedly with many of the Protestant African American churches in the area, which I have highlighted in this series of Birmingham cornerstones.
Read this first post for more on this series on Birmingham churches and their cornerstones.
Chasing Churches 