Birmingham Churches and Their Cornerstones 66
To the uninitiated one of the confusing things about the religious landscape of many American cities is that African American church names beginning “New . . .” or “Greater . . .” often do not demarcate a new congregation but simply a new building or phase in the congregation’s life. Thus, in Birmigham, Alabama’s Powderly neighborhood, “Greater St. John Baptist Church” is the same congregation whose 1966 cornerstone reads “Saint John Baptist Church.”
The church was founded in 1910 and under the leadership of Rev. Morris Perry, erected a new building in 1966. Because it was involved in the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights in the 1950s and 1960s, the congregation’s older building bears a plaque designating it as a “Mass Movement Church.”
Later, the congregation erected a new church building on the west side of the 1960s chrurch. The congregation’s current pastor is Dr. Nathaniel Brooks.
Read this first post for more on this series on Birmingham churches and their cornerstones.
Chasing Churches 