Birmingham Churches and their Cornerstones 128

There are at least six Baptist churches named Shady Grove in Jefferson County, Alabama. Earlier today I posted about the one in Oxmoor Valley established by 1873. This post is about the one in Collegeville that is on the National Register of Historic Places because of its role in the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, which led the fight for racial equality in Birmingham in the 1950s and 1960s.

This congregation was founded in 1902 and erected its current building in 1943. As its entry on the National Register relates, Shady Grove served a working-class congregation that was allied with, but distinct from the somewhat more elite congregation at Collegeville’s Bethel Baptist Church.

Read this first post for more on this series on Birmingham churches and their cornerstones.

Map of Posts in this Project

The color and shape of the location markers indicate the character of the cornerstones at each site. Stones like these, with a scripture verse or dedicatory phrase and multiple names are and at most one person’s name are yellow. Since there are multiple stones the marker contains a square. Click here for full information on the markers.