BIRMINGHAM — The National Park Service announced Jan. 22 that two Birmingham churches significant to the civil rights movement are under consideration as World Heritage sites.
Bethel Baptist Church and Sixteenth Street Baptist Church are on a tentative list that will be nominated over the next 10 years under a new category, “Civil Rights Sites in the Southern United States.”
A 1963 bombing at Sixteenth Street Baptist killed four young girls and helped galvanize the civil rights movement. Bethel Baptist was bombed three times between 1956 and 1962 and served as a staging ground for civil rights leaders.
There are 830 places in the world — including 20 in the United States — that have achieved recognition on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Heritage list.
The U.S. list includes the Grand Canyon, Independence Hall and the Statue of Liberty. Other sites being recommended for the list include the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona; Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks in Ohio; San Antonio Franciscan Missions in Texas; Mount Vernon in Virginia; aviation sites in Dayton, Ohio; and Frank Lloyd Wright buildings across the country.
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