Built in 1908, Brown Chapel A.M.E. has faithfully serve the Black community since its founding. In the early months of 1965 churches across Selma began hosting nonviolent training sessions for community members, mostly made up of young black boys and girls. The people of Perry County and Dallas County were still processing the murder of Mr. Jimmie Lee Jackson, when on March 7, 1965, over 600 people gathered at the Brown Chapel A.M.E., their focus, a march from Selma to Montgomery. Led by Mr. Albert Turner, Mr. John Lewis of SNCC and Mr. Hosea Williams of the SCLC marchers set out to Montgomery but were met with a wall of law enforcement agencies a few blocks from the church at the base of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Marchers were beaten and chased back to Brown Chapel A.M.E. and other places. Brown Chapel A.M.E. would serve as a triage center for wounded marchers, several children were among the wounded. Brown Chapel would also serve as the starting point for “Turn Around Tuesday” and the successful march from Selma to Montgomery, that began on March 21, 1965. With its stately towers and Romanesque Revival styling, Brown Chapel A.M.E. still serves the Black Belt and serves as a place the world gathers to learn about the history of voting rights in America.
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