May 20th Stop 19 on the ACCORD Tour- Bethel Baptist Church, a meeting place, and home of the Freedom School

222 Riberia Street ACCORD Freedom Trail

Inscription. Bethel Baptist Church was founded in 1939 by Rev. William Banks, the former pastor of St. Mary's Missionary Baptist Church on Washington Street, and other members from that congregation. Land was acquired on Riberia Street, and the church building constructed in 1943. From its earlier years, the picturesque church, with its distinctive coquina shell-dash stucco finish, has attracted the attention of artists. It became famous around the country through its appearance in many paintings. In 1963, the church provided meeting space for the NAACP Youth Council, advised by Dr. Robert B. Hayling and Rev. Goldie Eubanks, Sr. which picketed restaurants and lunch counters in the downtown areas that refused service to black people. When Dr. Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) came to town, in 1964, the civil rights meetings took place at Bethel Baptist Church. A "Freedom School" held here under the direction of Rev. Andrew Young, taught black history and the history of the civil rights movement. Young went on to serve as congressman, ambassador to the United Nations, mayor of Atlanta, and President of the National Council of Churches. He returned to St. Augustine in 2004 to take part in the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the campaign here that led to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. This Historic Marker Presented this 2nd Day of July, 2008 by: Northrop Grumman Erected 2008 by The 40th ACCORD, Inc. Location. 29° 53.047′ N, 81° 18.967′ W. Marker is in St. Augustine, Florida, in Saint Johns County. Marker is at the intersection of Riberia Street and Lincoln Street on Riberia Street.