SEEDS Young Adults
Young adults growing in faith, purpose, relationships and leadership.
First gatheringMonthly conversation and service experience
Our Story
A witness formed by faith and the struggle for freedom.
Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church was organized in Birmingham in 1885 and became a vital spiritual and civic anchor during the Civil Rights Movement. As a Movement Church, Metropolitan frequently hosted Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights mass meetings under the wider organizing efforts of leaders including Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. Its basement became a training ground where youth and student marchers learned the disciplined principles of Christian nonviolence before entering the streets. That legacy is not decoration; it is an invitation to present-day discipleship and service.
- 1885
Metropolitan is organized under the leadership of Bishop W. A. Stewart, becoming one of the oldest African American congregations in Birmingham.
- 1903
The congregation erects its first edifice in the historic Fourth Avenue district on the city's northside.
- 1955
The present brick Gothic-revival sanctuary is built at 1530 Fourth Avenue North.
- 1962
Metropolitan hosts mass meetings of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights as a Birmingham Movement Church.
- 1963
The church serves as a staging area for demonstrations in April and May; leaders of Project C use the basement for strategy sessions and nonviolence training.
- 1968
On March 27, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks to a crowd of 2,000 at Metropolitan, days before his assassination.
Illustrative image. Metropolitan hosted A.C.M.H.R. mass meetings and served as a Movement Church alongside neighboring institutions such as 16th Street Baptist Church.
