A quaint white clapboard church on a small pastoral lot in Marion, Ala., is a favorite of photographers because of its original architecture and picturesque bell tower, topped with a weathervane.

What many passersby don’t know about the church is the role it played in Civil Rights history of Alabama. The First Congregational Church in Perry County is one of two surviving original buildings associated with the Lincoln Normal School, an educational institution for newly freed African Americans founded in Marion two years after the end of the Civil War. Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr., was an alumnus of the school.

Because of the church’s ties to Civil Rights history, the church was awarded a grant Monday from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. The church – along with 29 others, including two in Birmingham – will share in funds to help preserve it.

“This $8.5 million investment marks a critical step in safeguarding historically Black churches as enduring symbols of faith, strength and community leadership,” said Brent Leggs, executive director of the fund. “By preserving them, we ensure that their powerful presence continues to live on in their communities and inspire future generations.”

A press release about the grant award said money will provide First Congregational with “critical repairs, including the stabilization of the church’s steeple, and accessibility and systems upgrades.” Bethel Baptist Church and St. Paul United AME Church in Birmingham, two large brick structures, will also receive funds from the grant.

First Congregational Church history

First Congregational Church was built in 1871 at 601 Clay Street by freed enslaved people. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

“The Congregational Church is a one-story, frame structure on brick piers and a brick foundation wall and covered with a gabled roof. The gabled ends feature a narthex and bell tower and a semi-octagonal apse,” according to the church’s NRHP documentation. “The bell tower rises from the mansard-type roof of the narthex and consists of a rectangular base with round-headed louvered windows topped with an open belfry with short columns supporting the roof. The ceiling of the belfry is pierced with a star design. The exterior remains unaltered.”

Only two buildings associated with the Lincoln School survive in Perry County: The Congregational Church and Phillips Memorial Auditorium, both of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“There are few other extant 19th-century facilities in Marion that are related with the efforts of the local African American community and the American Missionary Association of the Congregational Church to offer an academic education for Black residents,” says a Library of Congress listing for the church in its Historic American Buildings Survey.

Churches were an important part of education in the community, the LOC entry says. “The strong association between the church and the institution exemplifies the importance of African American churches in providing higher education for African American after the Civil War.”

A historical marker at the church also emphasizes the relationship between church and education: “Wherever a school was operated by the A.M.A. a church soon followed. Religion and education were viewed as a means of improving the conditions of former slaves and as a solution for many problems.”

In fact, pastors of the church conducted classes at the school in its earliest years. The marker says the “first pastor was the Rev. G.W. Andrews and T.C. Stewart was the architect and contractor.” It was also led by Rev. Andrew Young, the grant press release said. “The church was the first one led by Civil Rights Movement leader Rev. Andrew Young, who later became the first African American U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations,” it said.

The Lincoln School quickly became a state teacher-training institution. In 1887, several original school buildings burned and the teachers’ college was subsequently moved to Montgomery and later became part of Alabama State University, according to the National Parks Service.

The remaining portion of the school in Marion changed hands from the State of Alabama to the American Missionary Association and back again over the years, closing in 1970.