Alabama Baptist Convention Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Post-Civil War=== In 1871, the ABSC established a Sabbath-school Board. In 1875 this became the State Mission Board, originally located in [[Talladega, Alabama|Talladega]]. In 1880, it relocated to [[Selma, Alabama|Selma]] in 1880.<ref name=Cathcart1881 /> In the postwar years, women became increasingly active, in 1879 creating the women's central missions' committee, the predecessor of the [[Women's Missionary Union]] (WMU).<ref name=Flynt2008 /> In 1886, [[E. B. Teague]] introduced a resolution at the state convention to move Howard College to [[Birmingham, Alabama|Birmingham]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Howard College|url=https://archive.org/details/sixtyninthannual1911howa|title=Sixty-Ninth Annual Catalogue and Register of Howard College 1910 - 1911|date=1911|publisher=Howard College|others=Samford University Library}}</ref> In 1887, the Convention relocated Howard College from [[Marion, Alabama|Marion]] to Birmingham,<ref name=Flynt1998 /><ref name=Hankins2002 /> which was industrializing and growing rapidly. While historically women constituted the majority of members of the Baptist Church and played many active roles in providing charity and supporting education, they were not ordained as ministers or allowed to hold offices in the church, associations and conventions. Gradually they took on more formal leadership roles. The ASBC did admit women delegates in 1913, years before they received the right to vote through the national amendment to the constitution.<ref name=Flynt1998 /><ref name=Hill1983 /> In 1972 the convention elected its first woman vice-president, [[Miriam Jackson]], then dean of women at [[Jacksonville State University]] and recording secretary for the Alabama Baptist Executive Board.<ref name=Flynt1998 /><ref name=TuscaloosaNews1 /> The church accepted and supported separate churches for African Americans. The St. Louis Street Missionary Baptist Church in Mobile was established in 1853, and the first three pastors were white, but in 1865 the title was transferred to the first African-American pastor, Rev. Charles Leavens. In 1874, the ABC passed a resolution at this church to establish an educational institute for blacks called [[Selma University]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.flotte2.com/Alabama/Docs/AAHT.pdf |title=African-American Heritage Trail Downtown Historic Locations |work=Flotte |accessdate=2010-08-25 }}{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page