Black Bricklayers Hall housed major civil rights legal and organizing work in Montgomery. Unit A served as the office of attorney Charles Swinger Conley, attorney of record for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Montgomery Improvement Association. In 1961, Conley and attorney Arthur Kinoy filed United States Ex Rel. Willie Seals, Jr. v. Martin J. Wiman, a landmark case that saved an African American man from execution and forced inclusion of African Americans in jury selection of peers. Other consequential cases filed by Conley from this location included the 1962 case Cobb v. Montgomery Board, which enforced desegregation in the city's public library system and the public Montgomery Museum, and the landmark 1964 New York Times Co. v. Sullivan federal case, which influenced many American press and freedom of speech legal cases. Attorney Conley's legal work here with attorney William M. Kunstler and others in defense of Freedom Riders in Montgomery also affected award-winning journalist John Seigenthaler and seemingly helped motivate his founding of the First Amendment Center. Constructed in 1954 and occupied continuously for 57 years by the local black brickmasons union, the building became the first permanent headquarters of the Montgomery Improvement Association in February 1956 after threats were made to places accommodating the new organization that formed following Rosa Parks' arrest. Led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with Ralph Abernathy, E. D. Nixon, Rufus Lewis, and others, the Montgomery Improvement Association used the building as the command center of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, with Rosa Parks, Jo Ann Gibson Robinson, Ann Smith Pratt, and Hazel Gregory among those leading daily operations there. From this location, Dr. King announced the successful end of the 381-day boycott that propelled him onto the world stage, and he received mail from around the world addressed to 530 S. Union Street Unit C.

Photo: Craig Doda

Photo: Mark Hilton

Photo: Mark Hilton

Montgomery, Alabama · USA