Ebenezer Baptist Church may be added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List

ATLANTA – The historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn neighborhood is on the verge of receiving a new designation as a significant Civil Rights Movement site. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland has requested the National Park Service to prepare nominations for Ebenezer and 10 other locations across five states and Washington D.C. to be added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. 

Ebenezer Baptist Church is part of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park. If approved, these locations would join an esteemed list of important sites around the world, such as the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, the Taj Mahal in India, and the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador.

The Department of the Interior has also authorized the National Park Service to prepare a possible nomination for the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia.

“The U.S. sites that mark the civil rights movement are integral in helping us tell a full and complete story of American history,” said Secretary Haaland. “We are honored to be entrusted with the responsibility of preserving these stories as part of our enduring effort to pursue a more perfect union. A nomination of these sites to the World Heritage List would further recognize the pain, redemption, and healing associated with these historical sites and honor the civil rights heroes who bravely sat, marched, and fought to secure equality for all Americans.”

The 11 U.S. Civil Rights Movement sites included in the proposed nomination, nine of which are managed by the National Park Service, are as follows:

• Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama
• Bethel Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama (part of Birmingham Civil Rights National Historic Site)
• 16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama (part of Birmingham Civil Rights National Historic Site)
• Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama (part of Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail)
• Greyhound Bus Terminal, Anniston, Alabama (part of Freedom Riders National Monument)
• Little Rock Central High School, Little Rock, Arkansas (Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site)
• Ebenezer Baptist Church (Heritage Sanctuary), Atlanta, Georgia (part of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park)
• Monroe Elementary School, Topeka, Kansas (part of Brown v. Board of Education National Historical Park)
• Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home, Jackson, Mississippi (Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument)
• Robert Russa Moton High School/Museum, Farmville, Virginia
• Lincoln Memorial and Grounds, Washington, D.C. (part of National Mall and Memorial Parks)