BURNT CORN, ALABAMA

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AFRICAN AMERICAN BETHANY BAPTIST CHURCH

This is the African American Bethany Baptist Church that was built in the 1980s. Rev. John O. Malone has been the pastor of this church for the past 30 years. Bethany Baptist church dates back to 1821 when it was organized. The first church building was constructed on the same site as the new one is now back in 1840. During this era both blacks and whites worshipped at the same church. After the War Between the States the congregation divided, with the black congregation brought the old church. In 1874, the white congregation moved up the road and built another Bethany Baptist Church. They also exhumed many of the dead buried behind the old church and reburied them at the new location.

The black congregation pronounced their Bethany Baptist Church "Beth-anna." There are two Bethany Baptist church in Burnt Corn. Today the African-American church has a intergrated cemetery.

Alexander Travis is believed to be the first pastor of Bethany Baptist Church. Violet Riley and Viney Tarver were the first Black members of Bethany Baptist Church at Burnt Corn, Alabama joined in 1824. The Bethany Baptist Church of Burnt Corn became the "Mother Church" for the Pensacola Baptist Church in 1847.

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