Hunter Chapel A.M.E. Zion Church Canvas Print

Hunter Chapel: African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, 1105 22nd Ave, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Photographed on October 8, 2024.

A historic marker out front reads:

"Organized 1866, the first Black Methodist Church in Tuscaloosa. First house of worship, a rented building, was located where Denny Stadium now stands. First structure built by the church completed 1878. Present structure erected 1881, exterior brick added 1910.

This church, often called the “father” of Negro education in Tuscaloosa, included a school for children of freed slaves, during Reconstruction days of 1870s. Church named for Rev. E. H. Hunter who served with distinction as pastor during 1880's. Rev. Felix Sylvester Anderson, pastor, 1933-1956, elected 1960 to office of Bishop, AME Zion Churches of America and served until retirement, 1972."

Copyright 2024 Jeremy Butler.

You can keep up with Jeremy's latest photographic efforts on his email newsletter: https://jercomphoto.substack.com Jeremy's origin story: He set up a darkroom in his parents' utility room while in high school in Phoenix, around 1970. He pestered his friends relentlessly and ruthlessly throughout the 1970s--constantly thrusting the camera in their faces. But he never could afford to print all the images on some 100 contact sheets. Once he got a scanner, he went wild rediscovering the images he shot during that decade. Perhaps it's just the law of averages that some of them are quite good. These black-and-white images from the seventies provide a view of the decade through the lens of an adolescent photographer who came of age during...