ATLANTA – Georgia’s two U.S. senators have reintroduced legislation to declare Atlanta’s West Hunter Street Baptist Church a National Historic Site in honor of the late civil rights leader Ralph David Abernathy Sr.
Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, both Democrats, got the bill through a Senate committee two years ago with bipartisan support, but it didn’t reach the full Senate for a vote.
Abernathy, a Baptist minister, began his pastoral service at West Hunter Street Baptist in 1961 and served there for nearly three decades until his death in 1990. He was a close friend of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Abernathy co-founded the Atlanta-based Southern Christian Leadership Conference and assumed its leadership after King as assassinated in 1968.
“Ralph David Abernathy Sr. was a great Georgian, a great American, and a titan of the civil rights movement,” Ossoff said.
“As a pastor of Dr. King’s spiritual home, I remain committed to preserving Georgia’s history and uplifting the power of faith in action,” Warnock added.
The bill received bipartisan backing in 2023, with members of both parties from Georgia’s congressional delegation signing on as cosponsors. U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, introduced the 2023 legislation on the House side and is doing so again this year.