City of St. Jude
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City of St. Jude Historic District
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St Jude Church (2010 photograph by Carol M. Highsmith)
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| Coordinates | 32°21′11″N 86°19′37″W / 32.353°N 86.327°WCoordinates: 32°21′11″N 86°19′37″W / 32.353°N 86.327°W |
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| Built | 1938 |
| Architect | William P. Callahan, Joseph C. Maschi |
| Architectural style | Late 19th- and 20th-century Revivals, Italian Renaissance |
| Website | cityofstjude |
| NRHP Reference # | 90000916 |
| Added to NRHP | June 18, 1990 |
The City of St. Jude is a 36-acre (15 ha) campus hosting a high school, hospital, and church, and was founded in 1934 by Father Joseph Purcell with the aim of bringing "light, hope and dignity to the poor." The City of St. Jude campus hosted the Stars for Freedom rally on the night of March 24, 1965, when celebrities volunteered to entertain weary marchers on the final night of the Selma to Montgomery marches. The campus was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990, and is part of the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail, created in 1996.
Father Purcell started the first Catholic ministry for African Americans in Alabama, opening a dispensary in a rented house on Holt Street in Montgomery starting on June 2, 1934. Purcell received funds from Bishop Thomas Joseph Toolen, head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile in 1936 and purchased 56 acres (23 ha) between Hill and Oak Streets, soon afterwards building and dedicating a church at the site to Saint Jude the Apostle in 1938. By 1938, the City of St. Jude had already treated 8,000 unique patients.
The social center was built soon after the church, in 1939. The City of St. Jude proposed that a "Campsite 4 Experience" Museum would be housed at the social center while raising funds to build an interpretive center.
The first classes at the City of St. Jude were held in the basement of the 1938 church. St. Jude Educational Institute was not explicitly segregated, even though Bishop Toolen did not support integration, and early classes featured predominantly African American classes with some white students.
During the 25th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches, former Alabama Governor George Wallace stood in the doorway of the St. Jude Educational Institute to welcome civil rights activists.
The St. Jude Catholic Hospital, which opened in 1951, was the first integrated hospital in the southeastern United States. It is also the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King's two eldest children, Yolanda and Martin Luther III.
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