In his book "Parting the Waters" Taylor Branch writes," Bell Street Baptst Church suffered the most destruction on the night of the bombs." At the time I was pastored of this church.

On January 10 at 2:30 a.m., 1957, three weeks after busses were integrated in Montgomery, Alabama, following the U. S. Supreme Court ruling that segregation on Montgomery's buses was unconstitutional and the end of a 381-day bus boycott, bombs exploded in six different locations in the city's black community that did considerable damage to four churches and two parsonages.
The churches bombed were: Hutchinson Street Baptist Church, Reverend H. H. Johnson pastor; First Baptist Church, Reverend Ralph D. Abernathy, pastor; Mount Olive Baptist Church, Reverend E. D. Bell, pastor; and Bell Street Baptist Church, Reverend Uriah J. Fields, pastor. The parsonages bombed were those of Trinity Lutheran Church, Reverend Robert S. Graetz, pastor; and the First Baptist Church, Reverend Ralph D. Abernathy, pastor. Although all these churches and parsonages suffered significant damage, the Bell Street Baptist Church sustained the worst damage. In his book, "Parting the Waters," Taylor Branch writes: "Bell Street Baptist Church suffered the most destruction on the night of the bombs." (p. 200). Bell Street Baptist Church was rebuilt, under my pastoral leadership, and eighteen months after the bombing the first service was held in the new sanctuary.
Why did rabid segregationists bomb the Bell Street Baptist Church where I was the pastor? Some months before the bombing of these churches and parsonages I had severed my relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and resigned as secretary of the Montgomery Improvement Association that provided organizational leadership for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Following my highly publicised break with King and the bus protest movement I ceased supporting the boyoctt that I had faithfully supported with zeal for six months, about one-half of the duration of the 381-day bus boycott, at that time no one knew how long it would last. I did not encourage people to support or not to support the boycoctt.
Shortly after leaving the movement I told my parishioners that I would no longer support the bus boycott but wanted it to succeed in integating the buses. And I told them to determine for themselves whether or not they wanted to continue to support the bus boycott. Some of my parishioners had paid a heavy price for their participation in the boycott. Several of them had been fired from their jobs and there were others who had been intimidated by policemen and white people.
It was in the early days of the bus boycott that, in a letter to the "Montgomery Advertiser," I expressed my position regarding these three proposals we black leaders had presented to officials of the City of Montgomery and the City Bus Lines": (1) courteous treatment by bus drivers, (2) seating of Negro passengers from rear to front of bus, and white passengers from front to rear on a "first-come-first-served basis" with no seats reserved for any race, (3) employment of Negro bus operators in predominantly Negro residential sections." Now, I called for integration. In his book, "Bearing the Cross" David J. Garrow writes: "MIA Secretary Rev. Uriah J. Fields, in an unauthorized letter to the "Advertiser," went even further, and appeared to bare some disagreements within the group. "The Negroes of Montgomery have no desire to compromise," he stated. Regarding the three demands "This is a compromise to begin with. We should have demanded complete integration." Fields was strongly reprimanded for speaking out of turns." (p. 52). I was the first black leader in Montgomery to publicly call for integration on Montgomery buses. At that time, King was expressing the view that black people were not asking to operate outside of Alabama's Segregation laws.
Segregationists bombed the Bell Street Baptist Church because they were convined that I was advocating bringing integration to Montgomery, not just on buses but in the total fabric of the Montgomery life. They did not believe that my break with the leadership of the bus boycott had made me any less effective in pursuing integration. After I ceased involvement in the boyoctt I continue to call for more opportunities for black people, including the employment of black policemen. The only two black policemen, hired about a year before the bus boycott, had been fired shortly after the boyoctt began. I also advocated that black people be allowed to vote. After perserverance I had become a registered voter about a year before the boycott began. But most black people who wanted to register to vote were not allowed to do so. They did not ony have to pass written and oral tests but pay poll tax, except for veterans who were exempted from paying poll tax. I was a veteran of the Korean War. I had petitioned the City to remove white and colored signs over water fountains in public places. I also organized the Montgomery Restoration and Amelioration Association. These white racists were convinced that I was advocating integration for Montgomery. They were right. For them it did not matter that I had severed my relationship with leaders of the bus boycott and ceased supporting the boycott. I was an enemy of white racists. These racists in Montgomery were mad with me and disappointed that after my break with King and the boycott I had not publicly criticized his leadership and openly opposed him. So they bombed the Bell Street Baptist Church where I was the pastor. I was pastor of this church for two years before the boycott, during the boycott and continued as pastor for another five and one-half years after the bus boycott.
I resigned as pastor of Bell Street Baptist Church in July of 1962, after I decided to join the Peace Corps. Several years earlier Dr. King had resigned as the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and Reverend Abernathy had resigned as the pastor of the Frist Baptist Church and moved to Atlanta. While I was on my way to the University of Pitrsburgh, at least that was my plan, for my orientation before being sent as a Peace Corps teacher to Africa I was struct by a thunderbolt-like flash of intuition that redirected me by some one-hundred-and-eighty degrees causing me to discontinue my trip to the East Coast and head for the West Coast where for the next thirty-three years I was a California resident.
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(For a further discussion on violence in Montgomery immediately following the Montgomery Bus Boycott read my book, "Inside the Montgomery Bus Boycott - My Personal Story" by Uriah J. Fields.)

Copyright 2006 by Uriah J. Fields