Ambassador Andrew Young to Speak at Christian Churches Together’s 20th Anniversary Gathering at Historic 16th Street Baptist Church

From the City of Birmingham

October 6

Birmingham, AL — Ambassador Andrew J. Young, civil rights leader, former U.S. Ambassador to theUnited Nations and former Mayor of Atlanta, will be the featured speaker at the 20th anniversary gathering of Christian Churches Together in the USA (CCT) on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, at 10 a.m. at historic 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Former Mayor Richard Arrington Jr., Birmingham’s first Black mayor, will introduce Ambassador Young during the anniversary program.

“Birmingham is honored to welcome Ambassador Andrew Young back to the city where he helped change thecourse of history,” said Birmingham Mayor Randall L. Woodfin. “His work here during the Civil Rights Movement helped open doors that once seemed impossible to open, and Mayor Richard Arrington’s leadership represented the progress that followed. To bring thesetwo leaders together at historic 16th Street Baptist Church is a powerful reminder of Birmingham’s journey and the work that continues.”

Young’s connection to Birmingham reaches back to the pivotal 1963 Birmingham Campaign. As a leader with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, he served as a strategist and negotiator in the nonviolent campaign against segregation. He also participated in efforts challenging segregation in Christian worship and later served on the biracial negotiatingcommittee that helped bring the campaign to a close.

“We came to Birmingham believing that faith had to mean something beyond Sunday morning,” said Ambassador Young. “We were asking the churches, the business community and the entire city to live up to the values we said we believed. Birmingham taught us that faith, nonviolence and negotiation could help change a city and ultimately help change a nation. Those lessons still matter today.”

The location carries profound significance. Founded in 1873, 16th Street Baptist Church became a central gathering place during the Civil Rights Movement. On September 15, 1963, the church was bombed, killing four young girls — Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. The tragedy became a defining moment in the struggle for civil rights and remains an enduring reminder of the cost of racial hatred and the continuing work of justice and reconciliation.

Ambassador Young is participating in the gathering at the invitation of CCT’s Historic Black Church Family, one of the five church families that comprise Christian Churches Together.

“Ambassador Andrew Young represents a generation of Christian leadership in which faith was translatedinto action and was inseparable from justice, peace and human dignity,” said Bishop Don Dixon Williams, President of Christian Churches Together’s Historic Black Church Family. The anniversary gathering will bring together leaders from across CCT’s five church families — Catholic, Orthodox, Historic Black Church, Mainline Protestant, and Evangelical/Pentecostal — for reflection on two decades of relationship-building, Christian unity and common witness.

CCT’s return to Birmingham also continues a conversation that has been central to the organization's history. In 2011, CCT leaders gathered at 16th Street Baptist Church and read Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, asking how the churches had answered the challenge King placed before religious leaders in 1963. Two years later, CCT issued its 2013 Response to Dr. King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, acknowledging the failures of the Churchand recommitting Christian leaders to stand and work together for justice. (See response: https://www.christianchurchestogether.org/50anniversary-mlkstudy)

“As we mark 20 years of Christian Churches Together and return to Birmingham, we are not only rememberingwhat we committed ourselves to more than a decade ago — we are asking how faithfully we have lived it,” said CCT Executive Director Dr. Monica Schaap Pierce. “This anniversary calls us to recommit ourselves to the work of reconciliation, healing and service.”

About Ambassador Andrew J. Young

Ambassador Andrew J. Young is a civil rights leader, ordained minister, diplomat, former member ofCongress, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former Mayor of Atlanta. A close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Young played a pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement and has spent more than seven decades advancing peace, human rights,economic development, and reconciliation in the United States and around the world.  

About Christian Churches Together

Christian Churches Together in the USA brings together 34 national churches and Christian organizationsrepresenting more than 60 million American Christians. CCT works to strengthen relationships across Christian traditions and encourage common witness and action rooted in the reconciling love of Jesus.