Wales Window for Alabama

The Wales Window for Alabama is a stained-glass window by the artist John Petts created in response to the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing which took place in 1963. Petts, who was based in Carmarthenshire, initiated a campaign in Wales to raise money to fund a stained-glass window to replace one of the windows destroyed in the bombing. The window was installed in the 16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama, in 1965.

History of the window

The appeal for funds was conducted through the Western Mail. Petts visited Alabama and opted to construct a stained-glass image of a Black Christ. The Welsh public paid for the construction of the art work in Wales, and its delivery and installation at the 16th Street Baptist Church.

In 2023 the Vaughan Gething, the first black minister in the Welsh Government, visited Birmingham for the 60th anniversary of the bombing.

Conservation of the designs and the window

In 1970, the designs for the window were donated to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. In 2013, to mark the 50th anniversary of the bombing, Petts's original designs were displayed at the National Library of Wales. In September 2018, it was reported that the church was concerned that Alabama's stormy weather would destroy the window and appealed to the public to raise funds to preserve it.