Although some African American Baptist churches formed in Alabama's cities prior to the Civil War, such as the St. Louis Street Missionary Baptist Church that formed in 1836 in Mobile, most African Americans in Alabama separated from white-dominated churches and set up their own congregations after the war and end of slavery. African-American Baptist congregations in Alabama played an important primary role in the civil rights movement in the United States. The St. Louis Street Missionary Baptist Church was host to the seventh Colored Baptist Convention of Alabama in 1874, a meeting that lead to the formation of Selma University in 1878. The Dexter Avenue Baptist Church is a National Historic Landmark near the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. helped to organize the Montgomery bus boycott in the church's basement. The 16th Street Baptist Church is nationally known as the site of a Civil Rights-era bombing that killed four young girls. The church had served as an organizational headquarters, site of mass meetings and rallying point for blacks protesting widespread institutionalized racism in Birmingham. It is also recognized as a National Historic Landmark due to the fact that the tragedy marked a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement and contributed to the public outcry that added support for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.