the building was converted to low-cost apartments in 1992. Stars for Freedom During the final night of the Selma to Montgomery marches on March 24, 1965, an estimated 10,000 marchers camped on an athletic field in the St. Jude campus and watched the Stars for Freedom rally, featuring many celebrities. Performances were held on a makeshift stage consisting of empty coffin shipping crates topped by plywood sheets. The next morning, the crowd that marched from the City of St. Jude was estimated at 25,000, and the tail of the procession did not reach the Alabama State Capitol building until nearly ninety minutes after the leaders of the march. The pastor of St. Jude asked Bishop Toolen for permission to allow the marchers to camp overnight, which was granted, but Toolen warned the pastor "there would be consequences." After the march, donations to the City of St. Jude decreased precipitously, since the primary contributors were white Catholics who "agreed with helping blacks, [but didn't] agree with Martin Luther King." Some of the hospital employees also resigned in the wake of the march, and white students left the school. In 2008, the National Park Service recommended taking an offer from Alabama State University over the City of St. Jude for the third Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail interpretive center. After a fundraising effort, the City of St. Jude opened its own interpretive center in 2015. The following celebrities were present at Stars for Freedom: Joan Baez James Baldwin Ina Balin Harry Belafonte Tony Bennett Leonard Bernstein Sammy Davis, Jr. Billy Eckstine Dick Gregory Lena Horne Mahalia Jackson Alan King Frankie Laine William Marshall Johnny Mathis Gary Merrill The Chad Mitchell Trio Odetta Peter, Paul and Mary Pernell Roberts Julius "Nipsey" Russell Pete Seeger Nina Simone Shelley Winters Gallery References External links National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery, Alabama African-American Roman Catholic churches African-American Roman Catholic schools African-American Roman Catholicism