Celebrate MLK Day in the Birmingham Civil Rights District

This is a repost from 2020.

This week we celebrated the life of the great civil rights leader, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and Richard and I had the chance to visit the Civil Rights District of Birmingham, Alabama. It’s a six-block area of downtown where several important events in the Civil Rights Movement of the 50’s and 60’s happened.There are several important landmarks all in this one district:

16th Street Baptist Church

According to the informational signs, this church is where students involved in the 1963 Children’s Campaign were trained and left in groups of 50 to march on City Hall. Four young African American girls were killed there and 22 churchgoers were injured in a bombing on September 15, 1963.

Kelly Ingram Park

This is the park where a lot of protests were held, and the Birmingham police often retaliated. I have seen pictures from 1963 of policemen spraying fire hoses on the young protesters and siccing police dogs on them. When the news covered these riots people’s opinions in our country started to change and turn against the segregationist policies. There are several sculptures in the park that depict scenes from these police riots. There is a marked path where marchers walked with signs marking different stations along the way.

Nearby is the Fourth Avenue Business District where many of the black businesses and entertainment areas were located. The Gaston Motel was a meeting place for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Carver Theater is now the home of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is a museum that educates people about the Civil Rights Movement. The building is divided into different galleries: Human Rights Gallery, Movement Gallery, Confrontation Gallery, and the Barriers Gallery. There is a fee to get in, but there is a lot to see.

Maybe you haven’t thought of visiting a historical site from the Civil Rights Era when vacationing, but you might find want to consider it when in Birmingham. In my opinion, this history is important for us to know about, and the Birmingham Civil Rights District is a great place to learn about it. What are your thoughts? I’d love for you to leave your comments below.