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Established by local citizens in 2004, the Birmingham History Center works to preserve historic buildings and spaces as well as offering museum exhibits that share and interpret the history of the city. The museum opened in April 2010 with the support of donations, including a generous gift from the Thomas E. Jernigan Family Foundation. The museum moved to this location but its museum closed in 2013. The History Center's collections are in storage at the Pythian Building and the organization is searching for a more permanent home as of September 2017. In addition to its office, the History Center maintains newsletters, programs, and a website that includes many images and stories from the city's past.&nbsp;

The Pythian Building was listed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1980.

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Completed in 1913 for the Alabama Penny Savings Bank, this building was acquired by the Grand Lodge of the Knights of Pythias two years later when the bank closed its doors. The building was later acquired by African American entrepreneur A. G. Gaston who is best known as the owner of the hotel that was bombed while Martin Luther King Jr. was staying at the hotel. Gaston operated the Booker T. Washington INsurance Company, an important business at mid-century when African Americans were often unable to secure life insurance from white-owned companies without paying substantially more than white clients. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and became home to the Birmingham History Center for a short time. 

Pythian Building

With just a short walk through the center of Birmingham, visitors to the city can explore over a dozen historical buildings and landmarks. This tour includes sites that reflect all aspects of the city's history, from the Civil War to civil rights as well as business, industry, religion, and culture. The tour also includes some of the leading downtown museums. Enjoy!

History of Birmingham Walking Tour

This walking tour includes several locations that are part of the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, composed of several sites in downtown Birmingham that are also part of the Birmingham Civil Rights district. This national monument covers eighteen acres and includes beautiful sculptures and important buildings that were the site of planning meetings, peaceful protests, and violent attacks. Highlights of the tour include Kelly Ingram Park, the 16th St. Baptist Church, and the A.G. Gaston Motel. The tour also includes museums and organizations dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of the civil rights movement.

Birmingham Civil Rights Walking Tour

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The congregation was established as the First Colored Baptist Church of Birmingham in 1873, only eight years after the end of the Civil War. The city ordered the demolition of the congregation's first church in&nbsp;1908. While city officials maintained that the building was unsafe, members of the congregation believed that the city's action was motivated by a desire to punish church members for challenging the rigid racial caste system that typified many Southern cities.&nbsp; During the 1960s, 16th Street Baptist Church served as a meeting place for civil rights groups. Congregants often met to hear talks by Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, James Bevel, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other local and national civil rights leaders. Congregants were often threatened for their participation in civil rights activities and there were over fifty bombings of homes and churches associated with the civil rights movement in Birmingham during the 1950s and 1960s.&nbsp;&nbsp; The most infamous and deadly of these attacks occurred here on September 15, 1963. On that Sunday morning,&nbsp;three members of the Klu Klux Klan, Thomas Blanton, Robert Chambliss, and Bobby Cherry, exploded nineteen sticks of dynamite outside the basement of the church. The explosion killed four girls, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and Denise Mcnair. Over twenty others were injured during the explosion. This further angered protesters and set forth a series of events to help the Civil Rights Movement, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 
Now, the church has been undergoing extensive maintenance and repair work mainly because of water damage. The Church, as of 2006, was designated a National Historic Landmark. The church membership is about 500 people,, with thousands of visitors annually. The church, along with its pastor, Reverend Arthur Price, offer drug counseling, as well as human rights history events.

Established in 1873, this historic congregation has served the Black community of Birmingham from the time of Reconstruction. The church served an important role during the Civil Rights Movement which led white supremacists to target the church and its members. The church was designated as a National Historical Landmark owing to the the tragic events of September 15, 1963 when white supremacists detonated explosives that killed four young girls and injured many more during a Sunday service. 

16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham

In the spring of 1963, civil
rights activists prepared their most ambitious protest in Birmingham, Alabama,
which Martin Luther King, Jr. called “probably the
most thoroughly segregated city in the United States.”1 Civil
rights groups, including the Alabama
Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) and Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC), initiated the Birmingham Campaign in April 1963. The Birmingham Campaign&nbsp;targeted the city’s discriminatory
laws, which permeated employment and business
practices, schools, public transit, voting, and various public facilities. To
put pressure on the city, civil rights groups and the volunteers they
recruited boycotted segregated businesses during the busy Easter season and participated
in nonviolent direct action tactics, such as marches, sit-ins, and pickets. Demonstrations
appeared throughout the city in churches, libraries, public buildings, and the
streets, resulting in the arrests of hundreds of protestors, including Martin
Luther King, Jr. on April 12, 1963. Days after his arrest, King penned the widely-published
“Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” in which he defended the use of civil
disobedience to protest unjust laws. According to King and many of his
supporters, breaking segregation laws shone a spotlight on&nbsp;their injustice and forced communities to negotiate. “It is unfortunate that demonstrations are
taking place in Birmingham,” King wrote, “but it is even more unfortunate that
the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.”2

As the Birmingham Campaign continued throughout
April, the SCLC and ACMHR looked for ways to keep the momentum going, though arrests and
violence against protestors discouraged interested volunteers. These volunteers, mostly adults, risked arrest,
job loss, and eviction from their homes for protesting. SCLC staff member, James Bevel, recognized
that young adults and children might be able to continue the protests. Bevel, an
early member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and leader
the Freedom Rides, was aware of young people’s power and their passion for
civil rights issues. Furthermore, Bevel rationalized that young people had less
to lose than their employed adult counterparts. Though King and other civil rights
leaders initially had reservations, they later supported recruiting children and young
adults because, in King’s words, “...they are not only doing a job for themselves,
but for all America and for all of mankind.”3 SCLC and ACMHR canvassed local
colleges and high schools and began&nbsp;training the&nbsp;demonstrators&nbsp;in nonviolent direct action tactics.

On May 2, more than a thousand young African
Americans skipped classes and gathered at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
From there, they dispersed throughout the city in small groups, singing songs
and marching with intent. Some marched to city hall, with the goal of speaking
with the mayor of Birmingham about segregation. One of these demonstrators, 12-year-old
Freeman Hrabowski, later recalled, “The police looked
mean, it was frightening. We were told to keep singing these songs and so I’m
singing, I ain’t gonna let nobody turn me round, keep on a
walking, keep on a talking, marching on to freedom land. And amazingly the
other kids were singing and the singing elevates when you can imagine hundreds
of children singing and you feel a sense of community, a sense of purpose.”4
Though they demonstrated peacefully, they were not met with a
peaceful response. On the first day of the protest, police arrested hundreds of
young people for protesting without a permit and took them to jail in school
buses and police vans.&nbsp;

The next day, May 3, hundreds of young African Americans again&nbsp;turned up to continue the demonstration. The Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety,&nbsp;Bull O’Connor, ordered police to
spray the children with powerful firehoses, hit them with batons, and
threaten them with police dogs. King, released from jail in late April, spoke
to families on the evening of May 3 at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church,
assuring them that the children would be all right and that their cause was just.

Violent images from the Children’s March
appeared on televisions and newspapers around the world, sparking outrage and
demands for change. The Department of Justice intervened on May 10 and helped
the SCLC and Birmingham officials negotiate desegregation of downtown stores. This
step toward equality was stifled when the Birmingham Board of Education announced
that student demonstrators would be suspended or expelled. The SCLC and NAACP fought
for the students’ rights in court. At the end of May, the Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals ruled against the Board’s decision. Birmingham schools
integrated in September.

The Children’s March brought the Birmingham
Campaign to an end and helped begin a new era of integration. White
segregationists, however, responded to Birmingham's&nbsp;integration with violent acts, such as
planting bombs at a hotel and home associated with civil rights activists,
including King’s brother, Alfred Daniel King. In September, the Ku Klux Klan
bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, where the Children’s March had
begun months earlier, and four young girls died. While discrimination and
racism remained palpable, the Birmingham Campaign and Children’s March provided momentum for civil rights activism throughout the year, which culminated
in the March on Washington in August and Civil Rights Act of 1964. Their actions remain a touchstone of student and youth&nbsp;activism to this day.&nbsp;

On May 2, 1963, several thousand African American children, teenagers, and college students in Birmingham, Alabama walked out of school to protest the city's segregation laws. As part of the larger Birmingham Campaign that began in April, what became known as the "Children's March" or "Children's Crusade" demonstrated the power of young people as civil rights activists. Groups such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights helped coordinate the demonstration, recruiting and training young people in civil disobedience. On the first day of the march, hundreds of demonstrators were arrested for marching without permits, and in the following days, police responded to the persistent demonstrators with violence. Images of children and young adults being sprayed by firehoses or attacked by police dogs shocked the world. The Children's March revived the Birmingham Campaign, forced the city of Birmingham to integrate, and ushered in a year of historic moments, including the March on Washington and Civil Rights Act of 1964. Martin Luther King Jr. exclaimed that the Children's March "subpoenaed the conscience of the nation to the judgment seat of morality." 

Children's March Against Segregation, Birmingham, 1963

Fred Shuttlesworth was born in Mount Meigs, Alabama
on March 18, 1922 during the height of segregation in the south. Years later
his family moved to Birmingham for better economic opportunities where he
graduated from Rosedale High School as valedictorian. He then went on to work
as a truck driver at Brookley Air Force Base in Mobile during World War II. He
married his first wife Ruby in 1941; they would have four children together
before divorcing in 1970. 

In 1943 Shuttlesworth
answered his calling to become a minister and attended Cedar Grove Bible
College in Mobile, Alabama. He later transferred to Selma University and then
to Alabama State College where he graduated from in 1952. After graduation he
became the pastor of Selma’s First Baptist Church he was not there long before
indifference with the deacons led to his departure. He did not let the issues
he had at Selma’s First Baptist Church get him down and in 1953 he became
pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 

Fred Shuttlesworth was
a very outspoken person, he became involved in many civil rights activities
over the years in attempts to end the brutality against his people and acquire
equal rights for all. After it was declared that the NAACP was not allowed to
operate in the state of Alabama, Shuttlesworth, along with Ed Gardner, established
the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights to continue work that was
formerly being done by the NAACP. The ACMHR demanded that the Birmingham Police
department become integrated, and when these pleas were ignored they responded
by suing. Fred was also active in organizing efforts to desegregate buses when
the first attempt on his life took place.&nbsp;
On Christmas day his house was bombed while he was inside. He survived
this attack on his life and did not allow it to silence his voice in the civil
rights movement.

In 1957 Shuttlesworth
along with seven others founded the Southern Leadership Conference; they were
committed to a nonviolent approach and because Fred was so headstrong he had a
hard time following this philosophy and was known for antagonizing his
opponents as well as his colleagues. Because of this conflict he moved to
Cincinnati in 1961 to become pastor of the Revelation Baptist Church. This did
not stop his efforts in Alabama as he would often return to help the cause. 

In 1957 there was a
second attempt on Shuttleworth’s life; he and his wife were attempting to
enroll their children in a previously all white school in Birmingham when they
were attacked by members of the Klan. He was severely beaten and his wife Ruby
was stabbed Shuttlesworth drove himself and his wife to the hospital, they both
survived. This was not the last attempt on his life. In 1958 Shuttlesworth
survived an attempted bombing at his church; he was not injured because the
bomb was spotted and moved before it could do damage. 

&nbsp;He did not allow any of these attempts to
silence his voice and over the next several years he continued his fight for
desegregation. In 1960 he participated in sit-ins against segregated lunch
counters, and in 1961 participated in the organization of the Freedom Rides. Later
in 1963 he lead a campaign called Project “C” to desegregate through however,
the conviction was later overturned. Fred was also involved in marches in St. Augustine
Florida which led to the passage of the Civil Rights Movement of 1964. One year
later he was involved in the march from Selma to Montgomery which led to the
passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

Shuttlesworth founded
the Greater New Light Baptist Church in 1966 and two years later founded the
Shuttlesworth Housing Foundation to help those who are unable to buy their own
homes. He served as pastor of the&nbsp;Greater New Light Baptist Church for the next several
years announcing his retirement in January of 2006. Two months later he gave
his last sermon on March 18, 2006 which was the weekend of his 84th
birthday. Shuttlesworth remarried and continued to travel the country speaking
on Civil Rights until he suffered a stroke in 2008. On October 27th
2008 the Birmingham airport was renamed in his honor as the&nbsp;Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. On October 5th 2011 Fred
Shuttlesworth died at Princeton Baptist Medical Center. This marker pay tribute to his courage and service in&nbsp;fighting for equal rights for all Americans.&nbsp;

Reverend Fred Lee Shuttlesworth was a prominent civil rights activist in Birmingham and a leader and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The SCLC was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s organization of Black ministers who supported the civil rights movement and together with other organizations, helped to shape the direction of the American civil right movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Shuttlesworth served among leaders such as Ralph Abernathy, Bayard Rustin, and Ella Baker. The SCLC was committed to a non-violent approach and came to support many of the direct action campaigns waged by students. Shuttlesworth spent four years working with SCLC before he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to become the Pastor of Revelation Baptist Church. Although he had moved to Ohio, Shuttlesworth remained involved in the Birmingham Campaign and returned to the city often. Fred survived two murder attempts. In addition, his wife was stabbed and he was beaten in front of his children. This marker was placed on 16th Street in Birmingham in honor of his service and sacrifice throughout the movement. 

Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth Historic Marker

The Institute's location in Birmingham is significant given the violent history of the city during the Civil Rights Movement. Encouraged by the city's chief of&nbsp;public safety, Eugene "Bull" Connor, white civilians, government leaders, and even the police committed acts of violence against African Americans who attempted to vote or defy city and state segregation ordinances. Attempting to learn from the past, change the image of the city, and support progress towards racial equality, mayor David Vann proposed the creation of a museum and civic organization dedicated to preserving the history of the civil rights movement in 1978. Vann envisioned the museum as a "living institution" that would also support open dialogue about&nbsp;modern-day concerns and civil rights initiatives. Vann received little support from other white residents in 1978, but&nbsp;Richard Arrington, Jr., who succeeded Vann and&nbsp;became the city's first Black mayor kept the dream alive. After several&nbsp;bond measures&nbsp;dedicated to&nbsp;the creation of a civil rights&nbsp;museum and institute were rejected by voters, city officials worked to fund the creation of the institute by using general revenue bonds. Together with individual and corporate donations, the institute became a reality in 1992.

Established in 1992, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute includes exhibits and programs related to the history of the civil rights movement in Alabama and throughout the United Stats. Over two million people have visited the institute while thousands of teachers participate in the Institute's teacher education program and/or benefit from educational materials created by the scholars employed at or by the Institute. Visitors can take a self-tour or a guided tour of the Institute's exhibitions. Scholars and members of the public can also use the Institute's archival collections related to the history of the Civil Rights Movement. 

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is located in the Civil Rights District&nbsp; and is one of the leading attractions for visitors to the city. The&nbsp;institute opened in 1993 and includes exhibits that preserve, interpret, and share the many&nbsp;struggles and victories of the civil rights movement.&nbsp;The district is also home to the&nbsp;Gaston Hotel, a Black-owned business that served as&nbsp;a meeting place for Martin Luther King's&nbsp;Southern Christian Leadership Conference.&nbsp;16th Street Baptist Church is most famous for the tragic bombing by white supremacists on September 15, 1963 that injured 22 and killed four young girls. The church was targeted for its activity in the movement, including its role as a place where young people trained in non-violent tactics prior to the&nbsp;1963 Children's Campaign. <div> </div><div>The district is anchored by&nbsp;Kelly Ingram Park, the scene of several civil rights protests that led to some of&nbsp;the most famous images of police turning firehouses and dogs&nbsp;on Black children who were practicing their right of non-violent protest. These images helped to&nbsp;turn the tide of public opinion against those who sought to maintain&nbsp;segregation. The park includes a number of plaques and&nbsp;sculptures that preserve the history of those protests.&nbsp;</div>

The Birmingham Civil Rights District covers six blocks where a number of historic events that shaped the American Civil Rights Movement occurred. The city of Birmingham outlined and designated this area as a historic district in 1992. In the following decades, the city created a number of statues honoring the leaders and participants of the civil rights movement. In addition to these monuments in the park, the district includes Carver Theater, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Gaston Hotel, 16th Street Baptist Church, and Kelly Ingram Park where several civil rights protests occurred. 

Kelly Ingram Park and Civil Rights District

Constructed in 1954 by a businessman A. G. Gaston, this hotel offered modern amenities to African American travelers and later became an informal headquarters of civil rights groups. The motel was built with 32 guest rooms including a few master suites. Every room in the motel provided heat and air-conditioning in addition to&nbsp;private bathrooms, in-room telephone service, and jukeboxes. The hotel also boasted a dining room complete with a cocktail lounge. The lounge featured performances of African American&nbsp;entertainers including Little Richard and Stevie Wonder. &nbsp; The Gaston Motel provided accommodations for many national Civil Rights leaders as they visited Birmingham. Gaston was a supporter of the movement but also found that he needed to keep some of his support private else he might experience backlash from white city leaders. Under pressure, Gaston chose to speak out against some of the direct action techniques of civil rights protesters although he still welcomed civil rights leaders to his hotel and allowed visiting members of Martin Luther King Jr.'s&nbsp;&nbsp;Southern Christian Leadership committee to plan&nbsp;the Birmingham Campaign within the walls of the his motel. Martin Luther King Jr. was staying in the Gaston Motel when he decided to submit himself for arrest as a show of solidarity with the local Birmingham protesters.Following his arrest,&nbsp;King composed the famous "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" that castigated reluctant white supporters who counseled African Americans to be "patient" and accept segregation in the near-term. The document outlined King's ideas on racial justice and commitment to non-violent tactics to induce a positive, palpable change. Upon King's return to the hotel, white supremacists exploded a bomb&nbsp;adjacent to King's room causing destruction to the front of the motel. President Kennedy initiated Operation Oak Tree as part of his effort to restore order after white supremacists perpetrated attacks against African Americans throughout Birmingham in 1963. Bombings of the A. G. Gaston Motel and the King residence shortly after the Birmingham Truce had been signed forced Kennedy to end his vacation early and order the National Guard into a state of readiness. Prior to the wave of bombings that forced Kennedy into action, many hoped the Birmingham Truce would would be a step towards ending segregation by establishing a bi-racial committee and securing promises by civil rights groups and city leaders to work together. Outrage over these plans lead to the outbreak of violence by opponents of racial equality. President Kennedy responded to the renewed violence by preparing federal troops as part of Operation Oak Tree. The potential of having federal troops take control of the city helped white moderates regain control of the city and the bi-racial committee was reestablished.&nbsp; In recent years, preservationists have prevented the demolition of the hotel and efforts are underway to restore the building as a&nbsp;hotel and conference center. The renovated hotel would feature an interactive display to educate visitors about its role in history. The City of Birmingham currently owns the hotel and plans to annex it to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

The A. G. Gaston Motel is a former motel located in Birmingham's "Civil Rights District." The motel was first opened in 1954 and acted as a headquarters for the Civil Rights Movement taking place in Birmingham. The Gaston motel was also an important business for African American travelers in the era of Jim Crow because it allowed Black visitors a modern hotel where they could stay with dignity. With the exception of rented rooms, the hotel was the only modern hotel that was open to African Americans in the entire city of Birmingham. 

A. G. Gaston Motel

The Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame features two thousand square feet of exhibit space that convey the history and accomplishments of musicians with ties to the state of Alabama such as Nat King Cole and Duke Ellington. The museum dates back to meetings that began in 1978 and a variety of exhibits and events that connected Birmingham residents to the history of jazz music prior to the opening of the current museum on September 18, 1993. The museum sponsors performances around the city and works with teachers and community leaders to brings jazz to young people.

Opening in 1935, Carver Theatre was one of the leading venues for film and the performing arts for the African American community of Birmingham. Built during the Great Depression and expanded in the boom years following World War II, this theater offered all of the beauty and modern conveniences of some of the grandest downtown venues with air-conditioning and seating for 1300 patrons by 1945. Like other theaters, this downtown venue fell into disrepair as fewer residents patronized downtown theaters in the 1980s. In 1990, the city of Birmingham launched a project to restore the historic theater, which opened two venues—the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame Museum and the performing arts center—in 1993. 

The Carver Theatre for the Performing Arts and Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame

The City of Birmingham restored&nbsp;Carver Theatre in the early 1990s. This theater hosted thousands of concerts and was one of the few theaters open to African Americans in the era of segregation.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Located in the historic Carver Theater, the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame features two thousand square feet of exhibit space that convey the history and accomplishments of musicians with ties to the state of Alabama such as Nat King Cole and Duke Ellington. The museum dates back to meetings that began in 1978 and a variety of exhibits and events that connected Birmingham residents to the history of jazz music prior to the opening of the current museum on September 18, 1993. The museum sponsors performances around the city and works with teachers and community leaders to brings jazz to young people. 

Birmingham Civil Rights Walking Tour

Pythian Building

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