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(history continued...)
Race has always been a fault line in the social environment of Birmingham. It is a weak spot easily aggravated by outsiders' criticism, and by the tension between 'race rebels' and civic boosters. The Birmingham that provoked non-violent resistance was a place whose citizens were intimidated by a lawless element. So absolute was fear that moderate Whites, downtown retailers and many Blacks were intimidated into silent acquiescence to the system which they knew was morally corrupt.
How to portray this past in a healing and non-divisive manner, while portraying the harsh truth, was a challenge to the founders of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. The idea that the city should build a museum-like facility to memorialize its civil rights history originated with David Vann in 1978 during his term as Mayor. A political liberal, David Vann was a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black when the landmark Brown v. Board of Education was handed down.
Returning to Birmingham to practice law, he became a leader in the effort to defeat Birmingham's racist city officials by changing the form of government from that of a Commission to a Mayor Council form. Years later, on a trip to Israel he was impressed by the museums of the Holocaust and Jewish Diaspora. His visit convinced him that respectful remembrance of horror could be therapeutic for a community. Perhaps, he reasoned, Birmingham could heal itself through recalling its civil rights struggle and celebrating the changes it produced. Vann suffered defeat in his bid for re-election.
Vann's successor, Richard Arrington, Jr., Birmingham's first Black mayor, committed his energy and public funds to pursuing Vann's vision. He appointed a Civil Rights Museum Study committee to begin formulating ideas. The group recommended that Birmingham create an official organization with resources to plan a city – sponsored museum. The city acquired property in the area where the 1963 marches and demonstrations originated.
In 1986, more than seven years after Vann's proposition, Arrington appointed a Task Force with explicit instructions to craft a mission statement and thematic plan, and to give guidance to an architectural firm and planning consultants hired by the city. The Task Force represented a broad range of citizens including educators, civil rights activists, city government officials, business and community leaders, and local historians. Task Force members envisioned the facility as an institute rather than a museum to imply an action-oriented establishment.
Documenting the past meant hearing the voices of a range of movement participants from the unsung foot soldiers to celebrated leaders. The Task Force meant "history from the bottom up," a phrase researcher Stephan Therstrom applied to the study of everyday people in social movements. Clearly, the overthrow of racial segregation in Birmingham could not have succeeded in the 1960's without the brilliant leadership of the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.; nor could it have happened without the fervent following of countless ordinary people. Their eyewitness accounts are essential to a valid recreation and understanding of the past. Their stories and memorabilia document the "stride toward freedom." Click here to continue.>>
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