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BCRI History (continued)

In 1962 Rev. Shuttlesworth invited Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to join forces with the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) in their challenge to the city's segregation ordinances. The citizen's revolt, highlighted by the 1963 children's marches, subsequently struck the final blow to de jure racial segregation in Alabama, and prompted the federal government to pass legislation prohibiting discrimination. Historian John Hope Franklin described the resulting 1964 Civil Rights Act as "the most far reaching and comprehensive law in support of racial equality ever enacted by Congress."^[iii]

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.

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[iii] John Hope Franklin, From Slavery To Freedom – A History of African Americans, 3rd Edition (New York: Alfred Knopf), p. 635.