ATTRACTIONS Across the street from the Civil Rights Institute, the 16th Baptist Church was recently designated a National Historic Landmark. In the basement of the church on a September Sunday morning in 1963, four African-American schoolgirls were changing into their choir robes. A bomb set by Ku Klux Klansmen ripped through that side of the church, killing 11-year-old Denise McNair, along with Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins, all 14 years old. The church bombing shocked and sickened the city and the world and was a turning point in the status of race relations thereafter. (The story of the Sixteenth Street Church bombing is told with intensity in filmmaker Spike Lee’s documentary Four Little Girls.) Facing the Civil Rights Institute, Kelly Ingram Park was a regular congregation area for organizing demonstrations in the early 1960s, including the ones in which police dogs and fire hoses were turned on the marchers by Birmingham law enforcement officials. Images of those attacks still haunt Birmingham, but they are the same images that were instrumental in overturning legal segregation. The 4th Avenue Business District, also a part of the Civil Rights District, remains alive with restaurants, barbershops and bakeries. This cluster of black-owned businesses was the core of AfricanAmerican social and commercial life in the early 1900s and later when white-owned shops and stores refused to serve black customers. Many minority-owned businesses still operate in the 4th Avenue District today, serving a steady stream of customers of all races. Down 4th Avenue North at 18th Street is the Eddie Kendrick Memorial Park, a tribute to Birmingham native and Temptations lead singer Eddie Kendrick, who traveled the world but never forgot his Alabama roots. Sculpted by Birmingham artist Ronald Scott McDowell, the Kendrick statue captures for eternity the magic moves of his Motown music. Inlaid in a granite backdrop behind Kendrick, the four other Temptations energize the work with their fine-tuned choreography. The Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame is only about a block down the street. If you’re lucky, jazz musician and historian Dr. Frank Adams will be on site and might even blow a tune on his clarinet (see attractions). www.jazzhall.com The Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail winds through downtown, marking significant locations along the 1963 Civil Rights march routes. Designed as a self-guided tour, the route directs visitors along
this historic pathway by maps at each location. The trail speaks to the valor of both common people and to the spiritual leaders who spearheaded the fight against segregation and other forms of racism.
About the Birmingham Pledge The Birmingham Pledge is well known regionally, but for people outside the community it may require some explanation. Authored by Birmingham attorney James E. Rotch in 1997, the pledge is a simple document promising personal commitment to eliminate racism in the world, one person at a time. It is a testament to the racial progress the city has made since its historic role in America’s Civil Rights Movement. It reads:
The Birmingham Pledge Sign It - Live It I believe that every person has
worth as an individual. I believe that every person is entitled to
dignity and respect, regardless of race or color. I believe that every thought and every
act of racial prejudice is harmful; if it is my thought or act, then it is harmful to me as well as to others. Therefore, from this day forward I will
strive daily to eliminate racial prejudice from my thoughts and actions. I will discourage racial prejudice by
others at every opportunity. I will treat all people with dignity and
respect; and I will strive daily to honor this pledge, knowing that the world will be a better place because of my effort. Tens of thousands of people around the world have signed the Birmingham Pledge, including former President Bill Clinton and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. To add your signature to the pledge, go to www.birminghampledge.org.
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