World Heritage Initiative
Department of History
Atlanta, Georgia
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As Black History Month draws to a close, here is a sampling of some of the recent, current, and upcoming activities accomplished by and events scheduled at Civil Rights Movement Sites around the South:
Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site has been offering numerous programs on wellness and healing, including a dialogue session with local police officers.
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The member and affiliated sites of the newly-expanded Brown v Board of Education National Historical Park are beginning to coordinate cooperative planning.
Last December, one of the Brown sites, The Hockessin Colored School #107 in Delaware reopened as the Center for Diversity, Inclusion & Social Equity (pictured left). Click here to learn more.
The Town of Farmville, Virginia passed the Moton Gateway Overlay District to protect the Moton Museum. The new regulations will help preserve the area around the historic Robert Russa Moton High School and encourage protective maintenance of nearby structures while fostering appropriate development in the neighborhood.
The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, responded quickly to the January 7 attack and subsequent death of local resident Tyre Nichols, immediately offering healing programs and dialogues for the city’s populace. Click here to read their public statement.
Veranda magazine’s February 2023 featured Civil Rights Movement sites in Birmingham, Alabama. You can read about:
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The Birmingham Civil Rights District and the efforts by City Hall and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to advance the area by promoting its notable historic properties, especially those designed by Black architects.
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Bethel Baptist Church’s Martha Bouyer talks about Why Historic Bethel Baptist Church Needs Saving Now and discusses her work to preserve the church and the legacy of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.
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Sixteenth Street Baptist Church’s Ted Debro describes how he became a preservationist and a steward of his beloved historic church and parsonage, shepherding its rehabilitation to protect its future.
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Alabama Public Television launched a new documentary, Shuttlesworth, which focuses on the charismatic pastor during his years leading the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights and Bethel Baptist Church. Click here to watch it online.
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The International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina, presented a speakers series featuring such national leaders as former United Nations Ambassador, Georgia Congressman and Atlanta Mayor, the Reverend Andrew Young; Dr. Johnnetta Cole, former president of Spelman College; and legendary Civil Rights Movement Veteran, the Reverend Dr. James Lawson.
The National Civil Rights History Museum presented a series of webinars with three designed for general audiences and two for children, all of which discussed various significant events in Black history and their impact today.
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church hosted the play, The Calling, on February 19, performed by the Red Mountain Theatre. Written by Quinton Cockrell, The Calling honors the life and work of civil rights icon and Federal Judge U.W. Clemon.
Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church welcomed Ambassador Young to a packed church when he spoke there one Sunday.
The Moton Museum hosted several programs. The presentation, Living Under Jim Crow: Dr. Yemaja Jubilee Story offered a story of love and inclusivity. In Cousins: Connected by Slavery, a Black and White Discover Their Past - and Each Other, the Dr. Betty Kilby Baldwin, the lead Black plaintiff in the desegregation of public schools in Warren County, Virginia, and her white cousin Phoebe Kilby share their personal story of racial reconciliation, forgiveness, and restorative justice. Also Moton visitors enjoyed the return of its popular jazz concert series.
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Coming soon is the annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma, Alabama, March 3-5, 2023! This year marks the 58th anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March. The weekend events culminate in the re-enactment of the historic march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Click here to see the full schedule here.
Bethel Baptist Church will present the conference, There is a Balm in Gilead, September 12-14, to promote healing and understanding for the survivors of the 1963 events in Birmingham. All are welcome.
Get ready as there are significant anniversaries in 2023: from the 60th anniversary of the Birmingham Campaign, the murder of Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi, the March on Washington, and the Bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, to the 55th anniversary of the Sanitation Workers’ Strike, the Poor People’s Campaign, and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., all of which will be featured in a year-long series of programs at the National Civil Rights Museum under the title Freedom Can’t Wait. No doubt other Civil Rights Movement Sites are scheduling anniversary observances too, as a busy New Year and Black History Month evolves into a busy anniversary year!
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Partners for Sacred Places |
The University of Texas at San Antonio’s Center for Cultural Sustainability has spent the past few years developing a toolkit to help congregations who worship in historic buildings make their structures more resilient ahead of time. Funded by the National Fund for Sacred Places, the toolkit's recommendations are applicable in part to any historic site seeking to minimize the potential damage of climate change. Click here to learn more about the toolkit and download a copy.
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This project is funded in part by:
The African American Civil Rights program of the Historic Preservation Fund,
National Park Service, Department of the Interior. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not constitute endorsement or necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior or U.S. Government; and
Grants from the African American Fund and the Southern Intervention Fund of the
National Trust for Historic Preservation.
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