A Guide for Visiting the Civil Rights Institute…

…And why I Made it Priority #1 During My Birmingham Visit

Remember that Mrs. HomeFree is an official Marriott affiliate. When you decide you are ready to travel, you can click on any of the Marriott ads or hotel links found here and be taken directly to Marriott’s reservation page. Mrs. HomeFree will receive a small commission and it costs you nothing extra.

I recognize that I am not a child anymore, therefore, my own education is my own responsibility. If we want our nation to live up to its promises, then we must stop finger pointing and recognize that we could all do better in one way or another. I decided to start as close to home as it gets, with myself. Just when you think you are educated about a topic, you are often proved wrong. In school, The Civil Rights Movement was the one part of black history that they did spend a lot of time on. But, still, I am not naïve enough to think that I knew all that there was to know.

Adding The Civil Rights Institute To Your Itinerary

Birmingham, Alabama is 2 hours and 20 minutes west of Atlanta, Georgia. It is also 2 hours and 20 minutes from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Lastly, Birmingham is only a one-hour drive from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Why do I sound like Googlemaps right now? Because I want to stress how easy it is and how worthwhile it is, to take a detour to Birmingham next time you road trip around the South. Whether you are headed to the mountains or to watch some college football, a side trip to The Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham needs to be on the agenda.

Goal #1 for me while in Birmingham was to visit The Civil Rights Institute. It was a quick 15-minute drive from the Grand Bohemian Hotel in the Mountain Brook neighborhood to downtown to visit the institute. At the time of our visit, timed tickets were still required, though due to the pandemic rules are changing all the time. I suggest checking the institute’s website as close to your trip as possible. Tickets were $15.00 per person. As you might imagine, this was $15.00 well spent. How long does it take to see The Civil Rights Institute? Well, my husband and I were there for hours and hours. At times, there was so much to read and to look that, that we were overwhelmed. However, we tend to read and study museum text panels more closely than most people. As a general rule, I would plan for 2 hours.

The Exhibit Structure

Our visit began with a short movie (20 minutes or less) that provided a historical overview. Then, we were free to walk through the exhibits at our own pace. A pathway leads visitors on a winding journey through history (and the building). Visitors find themselves twisting and turning through one dimly lit exhibit room to the next. Spotlights on display cases and ten-foot-tall photo boards provide the majority of the light. Hours later, near the end, I suddenly emerged from the darkness into a long room flooded with light from an entire wall of windows. An unseen force pulled me towards those windows immediately. What did I see? The Kelly Ingram Park across the street where in 1963 a children’s march was set upon by police dogs and fire hoses. The institute has a great deal of information about the events that occurred at the park and I stood at those windows with a lump in my throat. Children are often thought of as the light and the hope of our future. After hours in dimly lit rooms, studying the darkest corners of the human mind, this change in environment was a curatorial triumph. Brilliantly done, plain & simple.

While the letters, photos, videos and documents provided for examination are powerful, part of the genius of this museum is the fact that three dimensional displays are also interspersed. For example, there is a classroom for white students circa 1953 and a classroom for black students circa 1953. Lunch counters and church interiors have been re-created.

It is an emotional experience, no doubt. For me, though, it was worth it. I started my travels around the South as an Alabama rookie. Today, I have been to the big cities and small towns named in the hundreds of articles I read at the museum. In 1961, the Freedom Riders had their bus firebombed outside of Anniston, Alabama. I have now been to Anniston. This day, I stood in front of a burned-out bus (replica) and tried to take deep breaths.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am emotional anyway. Overall, I held it together quite well, only losing my composure twice. The white KKK robe and the partially burned cross found on the lawn of an interracial couple in the 1990’s was more than I could take, and I rummaged for tissues in my bag.

We’ve all seen footage of Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. As iconic and powerful as it is, it did not seem that anything could make its impact grow any larger in my mind than it already had. Once again, I was wrong. I passed by the actual cell door from Dr. King’s famous Birmingham arrest and a few moments later, arrived at a photo of Washington, DC on the day he gave the dream speech. The photo is enlarged so that the people in it are nearly life-sized. A huge video screen plays footage of Dr. King delivering the speech. I stood with my feet rooted to the floor, mesmerized by him, and cried. After all, it really is about promises made and promises not kept, isn’t it?

PART II of my Civil Rights Education Day – Kelly Ingram Park

The Civil Rights Institute sits across the street from the now-iconic 16^th Street Baptist Church, where in September 1963 four young girls were killed when the church was bombed. (Side note: My teachers never told me that there were also two young boys killed in Birmingham that same day in other violent incidents.) The institute also sits across the street from Kelly Ingram Park. What happened in Kelly Ingram Park that would make me want to visit it? Over the years, this park has become a part of the Civil Rights Trail in Alabama and now houses a powerful collection of large-scale sculptures and statutes in honor of various facets of the Civil Rights Movement. The four girls killed in the church bombing are remembered. All the students who marched in this park and were terrorized by man and dog and hose are honored.

There is a paved sidewalk (ADA accessible) that winds around the small park and between the monuments. For me, it was a perfect way to wrap up my civil rights experience in Birmingham. As it was an emotional day, it offered my husband and me the opportunity to discuss what we had learned and to trade opinions on which displays had been the most impactful for each of us. Perhaps my visit to the Civil Rights Institute and Kelly Ingram Park, though only one tiny act, can make me part of the solution.