PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
Birmingham celebrates the dedication of the Civil Rights National
Monument in 2017.
Restoring the past to look to
THE FUTURE
Learn more about our city’s civil rights history by visiting
the national park that’s in our own backyard.
BY JEANA DURST
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We are not
makers of history, we are made by history.” No
matter how you interpret this quote, there’s no
That’s one reason why it’s important to understand
it—even the hard chapters, or more accurately,
especially the hard chapters. The Birmingham Civil
Rights National Monument is a place where we can
take our children and “travel back in time” to gain
a better understanding of our collective past and,
hopefully, use that insight to inform our future.
When you hear the words “national park,”
national monument run by the National Park
Birmingham only three years ago? In fact, the
many of them in urban environments.
the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
events that took place in Birmingham in 1963
26 Bham Family August 2020
during the modern civil rights movement. That
spring, police dogs were unleashed against nonviolent
protesters and children were sprayed
with high-pressure hoses. These scenes, which
were broadcasted across the world, highlighted
aggression against civil rights protesters,
racial injustice in America. Recently, I caught up
with the monument’s superintendent Kris Butcher
to learn more about what’s in the works for this
access the monument sites to engage in important
dialogue about the topic of racial injustice.
The national monument is actually managed
through a unique partnership of many
stakeholders, including the city of Birmingham, the
“All of these organizations were telling these
is that we can bring more resources and engage
the public to teach those lessons to inspire future
generations of leaders and civil rights advocates
worldwide,” Butcher says.
The historical sites, which encompass