Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
The Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument is a United States National Monument in Birmingham, Alabama established in 2017 to preserve and commemorate the work of the 1963 Birmingham campaign, its Children's Crusade, and other Civil Rights Movement events and actions. Civil rights protesters took to the streets of Birmingham, Alabama to fight in favor of Project C, a campaign against laws limiting African Americans freedoms. They were met with violent resistance from the police. The monument spans an approximately five-block area of in the Birmingham Civil Rights District near Downtown Birmingham. It is administered by the National Park Service.
History
Birmingham was the site of the 1963 Birmingham campaign; Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail; the Children's Crusade, with its images of students being attacked by water hoses and dogs; the bombing of the A.G. Gaston Motel – the movement's headquarters motel – and the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.President Barack Obama signed a proclamation on January 12, 2017, which designated half of the Birmingham Civil Rights District as a U.S. National Monument. The purpose of this proclamation was to protect the history that came from the Reconstruction, tell stories, and illustrate how the Era redefined freedom. Other proclamations signed the same day established the Freedom Riders National Monument in Anniston and the Reconstruction Era National Monument in Beaufort County, South Carolina.