BIRMINGHAM GUIDE
WELCOME TO BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
Birmingham represents the best of the New South in the way it addresses its past, while urging all to create a better future. Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, which is more than a museum, gives an unparalleled view of our Civil Rights heritage – it alone is worth a trip to Birmingham ... More
CULTURAL SITES
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Kelly Ingram Park, Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, Eddie Kendricks & The Temptations Memorial, Miles College and Onyx Agency Theatre lead the cultural scene ... More
RESTAURANTS and NIGHTCLUBS
Birmingham has a handful of soulful restaurants and cafes to get your meat loaf, BBQ ribs, pot roast, fried fish and delicious side like fried corn, turnip greens, mac & cheese ... More
SHOPS and GALLERIES
Chris McNair Studios, J’Georgette Balloons, Gifts & Flowers, Christian Way Book Solomon's Books & Church Supply Store ... More
HISTORIC SITES
Birmingham reads like a Who's Who of historic Civil Rights Movement sites, including A.G. Gaston Gardens, Kelly Ingram Park, Citizen’s Federal Savings Bank, Freedom Riders Debarkation Site, WENN Radio ... More
PLACES OF WORSHIP
Though Birmingham has many major churches, one towers above all the others for historical significance, 16th Street Baptist Church. Although founded in 1873, the current church was designed ... More
BLACK GENESIS
It may surprise you to learn that Birmingham never depended on slave labor. This atypical Southern beginning where the races never learned to mix was perhaps, the root of Birmingham’s intense racial problems ... More
BIRMINGHAM ELEVATES THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth was the most important figure in the Alabama Civil Rights Movement. In the 1950s, he was pastor of Bethel Baptist Church located some distance from downtown ... More
FOURTH AVENUE
A Black business district formed in Birmingham just after 1890. In a pattern characteristic of Southern cities found during Reconstruction, black businesses developed alongside those of whites near downtown ... More
ALABAMA JAZZ and SOUL MUSIC
Nat King Cole, Lionel Hampton, Erskine Hawkins, Clarence “Pinetop” Smith and Sonny Blount (Sun Ra) dotted the musical landscape as performing artists here. The many clubs on Fourth Avenue and Tuxedo Junction ... More
FAMILY ATTRACTIONS
McWane Science Center combines two institutions of the recent past, Discovery Place and Red Mountain Museum, to create a stimulating interactive science museum and a depository of natural artifacts ... More
GENERAL ATTRACTIONS
Birmingham Museum of Art, Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, Alabama Theatre for the Performing Arts, Bare Hands Gallery, Mercedes-Benz Visitors Center, Rickwood Field ... More
Birmingham represents the best of the New South in the way it addresses its past, while urging all to create a better future. Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, which is more than a museum, gives an unparalleled view of our Civil Rights heritage – it alone is worth a trip to Birmingham ... More
CULTURAL SITES
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Kelly Ingram Park, Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, Eddie Kendricks & The Temptations Memorial, Miles College and Onyx Agency Theatre lead the cultural scene ... More
RESTAURANTS and NIGHTCLUBS
Birmingham has a handful of soulful restaurants and cafes to get your meat loaf, BBQ ribs, pot roast, fried fish and delicious side like fried corn, turnip greens, mac & cheese ... More
SHOPS and GALLERIES
Chris McNair Studios, J’Georgette Balloons, Gifts & Flowers, Christian Way Book Solomon's Books & Church Supply Store ... More
HISTORIC SITES
Birmingham reads like a Who's Who of historic Civil Rights Movement sites, including A.G. Gaston Gardens, Kelly Ingram Park, Citizen’s Federal Savings Bank, Freedom Riders Debarkation Site, WENN Radio ... More
PLACES OF WORSHIP
Though Birmingham has many major churches, one towers above all the others for historical significance, 16th Street Baptist Church. Although founded in 1873, the current church was designed ... More
BLACK GENESIS
It may surprise you to learn that Birmingham never depended on slave labor. This atypical Southern beginning where the races never learned to mix was perhaps, the root of Birmingham’s intense racial problems ... More
BIRMINGHAM ELEVATES THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth was the most important figure in the Alabama Civil Rights Movement. In the 1950s, he was pastor of Bethel Baptist Church located some distance from downtown ... More
FOURTH AVENUE
A Black business district formed in Birmingham just after 1890. In a pattern characteristic of Southern cities found during Reconstruction, black businesses developed alongside those of whites near downtown ... More
ALABAMA JAZZ and SOUL MUSIC
Nat King Cole, Lionel Hampton, Erskine Hawkins, Clarence “Pinetop” Smith and Sonny Blount (Sun Ra) dotted the musical landscape as performing artists here. The many clubs on Fourth Avenue and Tuxedo Junction ... More
FAMILY ATTRACTIONS
McWane Science Center combines two institutions of the recent past, Discovery Place and Red Mountain Museum, to create a stimulating interactive science museum and a depository of natural artifacts ... More
GENERAL ATTRACTIONS
Birmingham Museum of Art, Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, Alabama Theatre for the Performing Arts, Bare Hands Gallery, Mercedes-Benz Visitors Center, Rickwood Field ... More
EMAIL ARTICLE
RESEARCH CREDITS:
Kalin Thomas
Thomas Dorsey
Sheila Umolu
BLACK CULTURAL TRAVEL MADE EASY