Bending the Arc | The Vote is a film about the hard-fought battle to expand voting rights to all people in Alabama in the 1960s. The film will premiere on Tuesday, October 20, at 6:30 PM CST via YouTube. Register for the free virtual event on Facebook or .
Feature Stories
Bloody Tuesday
Giggie looks back at that fateful incident, which he characterizes as perhaps one of the top transformative moments of the Black civil rights movement involving citizen participation.
Buried Truth
Birmingham native and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Howell Raines reveals Alabamians who fought for the Union Army.
Treasures of Titusville
Until the people of Titusville worked for change, Birmingham did not own a piece of land on which they allowed Black people to do recreation.
Hidden History Revealed
Ben Raines located the Clotilda, the last sailing vessel in history to transport Africans into the United States for enslavement.
Family Ties
Herman-Giddens comes to terms with her ancestors’ pre-Civil War enslavement of Black men, women, and children, through genealogical research.
A Cruel Business
Joshua Rothman came away from research in conflict with a popular theory: that slave traders did not think of enslaved people as people.
An Unsettling Silence
When John Archibald was born in a Birmingham suburb in April 1963, the civil rights movement in Birmingham was reaching its peak.
Doing Justice
A new biography by the author Randall Jimerson examines the life and civil rights ministry of the Rev. Robert Hughes.
Behind the Magic Curtain
Author TK Thorne takes a behind-the-scenes look at the white men and women who cheered on and aided the civil rights movement in Birmingham.
The Fifth Girl: Sarah Collins Rudolph
The surviving little Black girl from the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham carries the effects of that horrific blast.
The Freedom Riders
Black and white Freedom Riders boarded buses, trains, and planes to protest racial segregation on public transportation in the South.
Joseph Ellwanger: Witness to the Movement, Then and Now
Reverend Joseph Ellwanger looks back at when he joined the civil rights movement, and he discusses the continuing struggle today.
Open Secret
The film Open Secret exposes the “open secret” of making white supremacy a key element of the Constitution of the State of Alabama.
Kids in Birmingham 1963: Breaking Barriers and Sharing Stories
Current and former residents of the Magic City share their coming-of age-stories from the turbulent civil rights era.
The Bus Boycott: Keeping a Seat, Taking a Stand
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began in December 1955, ended racial segregation in Alabama and throughout the South.
Essays
Worlds Apart: Growing Up in a Bubble in Birmingham
An essay about Pam Powell’s experiences growing up in segregated Birmingham, Alabama, during the 1950s and 1960s.
Silent Witnesses: Collective Complicity to Racism, Then and Now
An essay about Gail Short and her family’s experiences regarding racism, from slavery to present day.
No “Sir,” No “Ma’am”: The Journey of a Yankee from the South
An essay about David Brower’s experiences of being born in the South and raised in Chicago before returning to the South as an adult.