In 1963 the world turned its attention to Birmingham, Alabama as peaceful civil rights demonstrators faced police dogs and fire hoses in a battle for freedom and equality. “It was the year of Birmingham,” Martin Luther King, Jr. said at the time, and Birmingham is now recognized around the world as a symbol of both racial intolerance and racial reconciliation.

Spring 2003 marks the 40^th anniversary of the Birmingham civil rights demonstrations and the end of four decades in which historians, journalists, artists, and ordinary citizens have struggled to understand Birmingham’s place in history.

To commemorate this anniversary and to promote new ways of studying and understanding this legacy the Birmingham Public Library and Samford University are sponsoring Before You Travel On, a thirteen-week series of scholarly lectures, documentary films and reminiscences by movement participants.

All events are free and open to the public.

Schedule Of Events  List Of Speakers

For more information contact James L. Baggett (205-226-3631 or JBAGGETT@BHAM.LIB.AL.US) or Jonathan Bass (205-726-4038 or SJBASS@SAMFORD.EDU).