Taking History to the Streets: Raising Historic Awareness/Harnessing Cultural Tourism
by Renee Kemp-Rotan
In 2008, Renee Kemp-Rotan, the Mayor’s Director of Capital Projects, an urban designer, was given the task of inventing a civil rights heritage trail for the once segregated city of Birmingham, Alabama. Not an easy task when one considers that since 1963 many still consider Birmingham to be a “stigma city”. Some are embarrassed by Birmingham’s gross history of violence but the foot soldiers (led by Reverends Shuttlesworth, King and Abernathy) who won the great American battle for civil rights still bask in the victory of their non-violent actions that brought the walls of segregation in the South-to come crumbly down.
Early on Kemp-Rotan worked with a major advisory group of historians from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute to develop signage prototypes with actual life-sized photographs of the Movement. She then decided to plunk them down on the actual streets where the photographs were originally taken, in 1963. Some thought the 80-inch tall signs to be “too big”. However, for Kemp-Rotan, this size made it plain and simple, ”In this way history cannot be denied. We used the actual photos to help interpret what actually happened here.” Through her connections at City Hall, she was able to get the Mayor and Council to support this effort both financially and politically. The Mayor himself went to the Birmingham News with life-sized photos to ‘ask’ for access to their “unseen” photo archives. At one time, the Birmingham News literally hid the negatives of the Birmingham Movement in the basement of their building.
Now, years later, these photos have seen the light of day. Kemp-Rotan also saw this as a teaching opportunity. Thus, the signs have photos, dates, quotes and lesson assignments as they wiggle throughout downtown Birmingham. Soon the signs will stretch over several historic districts throughout the city.
Now in 2010, the Mayor of Birmingham and the Birmingham City Council proudly present The Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail Program to the world. Over the next several weeks and months, downtown will come alive with the history of The Birmingham Civil Rights Movement as told through sites, paths and routes designated by the National Register of Historic Places. Marjorie White of the Birmingham Historical Society years ago had the Civil Rights March Routes and District designated by the National Register. Her work serves at the foundation for the Trail Program.
Renee also hired journalist Vickii Howell former reporter with the Birmingham News and Big Communications (John Montgomery, Ford Wiles and Satina Richardson) to work with her and the City Planning/GIS Departments to put finishing touches on the signs and Trail. The Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail Program, when complete, will carry you through more than 60 sites of national merit, downtown, so designated by the National Register of Historic Places. Soon you will see, read and know the unforgettable role that Birmingham played in the American Civil Rights Movement.
“Through the work of the Birmingham Historical Society, The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, The Birmingham Convention and Tourism Bureau; The Birmingham Public Library, the Birmingham Alabama Foot Soldiers, the Mayor’s Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail Advisory Committee, The Birmingham News, Corbis Images, The Associated Press and many certified participants and historians of the movement– we have taken this national history and woven it into an exceptional community experience throughout the Civil Rights District, downtown”.
The signs were designed to engage the public visually and spiritually. Each sign on the Trail will have a number; a color code; a cut-out; a photograph with date; text; a memorable quote and a lesson assignment for further research to be downloaded on i-pods and cellular phones.
Here on the streets of Birmingham, we will fully commemorate the contributions of the Reverend Fred S. Shuttlesworth, the African-American Church, the unsung foot soldiers, and the thousands of children who were jailed fighting for voting rights, desegregated school, libraries, parks and jobs as part of The Birmingham Campaign– that highly strategized, ‘non-violent’, African-American civil rights people’s movement that captured the attention of our nation during the 1960’s.
This Trail is organized around two actual African-American protest routes The March to Government Route A1-A15 will outline the actual footsteps that black demonstrators took to protest unfair Jim Crow Laws at City Hall and the County Government and the Federal Courthouse, during the 1950’s and 1960’s.; and The March to Retail Route B1-B20, that will trace the steps that blacks used to boycott lunch counters and demonstrate against segregated business and stores in downtown Birmingham.
Here, we begin with The March to Government A1- A3 in Kelly Ingram Park, soon to become A1-A15. This portion of the trail will go along 6th Avenue from 16th street to 20th street, from Kelly Ingram Park to Woodrow Wilson Park (now called Linn Park) and on to Government Square where the seats of power are located –Birmingham City Hall and the Jefferson County Courthouse. Additionally, City Hall was the headquarters of Birmingham’s Public Safety Commissioner, Eugene “Bull” Connor, the arch-segregationist who for 26 years held power over the city’s police force that often intimidated and brutalized Black citizens, especially those who dared challenge city segregation laws.
The Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail, Downtown, is the first of five city-wide Civil Rights Heritage Trail areas to come. These future areas will include the Bethel Church Area in Collegeville with special commemoration of the life works of Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth; the Birmingham Jail Area focuses on Dr. Martin L. King Jr’s. Letter from Birmingham Jail; the Dynamite Hill Area and the Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport.
This project is one of three major public interventions developed by Kemp-Rotan since she joined the Mayor’s staff in 2004. The other projects she spearheaded include the new $20 million Railroad Reservation Park and the $55 million New Olympic Village for Children at Fair Park-The old Alabama State Fair Ground.
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Renee Kemp-Rotan previously worked the Olympics in Atlanta as Director of Economic Development and as Chief of Urban Design and Urban Development for several Mayors in Atlanta. She is the first black woman to graduate from Syracuse with a B. Arch. She also has a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning from Columbia University and RIBA II from the Architectural Association in London. She is co-founder of BDDN with Atim Annette Oton.
Black Design News Network (BDNN) is a news bureau, an online publication, digital library and 'workspace' hub for designers. African Diaspora, BDNN focuses on creating awareness of black design, distributing news and information about Architecture, Interior Design, Product Industrial Design, Fashion/Textile Design, Communication and Graphic Design. BDNN is the 411 of the Black Design Diaspora. 
Renee,
I am overwhelmed EVERYTIME I pass by one of these signs. I have been driving in the downtown Birmingham area for years. I immediately notice these signs. They are striking. They are informative. They are innovative. They are historical. They heal.