Nov. 16, 1992

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI) opened to the public Nov. 16, 1992. It can be described as an interpretive museum, gallery and research center located across from Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham‘s Civil Rights district. BCRI was created by the city of Birmingham. It opened on Nov, 14, 1992. In 2008, the institute reported 168,370 visitors, making it the ninth most popular admission-charging attraction in the state.

The institute’s mission reads: “Inspired by our civil rights past, our mission is to encourage communication and reconciliation of human rights issues worldwide and to serve as a depository for civil rights archives and documents.”

Since 2002, the BCRI has presented an annual “Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award” in honor of the civil rights icon.

The president and CEO of the BCRI is Andrea Taylor with Thomas Wilder is serving as interim chair.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute)

This life-sized statue of Rosa Parks seated on a Montgomery city bus is one of several dioramas related to Alabama’s civil rights history at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute)

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, 2011. (Chris Pruitt, Bhamwiki)

Interior of Civil Rights Institute, Milestone Gallery exhibition of the Sixteenth Street Church. (Photograph by Jet Lowe, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, 2010. (The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

For more on Alabama’s bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.