St. Paul United Methodist Church (UMC), one of Birmingham’s oldest African American churches, has received a $100,000 Inclusive Storytelling grant from the National Park Foundation (NPF). St. Paul UMC is one of three churches affiliated with the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument. The grant will be used to preserve stories and design, fabricate and install exhibits. The grant will also fund oral history collections and research for the development of the exhibits in the church’s fellowship hall, which is the same space where movement leaders prepared “foot soldiers” for nonviolent civil disobedience.

Pastor Richard Stryker shared that “St. Paul UMC is excited to be the recipient of the NPF grant on Inclusive Storytelling. We are very grateful and extend our thanks. The grant will allow the church and the community to discover and be inspired by the past, encouraging new generations to work for a better world based on the principles of dignity and respect.”

The historic St. Paul UMC received a National Park Foundation Inclusive Storytelling grant to conduct oral histories and develop exhibits. (Alabama Tourism Department / Chris Granger)

The Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium has funded a research fellow, whose work will contribute to the creation of temporary exhibits, a digital archive of oral histories and a digital exhibit. The Inclusive Storytelling project scope was designed in collaboration with Majella Chube Hamilton, executive director of The Ballard House Project, a Birmingham nonprofit dedicated to restoring and reprogramming African American historic places. Park rangers at the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument will continue to contribute project management support.

“For more than a century, national parks have commemorated people, places and events, which have given shape to the unfolding American story we all share,” said Will Shafroth, president and CEO of the National Park Foundation. “Through the Inclusive Storytelling grants, the Foundation and National Park Service hope to ensure all visitors see themselves in our national parks and feel a sense of belonging when they experience their wonder.”

The historic St. Paul UMC received a National Park Foundation Inclusive Storytelling grant to conduct oral histories and develop exhibits. (Alabama Tourism Department / Chris Granger)

The NPF Inclusive Storytelling program is a new philanthropic investment to support the National Park Service in updating interpretive programs, websites and visitor centers as well as develop new interactive offerings, including exhibits, podcasts and educational programs at parks across the country.

In 2017, President Barack Obama signed into law the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument as a collaboration with local organizations to commemorate the nonviolent struggle to dismantle racial segregation and discrimination in America. Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, a local Birmingham Baptist preacher and civil rights activist, led the direct-action Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR), which conducted bus boycotts, sit-ins, and other forms of protest challenging white supremacy during the 1950s and 1960s. Shuttlesworth and the ACMHR invited Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to co-lead a civil rights campaign in Birmingham in the spring of 1963. Images of snarling police dogs lunging at non-violent Black protesters and of school children being sprayed with water from high-pressure fire hoses appeared in print and television news around the world. The episode sickened many, including President John F. Kennedy, who responded to global outrage by elevating civil rights to a pressing national issue. These efforts paved the way for passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing public segregation nationwide.

Within the Birmingham National Monument area are several prominent historic places, including the A.G. Gaston Motel, 16th Street Baptist Church, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Bethel Baptist Church, St. Paul UMC, Kelly Ingram Park and the Masonic Temple Building. Read more at nps.gov/bicr and on Facebook.

Throughout 2023 in “Bending Toward Justice,” Alabama News Center is featuring stories about the events of 1963 in Birmingham and their impact on human rights.