The National Park Service (NPS) wants to hear your vision and ideas as it moves forward on developing plans for the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument.

July 10 is the final day to submit comments as Park Service officials delve deeper into developing a General Management Plan (GMP) for the monument, which encompasses some of the most important and iconic structures tied to the struggle for equal rights in Birmingham, and which led to landmark federal civil rights legislation in the 1960s. The monument was created in 2017 in one of the last acts by outgoing President Barack Obama.

One of the central structures within the monument footprint is the long-shuttered A.G. Gaston Motel, where civil rights leaders, including the Revs. Martin Luther King Jr., Fred Shuttlesworth and Ralph Abernathy, held strategic meetings around efforts to dismantle segregation in the city. Three people were injured when a bomb exploded at the hotel on May 11, 1963, in an attempt to assassinate King. He was not at the hotel at the time. Also bombed that day was the home of King’s brother, the Rev. A.D. King, in Birmingham’s Ensley neighborhood.

Built by Black businessman and millionaire A.G. Gaston, the motel was considered among the finest public lodgings and dining establishments for Blacks in the city. The structure is undergoing a dramatic restoration as part of the monument plans, but much of the details are still to be determined, with public input.

Martin Luther King Jr. outside the A.G. Gaston Motel in 1963. (Birmingham Police Department Surveillance Files, 1947-1980. Collection 1125, Archives Department, Birmingham Public Library)

The A.G. Gaston Hotel is one of the key properties in the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument. (Michael Sznajderman / Alabama NewsCenter)

The A.G. Gaston Hotel in 1954. (Jefferson County Board of Equalization Records, from Birmingham Public Library)

A.G. Gaston and R.A. Hester in the motel’s courtyard. (City of Birmingham Archives)

“General Management Plans set the long-term direction of a national park while defining the conditions necessary to optimally preserve resources, manage operations and provide for visitor use and enjoyment,” said Kristofer Butcher, superintendent of the monument. “Civic and stakeholder involvement in this process is vital and we are eager to hear from the public, with whom NPS shares its stewardship mission.”

NPS officials recently held two virtual public meetings to gather input and feedback about the initial plans. They are urging more people to weigh in with ideas for the monument, the restoration of the Gaston Motel and issues such as parking, interpretive exhibits, location of a visitor center, transportation among sites, and staffing.

Among other downtown sites that are part of the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument are the 16^th Street Baptist Church, St. Paul United Methodist Church, Kelly Ingram Park, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and the shuttered “Colored Masonic Temple” on Fourth Avenue North, which is scheduled to be renovated. Also integral to the monument is Bethel Baptist Church in the Collegeville neighborhood, where Shuttlesworth was pastor.

The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham is part of the designated Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument. (contributed)

Most of the landmarks included in the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument are in a four-square-block district around Kellly Ingram Park. (Jet Lowe / Library of Congress)

St. Paul United Methodist Church is part of the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument. (Bernard Troncale / Alabama NewsCenter)

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

Sign on the site of the Historic Bethel Baptist Church. (Frank Couch / The Birmingham Times)

Interested individuals can learn more about the initial plans and provide comments at a special NPS website. More details about the monument are available here. In addition to seeking answers to specific questions, the NPS invites people to also share their broad ideas about the project and how it should be developed.

The National Park Service will use the feedback to develop more specific plans that are expected to be ready for another round of public comments late this year or early next year. Park Service officials hope to have portions of the monument up and running before The World Games 2022 come to the city next summer.

In the meantime, NPS officials are working on ideas for a temporary exhibit that would allow visitors to enter parts of the Gaston Motel, view the restoration work so far, and learn more about the motel’s role in the city’s civil rights history. The temporary exhibit is slated to open later this summer.

The motel’s restoration is a joint project of the National Park Service and the city of Birmingham, which share ownership of the structure. Workers recently completed a first-phase, exterior restoration of the building, including installing historically accurate windows, repainting the structure using the same exterior colors that adorned the building during the famous Children’s Crusade in 1963, and reinstalling a replica of the hotel sign (using modern LED lighting versus neon). How the interior of the hotel is restored, and how the history that took place at the site is presented, are among some of the many decisions NPS officials will make with guidance from the public.

Those who would rather email comments to the Park Service instead of using the preferred website can click here. NPS officials will also accept comments by mail. Send comments to: Superintendent Kristofer Butcher, Attn: Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument General Management Plan, National Park Service, 1914 Fourth Ave. N., Suite 440, Birmingham, AL 35203.

Learn more about the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument at www.nps.gov/bicr/.