Pushing civil rights' potential

Andrea Taylor, CEO and president of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, didn’t grow up in Birmingham, but the Massachusetts native has vivid memories of the momentous events of the civil rights movement that occurred here in the 1960s.

“I was certainly inspired by what was happening here, by the efforts of young people around the county to effect change,” she said.

So in September 2015, Taylor happily accepted the challenge of leading the BCRI, set to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2017.

“To have a part in imagining what BCRI 5.0 might look like and what the next 25 years of this institution might be, what it needed to be, where we are as a society and a culture, and to think about how one might shape that and develop the momentum and the support to carry that forward, that is an exciting challenge,” she said.

After all, the BCRI has attracted two million visitors — from scholars to schoolkids — to view its exhibits.

And it’s “the absolute best place to gauge a comprehensive understanding of the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s,” BCRI board member Martha Emmett said.

But Taylor received what she calls an “added bonus” in March 2016 when U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, introduced a bill to make the six-block Civil Rights District — including the BCRI, 16th Street Baptist Church and Kelly Ingram Park — a national park.

Taylor said the idea of a federal designation is “very exciting” and holds the promise of permanently preserving the district, which she called “an iconic place of inspiration in the human and civil rights movement around the nation and around the world.”

And though Sewell’s bill stalled in committee, President Barack Obama proclaimed the district a national monument just days before leaving the White House, giving it virtually the same status.

Local leaders, including Mayor William Bell, said the designation will open up new sources of funding to help preserve key sites, including the long-decaying Gaston Motel; reinvigorate the Fourth Avenue Business District; and help draw more tourist dollars.

And the designation will benefit the BCRI as it enters its second quarter-century, according to Taylor.

A federal designation will help draw more visitors and more donor support, according to Taylor, giving the BCRI “an opportunity to take its potential and what has already been achieved and take it to the next level.”

The BCRI is already a success, according to David Fleming, CEO of REV Birmingham. “It draws thousands of people to our city and downtown, communicates an important part of both Birmingham and the nation’s history, and it’s an institution that works for a better future for all people,” he said.

But Taylor, who succeeded longtime BCRI president Lawrence Pijeaux, had ambitious plans to reboot the institute even before word came of a possible federal designation. Taylor, formerly director of citizenship and public affairs for Microsoft and a veteran of large nonprofits, seeks to spruce up the exhibits, boost membership and increase average annual visitors from 150,000 to 250,000.

With the designation, the BCRI has “the opportunity to grow in ways and in a time frame that might be more accelerated than we could have imagined,” she said.

The BCRI will be part of a parks system with its own marketing that draws about 300 million visitors annually at about 400 sites, according to Taylor.

“We’ve been told that … we can expect a doubling or tripling of visitors over, say, a three- to five-year period,” Taylor said. “We can imagine expanding membership, sales in the gift shop and concessions, if we develop them.”

The designation raises the organization’s profile, Emmett added. It will “increase both national and global awareness of the institute, and renew interest among our local citizens,” she said. 

“I think we’ve only scratched the surface of what the BCRI can mean for the Magic City,” Fleming said.

But there are challenges in accommodating more visitors, especially those accustomed to national parks, according to Taylor. “People will expect the best.”

Taylor said the BCRI — already affiliated with the Smithsonian Museum System — will look to improve staffing, programming and the visitor experience. “We’re set up as a self-guided museum,” she said. “Maybe we want to do more with tours and more with technology in our exhibits.”

Since coming to the BCRI, Taylor has also expressed a desire to attract a more diverse array of visitors, including young people.

Emmett, a University of Alabama graduate and director of strategic programs for BancorpSouth Insurance Services, stressed the importance of engaging young people, like those at local colleges, in discussing human rights and in taking advantage of their “direct access” to the BCRI’s resources, including programming and events that stimulate “productive dialogue regarding civil and human rights,” she said. 

“This access will provide for them a strong bedrock of history necessary to work towards solutions to injustice and inequality in our society,” said Emmett, whose late father was a civil rights activist in Mobile. 

Board member Isaac Cooper, a Samford graduate and managing partner of IMC Financial, as well as a millennial, is excited about Taylor’s plans for a greater use of technology in the exhibits.

“One of the great questions for millennials is how do you make history relevant? How do you make it fun?” he said.

The improvements will aid visitors in processing the history of “something that was monumental, but had a lot of pain associated with it,” he said.

However, BCRI improvements will take money, according to Taylor. 

“We will need more members,” she said. “We will need more donors.”

The federal designation should allow the BCRI to reach national donors, including those who tend to support national parks, according to Taylor. But the institute will still need its local and state support. “It’s not a zero-sum game,” Taylor said, noting this local support will pay off in increased economic activity, including tourism.

The Birmingham City Council recently voted to increase Birmingham’s annual contribution to the BCRI by $225,000 to $1 million. “This will help us make this transition to what we hope will be a national park and address some of the maintenance issues in a 60,000-square-foot building that is almost 25 years old,” Taylor said.

The city, which owns the building, is also doing some other physical upgrades, according to Taylor, who explained the BCRI board operates the facility and presents programming.

The BCRI also receives funding from the Alabama Tourism Department, from philanthropy and its own earned income. 

In any case, given human nature and the conflict in the world, it is important for the BCRI to continue its mission, according to Taylor. “We make progress all the while, but it’s still just beyond our grasp,” she said.

The BCRI is “going to continue to educate and inform and promote and encourage human and civil rights, and we want to be here to continue to do that for many generations to come, and the national park is an important legacy opportunity to do that,” she said.