Birmingham ceremony helps kick off Alabama Bicentennial celebration

The city of Birmingham did its part to help kick-off a celebration of the state of Alabama’s bicentennial with an event in the Theatre District downtown on a windy, overcast late afternoon on Friday, Oct. 27.

The event – attended by about 200 people – featured the marching bands from UAB, Alabama State and Alabama A&M, a choir and featured vocalist from UAB, and several speakers at a stage set up in front of the Alabama Theatre on Third Avenue North.

And a star-studded concert was scheduled to take place on Friday night at The Lyric Theatre.

The statewide centennial celebration was announced in March 2017 and will last until the actual 200th anniversary of Alabama’s statehood on Dec. 14, 2019.

The theme of the state bicentennial celebration is “I’m Coming Home.”

“We want all of our friends and all of our relatives to come home again,” said keynote speaker Leah Rawls Atkins, a noted historian and author of numerous books, including The Valley and the Hills: An Illustrated History of Birmingham & Jefferson County.

Other speakers included Odessa Woolfolk, former president of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute; Birmingham City Council President Valerie Abbott; and Lee Sentell, director of the Alabama Department of Tourism and vice-chair of the Alabama Bicentennial Commission

Mayor William Bell was scheduled to speak but was delayed in getting to the event.

Dr. Henry Panion III, the chair of the Birmingham Bicentennial Committee and a noted musician and teacher, served as emcee.

The Rev. Dr. Christopher M. Hamlin, pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church, delivered the invocation.

Invoking the strife of the Civil Rights era, Hamlin noted that Alabama had often presented a negative image to the world but said that is now changing.

“We are now presenting a different image,” he said.

“We are celebrating new opportunities that are before us in Alabama,” Hamlin said.

Though Birmingham is not nearly as old as the state, the city is proud to take part in the bicentennial celebration, according to Abbott.

She also celebrated the many “wonderful amenities” that Birmingham can show off – The Alabama Theatre, The Lyric Theatre, Regions Field, Railroad Park and others.

“We are excited to have this celebration on the same weekend as the Magic City Classic,” she said, referring to the annual football game between Alabama A&M and Alabama State that was scheduled to take place at Legion Field on Saturday, Oct. 28.

Soprano Allison Sanders sang the state song, Alabama, with the UAB Concert Choir led by Dr. Brian Kittredge.

The performers who were scheduled to take part in the concert at The Lyric were The Temptations, Birmingham’s American Idols Bo Bice and Ruben Studdard, original Broadway Dreamgirls star Jennifer Holliday and a 50-piece orchestra made up of Alabama musicians conductor by Panion.

The statewide commemoration will honor the significant people, places and events that have helped shape Alabama’s history and will feature many educational programs, community initiatives, and artistic presentations, according to a new release from organizers.

For more about the bicentennial celebration, go to alabama200.org.