City Council hears about April 4 MLK commemoration at BCRI, Kelly Ingram Park
The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King on Wednesday, April 4.
The BCRI, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, will offer free admission to the facility from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and host some commemorative activities at nearby Kelly Ingram Park.
Andrea Taylor, the BCRI’s executive director, told the Birmingham City Council about the commemoration during the council’s regular meeting for Tuesday, April 3.
The other activities will include choirs and musical performances, a message from a Civil Rights Movement foot soldier who knew King and a community libation ceremony.
At 6:01 p.m. -- the time when the Civil Rights icon was felled by a assassin’s bullet in Memphis, Tenn. -- there will be moment of silence, according to Taylor.
Taylor said that in April 1968 she was a senior at Boston University, where King had earned his PhD in theology, making his death even more significant for her and some of her classmates.
“We were quite moved at that moment at 6:01 p.m. when we heard he was shot and slain in Memphis, Tenn.,” she said.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin called the assassination “a major moment in history -- not only for me, but people around the world.”
"Dr. King did so much for this country and this city,” Woodfin said.
Taylor also noted that King “was clearly a member of the Birmingham family.”
For more information about the activities on April 4, call the BCRI at 328-9696 or go to their Facebook page at @bcri.org
To read a 2017 Iron City Ink story about Taylor and her plans for the BCRI, click here.
OTHER COUNCIL BUSINESS
The council had a relatively light workload and disposed of all of the items as a part of its consent agenda, which passed by a vote of 7-0.
Using grant monies from ALDOT, members voted to appropriate $821,600 to the city’s department of Planning, Engineering and Permits to make improvements on 12th Street West from U.S. Highway 11 to Princeton Hospital.
The council also authorized the mayor’s office to enter into a preliminary engineering, right-of-way acquisition and construction agreement with ALDOT to resurface some streets in the city.
Woodfin gave members an update on the progress of Project Step Up, his administration’s current effort to tear down more abandoned and dilapidated houses and other structures in the city.
The city removed 38 more dilapidated structures between March 6 and April 2, according to Woodfin.
“Before we talk about neighborhood revitalization, we have to talk about neighborhood stabilization first,” Woodfin said.