Birmingham's Civil Rights District and Jazz Hall of Fame a Must See

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Birmingham's Civil Rights District and Jazz Hall of Fame a Must See

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Kelly Ingram Park
Kelly Ingram Park served as a gathering place for civil rights demonstrations in the early 1960s, including the ones in which police dogs and fire hoses were turned on marchers. Those attacks haunted Birmingham in the decades that followed, but their memories were instrumental in overturning legal segregation. Today, dramatic sculptures all around the park vividly depict the events of the 1960s.

A Tribute to Alabama Entertainers
The nearby Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame and Carver Theater are also in the district. The museum honors great jazz artists with ties to the state of Alabama. Exhibits convey the accomplishments of the likes of Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton and Erskine Hawkins and the music that made them famous.

The new Eddie Kendrick Memorial Park, at the corner of Fourth Avenue and 18th Street in the district, honors Birmingham native and Temptations lead singer Eddie Kendrick, who traveled the world but never forgot his Alabama roots.

Sculpted by Birmingham artist Ronald Scott McDowell, the Kendrick statue captures the magic moves of his Motown music. Inlaid in a granite backdrop behind Kendrick, the four other Temptations energize the work with their fine-tuned choreography.

Born in Birmingham in 1937, Kendrick and the Temptations hit the top of the music charts in 1964 with "The Way You Do the Things You Do," the first of 37 career top ten hits. Kendrick died of lung cancer in a Birmingham hospital in 1992.

Also in the designated area is the Fourth Avenue Business District. This cluster of black-owned businesses was the core of African-American social and commercial life in the early 1900s. Many minority-owned businesses still operate in the district, serving a steady stream of customers of all races.

Greater Birmingham Convention

and Visitors Bureau
2200 Ninth Avenue North
Birmingham, AL 35203-1100
(800) 458-8085
(205) 458-8000

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
520 16th Street North
Birmingham, AL 35203
(205) 328-9696

Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame
1631 4th Avenue North
Birmingham, AL 35203
(205) 254-2731

Photos Courtesy: Birmingham Civil Rights Institute - photo by Jeffrey Greenberg, Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau;Kelly Ingram Park - photo by Jeffrey Greenberg, Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau; Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame interior - Greater Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau