BIRMINGHAM CIVIL RIGHTS INSTITUTE &
16TH STREET BAPTIST CHURCH

Phi Eta Sigma is proud to announce that as a pre-conference event we will be giving convention participants the opportunity to visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and 16th Street Baptist Church on Friday morning before the Convention officially kicks off.  Both the Civil Rights Institute and 16th Street Baptist Church are on The Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail.

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The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BRCI) is a modern museum that serves as a connection to the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, a collection of sites important to the Civil Rights Movement. Visitors can experience a rendition of a segregated city in the 1950s, as well as examine a replica of a Freedom Riders bus and even the actual jail cell door from behind which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. penned his famous “Letter From Birmingham Jail.”

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16th Street Baptist Church is still an active church in the Birmingham community today, in spite of its tragic past. During the Civil Rights Movement, the church served as a meeting place for the organization of marches and other civil rights activities. In 1963, the church was bombed, resulting in the deaths of four young black girls: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Denise McNair, and Carole Robertson. This event galvanized the federal government to take action on civil rights legislation. 

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Read more about each of these places by visiting their websites linked below.