2013 NEH Workshop for Teachers:

"But for Birmingham…" the Rise of the Magic City and the Evolution of the Civil Rights Movement"

"In 1963, Birmingham "became the germ center of a human rights struggle that would claim international attention and forever change the landscape of both social and political demographics of the entire South. All pundits, both informed and uninformed, are in agreement that the Birmingham movement is the chief watershed of the nonviolent movement in the United States."

Dear Colleague:

2013 is the year of Jubilee marking events in the struggle for civil rights that took place in Birmingham, the "Magic City," in 1963.  Those events forever changed the United States of America. It is with a great sense of pride that I invite you to participate in But for Birmingham…The Rise of the Magic City and the Evolution of the Civil Rights Movement, an NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop for Schoolteachers.  Workshops will be offered the weeks of July 7-13 and July 21-27, 2013.

But for Birmingham… The Rise of the Magic City and the Evolution of the Civil Rights Movement" will provide teachers with a scholarly framework for research, reflection, and retelling of this important history.  This unique NEH workshop will expand the familiar narrative for teaching the civil rights movement by providing teachers with an opportunity to examine the historical, socio-cultural and legal context that led to the nation-changing events of 1963.  As NEH summer scholars, educators will examine Birmingham's rise as the "Magic City" of the newly industrialized South as its black citizens were subjected to forced labor, restrictive segregation laws, political disenfranchisement and brutal physical repression.  The role of labor organizers, churches, charismatic leaders, and ordinary citizens in shaping the structure and strategy of the civil rights movement will be explored through sites and first person narratives.   As a part of their experience, participants will travel to historic landmarks in the city of Birmingham, examine archival resources that include primary and secondary sources, view historic film footage, and listen to personal testimony from history makers.  Participants will examine the meteoric rise of Birmingham from the place where two railroad lines intersected to a place that forever changed the social, cultural, political, economic, and judicial landscape of a region and the United States of America, and that inspired freedom struggles around the world.

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