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MMMMMMMMMM	MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM BIRMINGHAM CIVIL RIGHTS INSTITUTE Open to the public in 1992, the mission of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is to promote civil and human rights worldwide through education. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute documents the struggle of African-American citizens in Birmingham to become full participants in the city's government and business community.  Because this struggle was a social movement that caught the attention of the world, Birmingham is an appropriate place for an institution that serves the world as a center for study and reflection. It is both a museum and an institute.  As it provides the world a forum for reflection, study and dialogue on matters related to civil and human rights, it exists as a "living institution" of national and international scope. Click here for more information
	McWANE SCIENCE CENTER McWane Science Center is the cornerstone of Birmingham, Alabama's downtown revitalization.  This state-of-the-art museum is housed in an historic and refurbished department store building.  Established in 1998, the McWane Science Center is a stimulating interactive science museum designed to inspire a life-long love of learning.  It has welcomed millions of visitors and explorers of all ages, who flock year-round to see, to hear, to touch, and to experience the wonder of science in one of the South’s most unique venues. Their mission is to change lives through science and wonder. Their strategy is to combine their unique assets to create unique experiences that parents and  teachers value and that kids love. Click here for more information
	FIVE POINTS SOUTH Five Points South is located in the historic Southside Highland Neighborhood of Birmingham where 20th Street meets 11th Avenue and joins with Highland Avenue. Originally a major horsecar and streetcar crossing, it now is a lively bohemian entertainment center featuring a vibrant variety of bars, night clubs, restaurants, sidewalk cafes, coffee shops, music stores, gift shops, galleries, and more. You’ll find an alternative gift and card store, a health food store, two real record stores, and a community theatre. The center includes high rise apartment houses, professional office buildings, and a hotel. It features venues with Spanish Revival and Art Deco facades. Also included are spectacular Baptist and Methodist churches and two Jewish synagogues. The intersection is defined by a fanciful fountain including a sculpture by internationally known Birmingham born artist, Frank Fleming. Five Points South is the home of an Alabama chef named Frank Stitt whose Highland’s Bar & Grill was voted by Gourmet magazine as the country’s fifth best restaurant. Click here for more information
	VULCAN PARK & MUSEUM Vulcan Park and Museum is home to the world's largest cast iron statue and features spectacular panoramic views from the summit of Red Mountain of downtown Birmingham. Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and forge, was originally built in 1904 and has stood as a symbol of Birmingham for over 100 years. The history of this 56 foot tall statue of a pagan god is deeply tied to Birmingham's roots and its growth. Visitors to the park and museum are treated to an entertaining and educational tour that focuses on the history, industry, and geology of Birmingham. Click here for more information
	BIRMINGHAM ZOO The Birmingham Zoo is Alabama's most popular attraction, drawing more than 500,000 visitors annually. Approximately 750 animals of 250 species call the 122-acre Birmingham Zoo home, including lions, tigers, hippopotamuses, giraffes, zebras, rhinoceroses, camels, kangaroos, llamas, alligators, sea lions, and primates. It has endangered species from six continents. It features 80 species of birds, 80 reptiles, and 60 mammals. More than 50 years old, the Birmingham Zoo has hosted traveling exhibits of bats, koalas and black-footed penguins, added permanent exhibits of a komodo dragon and an interactive lorikeet aviary. The zoo also has an exhibit dedicated to children and devoted to urban, rural and wild animals and environs of Alabama. Click here for more information
	ALABAMA JAZZ HALL OF FAME The Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame was founded in 1978, and opened a museum in 1993 to foster, encourage, educate, and cultivate a general appreciation of jazz music as a legitimate, original and distinctive art form indigenous to America. Located in the historic Carver Theatre, it offers visitors a chance to immerse themselves in the state's rich jazz heritage. The museum contains more than 2,200-square-feet of exhibits. The Carver Theatre, which was erected in 1935, was one of several theatres in the Fourth Avenue area offering first-run movies to African-Americans. The City of Birmingham renovated the Carver Theatre as a performing arts theatre and the new home of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame and museum in 1993. The Carver Theatre operates as a non-profit, multi-use community theatre, hosting films and concerts throughout the year. Click here for more information
	HISTORIC FOURTH AVENUE BUSINESS DISTRICT The Fourth Avenue neighborhood was originally developed as the city's black business district in the early part of the 1900s. Forced out by Jim Crow segregation and white-owned stores that did not welcome them as customers, African-American businessmen established their own retail, social and cultural center here. Black-owned banks, grocery stores, mortuaries, barber shops, movie theaters and nightclubs flourished along the corridor through the 1960s, including businesses such as A.G. Gaston Gardens, Alabama Penny Savings Bank, Citizen’s Federal Savings Bank, and Booker T Washington Insurance. Some continue to this day. Today it is called the Civil Rights District, a six block tribute to the civil rights era that attracts many visitors to such venues as the Carver Theatre, Civil Rights Institute, Kelly Ingram Park, Freedom Riders Debarkation Site, and Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Click here for more information
	KELLY INGRAM PARK Distinguished as "A Place of Revolution and Reconciliation," historic Kelly Ingram Park serves as a threshold to the Civil Rights District. During the Civil Rights Movement, this public park became the focal point of a grassroots resistance to the inhumanities of racism and discrimination by law and by custom. Events which took place in Kelly Ingram Park vividly portrayed the realities of police dogs and fire hoses turned on marchers who gathered for civil rights demonstrations in the 1960's. These images, which shocked the country and the world, proved to be instrumental in overturning legal segregation in the nation. Sculptures commissioned for the park depict attacks on demonstrators, children jailed for their role in the protests, and a tribute to the clergy's contributions to the movement. In sharp contrast to scenes from the 60's, all paths on Freedom Walk converge on its center, a peaceful and meditative life spring of hope. Click here for more information
	L I N K S City of Birmingham Birmingham on Wikipedia Birmingham Convention & Visitors Bureau Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Birmingham Active Culture Birmingham City Guide Hello Birmingham Birmingham on PoDunk Birmingham Answers

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