IN-PERSON Barcelona. Section A

Abstract

This presentation will focus on Birmingham, Alabama once the most racially segregated and oppressive city in the country. After the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s ended legal segregation, however, the City had to remake itself. Thus, for the last 60 years it has transformed from a dangerous industrial city into a university-centered metropolis dependent on dollars, professors, and students from around the world to sustain itself. It hasn’t been easy, but citizen sentiments, urban planning, federal monies, and historic preservation are creating a place where urban living and cultural diversity can thrive. The University of Alabama at Birmingham – a world leader in medicine and technology — now guides political sympathies and urban development. Urban entertainment, once shunned as socially subversive now promotes street parties, Gay Pride Parades, and museums full of difficult histories to tell. Indeed, Birmingham has reframed itself from culturally boring and suffocating into cutting edge driven by technological innovation, critics-choice restaurants, and decades of African American leadership. But Birmingham struggles to overcome economic and spatial segregation. It struggles with the legacy of racism seen in critically underfunded schools and failure to provide functioning neighborhoods. And it moves too hesitantly to close the environmental health divide between poor areas and rich ones. This presentation will unpack Birmingham’s legacy of transformation. Once held hostage by its choices and impenetrable spaces Birmingham now owns its history and looks ahead to the future.