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Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth was agitating for racial justice in Birmingham for years before Dr. King came to town, and the church where he preached was a focal point of action in the period immediately previous to the Birmingham campaign: it was the designated point of contact in Alabama for the Freedom Riders, who in 1961 successfully forced the desegregation of interstate buses in the South, and was firebombed by white supremacists no fewer than three times, including on Christmas Day 1956.
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The museum presents the athletic history of the state of Alabama, and is one of the biggest in the U.S with over 6,000 pieces of sports memorabilia.
Visual art from all over the world, from ancient Egyptian to contemporary American. In particular, its Asian section is considered the best in the southeastern U.S.
The end of August sees the Historic 4th Avenue Business District, once the most prominent African-American commercial center in the city, swing to the strains of jazz music courtesy of a bevy of acts both locally-based and nationally-known. Bring the youngsters down to the Kids' Zone, learn to swing dance, or tuck in to a meal from one of Birmingham's best food trucks (they don't call it the "Taste" of 4th Avenue for nothing!)
The Sloss Iron and Steel Company was one of the first industrial concerns to set up shop in the then-brand new city of Birmingham. It eventually grew into one of the largest manufacturers of pig iron in the world (it should be said, largely on the backs of African-American convict labor — a form of legal slavery common in the Jim Crow era whereby local blacks would be rounded up and arrested on trumped-up charges and then leased out to private companies like Sloss for use as unpaid workers). Abandoned in 1972, their Furnace No. 1 was deemed an eyesore and slated for demolition, but saved at the last minute by historic preservationists and opened to the public as... well, it's hard to say exactly what this place is nowadays. Strolling around the old ovens, smokestacks, conveyor belts, and other abandoned equipment, you almost get the feeling of being in a giant art exhibit (the modern-day metal sculptures peppered around the site certainly don't do anything to discourage that sentiment). There is also a visitors' center with museum-style exhibits relating Birmingham's industrial history, and a full calendar of concerts and events at this one-of-a-kind venue.
Founded in 1978, the museum part opened in 1993 with exhibits from instruments to dresses on display. Of course you also get to experience the music itself in jazz performances, workshops and courses.
With a Civil Rights pedigree that goes even further back than Bethel Baptist, Old Sardis Baptist Church started down the road of civic, social, and economic activism in 1947, when Rev. Robert Alford ascended to the pulpit — and it was here in 1956 that Rev. Alford along with Rev. Shuttlesworth and various other local ministers founded the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, the local organization that worked side by side with Dr. King and the SCLC during the events of 1963.