By David Sher
Birmingham’s future depends on doing something unique—a real competitive advantage.
We have that competitive advantage, but when it’s promoted, it becomes surprisingly polarizing.
Some residents see it as an obvious opportunity. Others cringe, wishing we could quietly move on.
That debate is about whether Birmingham should fully embrace its Civil Rights history.
And this past week, Birmingham’s long ambivalence about that question played out in public in an uncomfortable way: the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute announced it was closing its doors due to a long-deferred HVAC failure. The next day, the announcement was reversed. It will reopen within the week with a temporary system in place while repairs continue.
The immediate building crisis is being resolved. The bigger crisis — Birmingham’s decades-long ambivalence about its own history — is not.
A City Divided Against Itself
For decades, Birmingham has wrestled with a question that shouldn’t be hard: Do we own this history, or do we run from it?
The fear has always been that leaning into the Civil Rights story might signal to investors and newcomers that Birmingham is a city stuck in the past. So instead of a bold, unified embrace of what makes this city singular in all the world, Birmingham has hedged. It has invested just enough to say it cares, but never enough to say it’s serious. It has let its most important institutions age while debating whether to celebrate them.
The BCRI situation is what that ambivalence looks like when the bill finally comes due. The problems there, by the institution’s own account, are complex and longstanding — not a sudden crisis, but a slow accumulation of deferred decisions. That’s not a facilities problem. That’s a priorities problem.
Meanwhile, Montgomery chose a different path entirely.
Montgomery Decided. Birmingham Hasn’t.
Montgomery leaned into honest storytelling — often confronting the brutal realities of enslavement and lynching — and the results have been extraordinary. Bryan Stevenson’s Equal Justice Initiative opened the Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice in 2018. More than two million people have since made the journey. The Freedom Monument Sculpture Park followed in 2024, earning a spot on the New York Times list of 52 places to visit in the world. A new hotel and convening center opened that fall.
Montgomery didn’t stumble into this. It made a decision, committed fully, and built an entire ecosystem around it. Birmingham has spent that same period in a conversation with itself.
Birmingham Holds the Cards
Here’s what gets lost in Birmingham’s internal debate: we were here first, and what we have cannot be replicated anywhere.
Birmingham holds a Civil Rights National Monument designation from the National Park Service — a walkable cluster of sacred sites that no other American city can match: the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, 16th Street Baptist Church, Kelly Ingram Park, the A.G. Gaston Motel, the 4th Avenue Business District, Bethel Baptist Church, the Colored Masonic Temple, and St. Paul United Methodist Church.
These are the physical places where the modern Civil Rights Movement was fought and won. That is not a tourism tagline. That is history.
Alabama already leads the entire nation with 28 official Civil Rights Trail sites. In 2024, visitor spending at Alabama’s Civil Rights sites topped $345 million — more than any other participating state — with a total estimated economic impact of $593 million. The Greater Birmingham region alone surpassed four million overnight visitors that year, generating a record $2.57 billion. Civil Rights tourism is a layer of that economy we have barely touched.
The people who travel specifically to walk where history happened are not typical tourists. They are educators, students, families, clergy, journalists, and global citizens. They stay longer, spend more, and go home changed. They tell others.
The Question Birmingham Has to Answer
Birmingham doesn’t need to reinvent itself. The history is here. The National Monument is here. The story — painful, powerful, and uniquely ours — is here.
What’s missing is the civic will to stop arguing about whether to embrace it and simply do so. Every year that Birmingham hedges is a year Montgomery grows. Every deferred repair, every underfunded institution, every half-measure is a statement about what this city actually believes about itself.
Birmingham and Montgomery are not competitors — they’re partners in the same pilgrimage. Visitors routinely travel both cities as part of a single journey through American history. When Montgomery thrives, Birmingham benefits. When Birmingham steps up, the whole state wins.
The BCRI embarrassment should settle the debate. Not because of the logistical headache it creates, but because of what it represents: the cost of a city that has never fully decided to believe in its own greatness.
It’s time to decide.
David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).
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I don’t often want to stand up and cheer after reading an opinion piece but this one brought me to the edge of my seat. Great job David. By embracing its past, Birmingham can move forward creating exciting new shared memories.
I completely agree. We should be proud that the actions and courage of people, many of them children, in this city literally ushered this country into an age of civil rights for all people and changed the world. One part of that is the stalled renovation of Linn Park. The new park would include a memorial to the lynching that occurred in Jefferson County and part of the memorial in Montgomery that would be transported to Birmingham. We would get an additional monument to our history And a beautiful new public space downtown linking the BJCC to 20th street. The plans exist but there has been no movement on this for 4 years unfortunately. Leaning into our civil rights legacy could be a boon for the local tourism economy and for our pride as a city.
Montgomery is by no means growing – the region is losing population, businesses, and families are fleeing to Prattville or Pike Road for a better quality of life, safer streets, and better schools. I frequently hear of downtown Montgomery referred to as a “dump”, and I can’t say that I disagree.
Compared to Montgomery, Birmingham is worlds beyond in every conceivable metric. Yes, Birmingham proper is still losing population and will continue to – but at least the suburbs are holding steady and continuing to provide a good quality of life to children.
The past can be acknowledged without making it the central focus and identity of the area. Folks are ready to move forward with biotech and healthcare as the area’s identity, not keep Birmingham stuck in the 1960’s. The BCRI has been mismanaged for decades.
What does Montgomery’s decline in population have to do with the fact that Montgomery tourism is doing a better job then Birmingham?
I would love to see the hard numbers to back up that claim. Birmingham has Barber Motorsports Park, Ross Bridge, Talladega 45 minutes away, the SEC baseball tournament, SEC media days, the Magic City Classic, Sidewalk Film Festival, etc.
What does Montgomery have? A whitewater park and a lynching museum? Birmingham’s airport alone has more than 6x the traffic of MGM.
Only 2 of those things you mentioned are in Birmingham proper. They are in Hoover or outside the City.
100
Birmingham and certainly the OTM crowd doesn’t want to talk about race or Civil Rights history. Ask white folks who were around in the 1950’s and 60’s what it was like. Most will tell you that racial segregation didn’t affect them. That it was something that happened on the other side of town. The violence perpetrated against African Americans in the 50’s & 60’s was commited by a small percentage of whites, but the vast majority of whites stood by in silence and allowed it to happen. Just as the vast majority of whites took to “white flight” in the 70’s & 80’s. Nothing had changed at the schools other than desegregation, but suddenly the schools weren’t good enough…..viola, OTM schools start popping up along with the breakaway of suburdbs.
No, the suburbs of Bham do not want to talk about the history of Civil Rights. No one wants a light shined on the sins they commited in the dark.
This column has often sought to voice ways to move the Birmingham Metro forward….together. I’m here to tell you that many suburbanites still have the attitude of segregating themselves via Red Mountain. There are many authors in this very column who voice opinions and desire to have power, yet segregate their families from Birmingham. Many who want to preach about the negatives of Birmingham and how it needs to change but are unwilling to change themselves and their own hearts. They repeat the sins of their fathers under the guise of “what’s best for my family”.
David, understand that Birmingham doesn’t cringe, rather it’s the OTM folks that cringe. They would rather pretend it never happened. Why embrace your sinfull past? For many it remains part of their dialy life. It someone doesn’t admit a sin.. is it a sin?
My comment here is addressed to both David and John Black above.
While on duty as a volunteer docent at Nashville’s Parthenon a couple of weeks ago, I chanced to meet Ann Jimerson, who was visiting from Washington DC. When I told her that I was a Tuscaloosa native, my wife was from Birmingham, and that we lived in the Magic City for 27 years, she was eager to tell me about her project devoted to the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama (especially Birmingham)—Kids in Birmingham 1963. When I told her about our research into my wife’s fascinating history, which includes slavery, the slave trade, and interracial family ties, she encouraged me to consider leading an online discussion in August about our efforts. I’m considering her invitation.Though most of the story is focused on Rhode Island, Louisiana, and Savannah in the early 19th century, it eventually culminates in Birmingham from the 1880s—1960s. The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing makes an ironic appearance.
I share all this because, David, because as you know, Ann has encouraged both white and Black Birmingham residents to submit their own personal experiences of the Movement and the events of 1963. I see that you did. I also see that most of the white residents’ submissions are from writers and journalists. Several have published books and articles about the Movement, the most prominent being Diane McWhorter, author of “Carry Me Home.”
David, do you think such efforts make a difference, even if they may do little to address the specific issues of BCRI and Civil Rights tourism? Perhaps more white citizens who remember 1963 but who aren’t scholars or journalists—bankers, CEOs, small business owners, physicians and nurses, teachers, blue collar workers—should contribute their stories. How can such folks be recruited? Do you think it’s just as valuable for white citizens to read the stories from Black folks who experienced the movement firsthand? Would this help satisfy the need for honest storytelling that John has asked for in his comment?
https://kidsinbirmingham1963.org/submit-your-story/
My apologies for the lengthy comment, but it seemed timely and relevant.
Well, for one thing; why would a tourist asset such as the BCRI be closed on Sunday and Monday? That’s a large part of the problem. Most visitors are in town over the weekend and most stay through Monday. I’ve heard too many people traveling say that the museum was closed when they wanted to visit. Remind me again…why is the institute closed on the two best days other than Saturday’s for visitors? Oh, I know… employee convenience…gesh!
Good point. Many holidays are on Monday and you can’t go.
David,
I have never commented before and I do so now with trepidation. I love you and Comeback Town but, respectfully, I could not disagree more.
As you know, we moved here roughly 20 years ago and started a business. The city and the metro area have only gotten better since we moved here. We are huge fans of Mayor Woodfin. We are advocates for Birmingham, the metro area, and the region.
I grew up in Montgomery and it breaks my heart to see what it has become. Most of my friends have moved away. Many are in Birmingham and are contributing to its improvement.
Montgomery is desperately flailing to attract any activity whatsoever. In my opinion, they are taking a short term view with no longer term plan or vision, which is why Montgomery is in such a sad state in the first place.
Birmingham needs to attract more job and wealth creating entrepreneurs and be a desirable place for our children to move back to and start their own businesses. We should honor the past, learn from it, and move forward into a better future.
Respectfully,
C.T. Fitzpatrick
It is time to decide. It has been for a long while now.
I am a huge proponent of learning from history. The good, the bad and the ugly. I believe the Equal Justice Initiative’s civil rights history attractions (memorial, museum, sculpture park …) are at the center of rebuilding Montgomery’s economic prosperity. They are world-class venues and address our oneness. Humanity. I live in Hoover, have been to the Legacy Museum & the Memorial four times and I typically visit another point of interest, too, while there. Add in roundtrip travel and lunch and you have one very long day. EJI recognized this and is now building a hotel so that Montgomery is now a full weekend destination not just a day trip from within the region. Think about all the jobs they’ve created and are creating. Think about the money being spent by visitors and the tax revenue being generated. Think about those employed individuals, the money they put back into their local economy and the small businesses being built to support the needs and desires of the growing population. Think about our region, connected in civil rights history, and the huge baby boomer population retiring and traveling. We would be smart to ride Montgomery’s coattails on this one. EJI listened and has been strategically building an incredibly important historic district. I wouldn’t expect anything less from the genius that is Bryan Stevenson.
I’ve been to the civil rights museum twice in the past ten years with company from Germany and both times it was almost empty. I’m surprised that it is still open.
I find this post a bit cringy itself. It’s not like the civil rights district has had funding actually dwindled. They’re renovated the AG Gaston Hotel and are expanding the 16th Street Baptist welcome center. For the casual observer, there weren’t any indications that funding was low, rather the opposite. While more funding is nice, I’d also want to focus more city development for Fountain Heights to help out, so that the District isn’t feeling at the fringe of the city downtown. I don’t really think Birmingham necessarily needs new skyscrapers, but if they were to, adding them in Fountain Heights would more center the District into the Bham fabric. (In the mean time, more could be down to connect the end of CityWalk to the District in an engaging way, a bit more cost effective than a new skyscraper.)
There’s also problems with focusing on the Civil Rights Era as an identity. Everyone jokes about Alabama being stuck in the past. For Birmingham to grow, the worst thing you can do is have everything plastered with Civil Rights issues. Past focused can work if its nostalgia bait (like if there were a local jingle/commercial ad/print media museum), but not like this. That’s not to say the Civil Rights Movement should be ignored, but rather it should be an element of progression in Birmingham’s story. The Civil Rights Movement was over 60 years ago. It was 50 years between Alabama becoming a state and Birmingham’s founding. In order for the Movement to work as a selling point, the city needs an equally solid presentation as to what it its now to go along with it. Otherwise, you’re just saying the movement was a failure.
That said, I do wish there was a museum or something more dedicated to the history of black business in the area. There needs to be more exposure to things like Arthur McKinnon Brown or the Alabama Penny Savings Bank. More needs to be shown why the answer was to fight, not just flee. Usually that just showcases sports and entertainment incubation, but the more quiet local business side needs showing too. Furthermore, if you want the Civil Rights to be center stage, then add in more to the discussion upon review of the past a bit more removed. Talk about Dawnson and convict-lease and his reforms being undone under Trapp (and how leadership affects systems). Or about the increase in deaths once TCI was bought out by US Steel and the effects of distance from leadership affecting the workers. Discuss the effects on black business by the calls for immediate desegregation vs a more gradual rollout starting with things like business loans/backend access. Talk about white flight not just in terms of race, but also talking about cities pre-EPA (racism isn’t in the leaving the city, but in the not allowing black people to come with. The redlining map of Birmingham was half red, as opposed Atlanta, which was about a quarter, due to pollution. This is generally talked about, but not necessarily in terms of how it plays out in different cities. All cities are generally treated the same, but the interesting bits are in how they are different. Uniform application’s affects on disparate areas is also an interesting discussion.).
Birmingham has an Alabama problem…if Alabama had a desire for Birmingham to become the leader it’s destined to become or could have become…if the state would spend time on investment rather than divestment of the metro area…Birmingham could take it’s rightful place alongside Nashville, Charlotte and even Atlanta…Again, why does our main NS expressway (I-65) has only 3 lanes of travel through our great city core? The state is 3-laning I-65 from top top bottom 🤔 . Not one mention of widening 65 through the city per ALDOT whatsoever…thats called stifling. Our city leaders need to speak up and out. If nothing else, at least make ALDOT get their arse back up here and fix the excessive amount of potholes and crumbling roadways induced by The ‘Big Beautiful Bridges and Fly-overs’ mess they left behind!