Organization description

Kids in Birmingham 1963, a nonprofit organization founded in 2013, evolved from a few simple ideas: Find a way to capture the memories of Birmingham’s youth during the pivotal civil rights era. Create a historical record, a resource for educators and journalists, and a tribute to the many heroes—Black and white—whose lives became instruments of change. Finally, execute proactive strategies to spread the narratives of those historic days to audiences everywhere.

KIDS offers dozens of first-person accounts of what happened in Birmingham in the 1960s. Aligned with those stories, the organization has blossomed into a noticeable force focused on Education and Reconciliation: expressing racial truths and history and building racial harmony, in Birmingham, in Alabama, across our country, and around the world. In 2021, KIDS initiated the Alabama History Coalition, collaborating with 16 organizations to motivate Birmingham-area schools to improve the teaching of Alabama’s civil rights history.

Our Mission Statement: Kids in Birmingham 1963 is a nonprofit made up of individuals, Black + white, who came of age in Birmingham at the height of civil rights. We preserve and promote our stories to improve civil rights teaching in Birmingham and beyond. Through our activities, we foster dialogue on the truth about race in our nation as an essential first step toward reconciliation—in Birmingham, the US. and globally.

In June 2025-April 2026, Kids in Birmingham 1963 teamed with the Bending the Arc Project and Sandpiper Advisory Group to conduct a TPS project entitled “Making it easy for teachers of all subjects to apply primary sources in teaching civil rights history.” The project was funded by the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Southern Region Program, managed by the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University. “Consortium Created Materials” include 3 classroom teaching units created and piloted by local teachers (lessons/units are forthcoming at www.kidsinbirmingham1963.org) and 8 classroom-ready videos, which include clips from primary-source interviews along with primary-source archival images, many from the Library of Congress. Access these videos, designed for teaching civil rights themes, at this link: https://bendingthearcproject.com/films/#reelsandclips.