VIDEO: Birmingham's Kelly Ingram Park

The Civil Rights Institute describes Kelly Ingram Park:

Birmingham's Kelly Ingram Park was the staging ground for Civil Rights rallies, demonstrations and marches during the tumultous years of the 1960s. It was in Kelly Ingram Park that Birmingham police and firemen turned attack dogs and high-powered hoses on participants rallying for human rights and simple decency. These images will forever be associated with Birmingham and Kelly Ingram Park.

And here is Thirty Days, standing near the park's northwest corner.

Only a few decades ago, everything was so much different...

This church, 16th Street Baptist, was something of a staging ground for Birmingham's civil-rights movement. It sits right across the street from what is now the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and kitty corner to Kelly Ingram Park, a square that pays tribute to those who fought (and gave their lives) fighting segregation.

Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities in the United States for a long time. White people and black people couldn't do anything together. They couldn't even play "an innocent game of dominoes", as the Institute puts it.

The Carver was one of the only theatres that permitted black patrons. It closed in the 80s but is back open now. One of many sites in the city that people who are just now middle-aged would remember as segregated.