Birmingham Historical Society, Book Sale, civil rights, Fred Shuttlesworth

Kelly Ingram Park and A Walk to Freedom

This year’s Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation conference featured Kelly Ingram Park as an example of landscape art that is not static but invites ongoing interpretation. They use the term ‘counter-memorial’ to describe an historic landscape that “continually negotiate(s) the boundaries between history, memory, representation, and contemporary experience.” Kelly Ingram is considered an excellent example of this interpretation.

To illustrate the point, the video above produced for the conference references maps and photographs from Birmingham Historical Society’s 1999 publication, A Walk to Freedom by Marjorie White.

Cover of 'A Walk to Freedom' featuring the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, 1956-1964.

The book is an in-depth publication that contains 225 photographs from the Civil Rights era in Birmingham, original news accounts, and recollections from those who conceived and lived the era. It’s a best-selling guide to the Civil Rights era from 1956-1964, and credits the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth as the prime mover behind the Birmingham Movement.

Black and white sculpture depicting three figures in prayer, set against a background of trees and buildings.
A woman in a red jumpsuit stands near a large sculpture featuring two children holding hands, surrounded by greenery. The sculpture includes the inscription 'I AIN'T AFRAID OF YOUR JAIL.'
Images of Kelly Ingram Park, pg. 46 in Birmingham by the Book