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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) -- The Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Consortium is working to expand tourism to historic civil rights churches in Alabama that played a big role in the movement.
The consortium kicked off that effort Friday with a two-day event aimed to help the leaders of those churches and sites learn how to share the often forgotten about history in hopes of promoting tourism, so that their stories aren't forgotten.
"Theres a lot of people who are still alive who have these stories, but now we are charged to go and find them," said Terrence Brown, the psych coordinator for the 16th Street Baptist Church.
Brown was among those leaders in attendance Friday. Brown said finding those stories helps preserve the history of the many Alabama churches that played a part in the civil rights movement like the 16th Street Baptist Church, St. Paul United Methodist Church and Old Sardis Baptist Church in Birmingham along with other churches in Selma, Gadsden, Montgomery and Decatur.
"The civil rights journey is not just for African Americans, but it is a story of universal struggle, and as we learn those things and find those commonalities, regardless of culture, our world is better," Brown said.
Keeping the history of the historic churches and sites in Alabama is something Kia Hill does on a daily basis as a park ranger at the A.G. Gaston Motel, a Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument. Through the event, she said she hopes to walk away a better storyteller to tourists who stop by.
"Just continuing to educate people who visit us from all walks of life who visit us," Hill said.
According to organizers of the event, it also serves as training ahead of the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, which is March 7.
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