Birmingham Civil Rights Institute President & CEO DeJuana Thompson Visits Rotary

RCB President Brenda Hackney and Rotarian Danny Markstein gather with BCRI’s DeJuana Thompson, Wayne Coleman and Isaac Cooper.

The Rotary Club of Birmingham recently welcomed DeJuana Thompson, Birmingham Civil Rights Institute President & CEO. Thompson shared that, as part of the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument and an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, BCRI serves as a cultural and educational research center that promotes a comprehensive understanding of the significance of civil rights developments in Birmingham. She illustrated the aligned missions shared by BCRI and RCB and discussed BCRI’s priorities as a historical education institution and gathering place, providing leadership training, engaging the community on racial justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and its role as an economic engine for the area.  

“We have a critical objective, which is to connect to the world,” Thompson said. “What happened here in the city of Birmingham during the Civil Rights Movement was so unique, it was so poignant that it required a response—not just in the city of Birmingham, not just across the state, but across the world. What happened at 16th Street Baptist Church, what happened with Martin Luther King in the jail cell, all those things created a ripple effect that said that Birmingham was able to impact what would happen for years and is still indeed impacting them. We share this history together. We share these tragedies and these triumphs together. What it allows us to do is to be relevant and to have a conversation on what we believe is possible in the future."  

Thompson highlighted programs such as BCRI’s Legacy Youth Leadership Program, Community of Readers, Birmingham Cultural Alliance Partnership, and virtual programming geared to reach the widest audience possible. She discussed how BCRI reimagined exhibits and programming in response to the pandemic and the strategic planning the institute is undergoing in its 30th year. Thompson previewed coming exhibits, including the Emmett Till National Touring Exhibition, an Interactive Sports Exhibit that will coincide with The World Games, and The Movement, an app being developed in partnership with Apple and Ed Farm that will bring the story of Birmingham’s modern Civil and Human Rights Movement to people and communities across the globe through an immersive digital learning experience. 

“The crown jewels of our city—which I consider to be places like the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the 16th Street Baptist Church, the A.G. Gaston Hotel, the Carver Theatre, the Masonic Temple, Kelly Ingram Park, and all the others that make up the National Monument area—we have to mimic and, in some points lead, the innovation that is happening around this city.”