Civil Rights District Juneteenth Block Party

About this event

A districtwide block party closes Juneteenth at the intersection of 16th Street North and Fifth Avenue North, the literal ground where the 1963 Children's Crusade was met with fire hoses and police dogs. Co-presented by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the 16th Street Baptist Church, the A.G. Gaston Motel, and the National Park Service's Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, the evening party extends a day of free heritage-site access and guided tours into music, food, and community gathering. Visitors move freely between the church bombed by the Klan in 1963, Kelly Ingram Park's protest sculptures, and the Gaston Motel's Room 30 war room where Dr. King strategized. The block party transforms a site of trauma into a place of collective celebration of Black freedom.