Well that's interesting
I had the opportunity to visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham Alabama this past week. The Museum itself is relatively new, as museums go, having been initially built in the past thirty years. The museum traces the history of the fight for civil rights, especially the fight for civil rights for African Americans, from the end of slavery up until current day struggles.
Although a fair amount of information is given for historical context, the bulk of the museum concentrates on the years from 1950-1970 when Alabama was embroiled in bitter civil rights controversies including the desegregation of schools, public housing, colleges, workplaces and other public accommodations including public transit.
Of course, the Museum covers not only recent history but also current history, addressing areas of the world where the struggle for civil rights is ongoing (which is to say, everywhere I suppose, but they concentrate on specific areas). The exhibits mostly are targeted towards school children, although I certainly learned a lot myself.
Right now the Museum has a short term exhibition in a special hall specifically built for short term exhibits. It is a photography projected depicting lesbians in the deep south. In the exhibit there are a number of couples who have been photographed. Names are not included with any of the photos, and there is little information given about their stories. The participants were given the option of being anonymous or not; the anonymous couples are turned away from the camera. In some photos, one of the women turned towards the camera and another is not.
It's an interesting exhibit to have in a museum visited mostly by school children. When I looked through the guest book, many of the comments were positive although some (above) showed there is plenty of education still to do.






