12th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Lecture to Feature Author Randall Jimerson, January 22

On Thursday, January 22, the Birmingham Public Library will host the 12th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Lecture from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Arrington Auditorium of the Central Library. The speaker is author Randall Jimerson, whose white northern family moved to Birmingham in 1961 and fought for civil rights. The day of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963, Jimerson's father saved several pieces of twisted metal and melted glass from the blast. His family donated some of the pieces to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Jimerson details his time in Birmingham in the book Shattered Glass in Birmingham: My Family's Fight for Civil Rights, 1961-1964, which offers a ground-level view of prejudice, discrimination, violence, and courage. He will also sign and sell copies of his book. For more information on the book, please visit: http://lsupress.org/books/detail/shattered-glass-in-birmingham/.

Melted stained glass from the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
Photo credit: Mark D. Jimerson

For more information on the Randall Jimerson program, contact Jim Baggett at 226-3630.

Historic documents relating to King will be on display during the January 22 program.