Martin Luther King Jr. Events Set for the Birmingham Public Library In January

The Birmingham Public Library has planned two January 2015 events to remember slain civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Scavenger Hunt will be held now through January 16, 2015, at all Birmingham Public library locations. Ten clues related to important and interesting facts about King are hidden within each branch. Correctly answer all 10 questions on King and be entered into a drawing for a book on King. Participants will only need to visit one branch to collect answers to the 10 questions. Open to all ages.

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 scavenger hunt, contact the Birmingham Public Library Youth Department at 226-3655. 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.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is Monday, January 19. The Birmingham Public Library system will be closed that day.