Dawoud Bey

In 2013, fifty years after the infamous attack on the African-American 16 ^th Street Baptist Church and the ensuing violence throughout the city of Birmingham, Dawoud Bey created a project to commemorate the children who were killed or injured. Over the course of seven years, Bey developed The Birmingham Project—a series of vibrant and poignant portraits of current residents who represent the ages of the victims when they died, as well as the ages they would have been if they were still alive. The Birmingham Project required the participation of many who lived through the bombing as well as those for whom its historical significance marks their city as a place where the Civil Rights movement gained immediate urgency.

The exhibition is part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Exhibition Series, which addresses issues of race, diversity, social justice, civil rights, and humanity to serve as a catalyst for dialogue and to enrich our community with new perspectives.

This exhibition was sponsored by the College of Arts, Sciences & Education, Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, Communication, Architecture + The Arts, Alumni Relations, and Multicultural Programs and Services.

This exhibition was organized by the Birmingham Museum of Art.

Image Caption: Dawoud Bey,  The Birmingham Project: Wallace Simmons and Eric Allums, 2012 Ed. 2/6, Archival pigment prints mounted to dibond, 40 x 64 inches, Courtesy the Artist and Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, California, All works Copyright the Artist.