Exhibition, film and program will be in Spanish and English
The public is invited to celebrate Cinco de Mayo at the Birmingham Civil Rights at 6 p.m. on May 5. The evening will kick off with a reception and tour of BCRI’s current exhibition: “Para Todos Los Niños” (For the Children) in BCRI’s Vann Gallery. The exhibition focuses on the events that led to the landmark Supreme Court case, “Mendez v. Westminster,” and the end of California’s segregation of Mexican and Mexican American children in schools. The exhibition is one of two concurrent exhibitions at BCRI which honor the 60th Anniversary of Brown vs Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court case that ruled school segregation as unconstitutional.
The reception will be followed with the screening of the 2004 documentary, “Mendez vs. Westminster: For All the Children/Para Todos los Niños” at 6:50 p.m. This Emmy-Award winning documentary also addresses the history behind “Mendez vs. Westminster.” Children may attend a special program at 6:50 p.m. with volunteers, while parents attend the screening.
The film will be followed by a panel discussion with the audience. Confirmed participants members include Dr. John Moore, Associate Professor of Spanish at UAB, Scott Douglas, Executive Director of Greater Birmingham Ministries, Rosalva Bermudez-Ballin, ESL/FL Program Specialist at Birmingham City Schools and Isabel Rivera, Owner of LaJefa Radio Station and Mi Pueblo supermarket. The exhibition panels are bilingual and the discussion will be in Spanish with English interpretation. For more information, call 205-328-9696 x 233.
