By Barnett Wright | The Birmingham Times
Alabamians should contact state lawmakers to protect the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute from state budget cuts, the board of BCRI said in a statement issued on Thursday.
This week state lawmakers took their first official action on the state General Fund budget that eliminated $100,000 of funding for the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Magic City Classic football game, and several other line items.
Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, and Senator Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham said they are prepared to fight the cuts. On Thursday, the BCRI on Thursday asked citizens to also get involved.
“We are grateful to leaders like [Smitherman] and [Singleton], who have already spoken out against these cuts,” the BCRI Board wrote in a statement on Thursday. “Their leadership gives us hope. And now, we’re calling on the public to join them — and us.
“We urge every Alabamian to contact their local legislators. Tell them that you believe in protecting civil rights history. Tell them that BCRI matters. That this story matters. That truth matters.”
The proposed cuts come at a delicate time in the city’s history, the board wrote.
“Sixty-two years ago [on April 3], determined men, women, and children committed themselves to a struggle for freedom and Civil Rights … It is not lost on us that 62 years to the day, we are once again called to act. This time, not just to protect our rights—but to preserve the very stories of that struggle.”
The statement says that the BCRI will continue to be a beacon of truth and “as we reflect on the events that shaped the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham and beyond, we are reminded that progress has always required courage, clarity, and conviction. Today, we renew our commitment to those ideals.”
On Tuesday, the House Ways and Means General Fund Committee approved its version of the General Fund budget, revising the recommended spending plan sent to the Legislature by Gov. Kay Ivey in early February.
The current budget included $200,000 for the Magic City Classic, the annual football game between Alabama State and Alabama A&M, played at Birmingham’s Legion Field. It also included $100,000 for the BCRI.
Both items were zeroed out in Ivey’s proposed budget for next year and in the substitute approved by the House budget committee on Tuesday.
