Dinner at Vulcan Kicks Off African-American/Jewish Mission

I was so excited to read that the African-American/Jewish Mission kickoff would be held at Vulcan. It is absolutely, positively, unequivocally my favorite spot in Birmingham. I have included it on my list of places to visit in Birmingham as part of a personal mission to expand Birmingham's story. Of course the Civil Rights Movement and Birmingham's impact is significant on national and international levels, but unfortunately, people know little else about us. The first thing that many visitors say is that they had no idea that Birmingham was so hilly much less what valuable elements are in those hills.

Most Birminghamians fail to see the beauty and significance in Birmingham's creation. We participate in pigeonholing the city into a specific space and time. Even the President, on his election day, mentioned Birmingham and fire hoses despite a few visits that demonstrated different aspects of Birmingham. It is almost as if Birmingham is frozen in time as far as the media and the outside world are concerned.

Long story short, despite the fact that the Mission has a civil rights and social justice focus, we are starting our journey on Red Mountain, home to the ingredients to make steel. Despite Black Codes, Jim Crow and all that jazz, I would like for visitors to know that descendants of the Magic City share an industrial history. Though we won't have a lot of time to explore this aspect of our history, I am glad that they will at least be exposed to it. Participants won't have the benefit of family day at a plant where tour guides tell you the temperature that many of the workers endured while working with melted steel, but it is June so they will share in the heat and humidity.

2010 African-American and Jewish Mission

On Sunday, June 20, 2010, Birmingham will host African-American and Jewish community leaders from across the country. The Jewish Council on Public Affairs has selected Birmingham as the 2010 site of an annual mission. The Mission is twofold: 1) To strengthen ties between African-American and Jewish leaders and 2) To address systemic poverty. A large portion of the Mission will include visits to popular civil rights and social justice institutions. They will visit places such as the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Lowndes County Interpretive Center, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Their visit will culminate with visits to local community projects.

Components of the Mission reflect Gordon Allport's "Contact Hypothesis." The "Contact Hypothesis" is one of the most successful means of reducing prejudice or encouraging collaboration among people of different races, ethnic groups or religions. It is often much more sustainable than training or short-term dialogue groups. The contact hypothesis consists of the following components: 1) Pairing individuals from different cultures who are as similar as possible in every other way such as job function, position in the community, socio-economic status...). 2) Set goals and engage in an activity to achieve the goals. 3) Hold participants accountable for their activities. The movie Remember the Titans exemplifies this concept. Denzel Washington was faced with uniting two football teams from schools that had been desegregated. He matched team members by position and required that they get to know each other and work to maintain the winning traditions of both teams. If they did not carry out his requests, they were punished.

The 2010 African-American/Jewish Mission pairs individuals from two different cultures who represent their communities. The entire group will travel, dialogue and work together over a three-day period. In addition to visiting civil rights related institutions, they will hear presentations from local social justice organizations. A representative from Center for Faith-Based Initiatives and Neighborhood Partnerships will also make a presentation. The group will visit an inner city community and help refurbish a home for a family in need. They will spend time reflecting on the experience and strategize for future initiatives.

Though this post was written in the third person, I have the honor of being one of the representatives from Birmingham. Future posts will probably shift from two points of view--observer and participant. I am looking forward to seeing Alabama from the eyes of others and learning something new about the state that has been home to the last five generations of the majority of my maternal and paternal families.