This year, the City of Birmingham commemorates sixty years since the Birmingham campaign for civil and human rights. As a part of the commemorative events, The Historic Bethel Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama, is pleased to announce its conference on individual and community healing. The conference theme: “There IS A Balm in Gilead: Healing From The Events of 1963.” The conference will take place September 12-14, 2023, in Birmingham, Alabama. What happened here in 1963 changed not only the city but inspired similar movements for human and civil rights across the nation and around the world.
Those directly and indirectly involved in the Modern Civil Rights Movement were significantly affected by the events of the 1950s and 1960s. Survivors still express remorse and weep whenever they share what they experienced during that time. The goal of the conference is to open doors of communication that will help foster healing for those victims directly and indirectly as well as the community as we unpack a legacy of hurt and shame. It has been well documented that the physical, emotional, mental, and intergenerational effects of trauma have lasting effects on individuals and communities. There IS A Balm in Gilead!
The There IS A Balm in Gilead Healing Conference is hosted by the Historic Bethel Baptist Church Community Restoration Fund, The Minnesota Humanities Center, the Alabama Humanities Alliance, The National Park Foundation and the Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium.
We will also provide an extended workshop/conference track for classroom teachers. Twenty (20) scholarships will be offered for classroom teachers to attend the conference.
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EMAIL: historicbethel@thereisabalmingileadconference.com
There IS A Balm in Gilead
There IS A Balm in Gilead
Keynote Speakers
There IS A Balm in Gilead
Healing from the events of 1963
Pre-Conference Events
“But for Birmingham, we would not be here today.” This statement, made by President John F. Kennedy at a meeting at the White House with Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, the architect of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and other movement leaders. The struggles for freedom and equality that played out in the streets of Birmingham greeted citizens in the United States and people around the world every day and night by way of television news reports and screaming newspaper headlines. Sites of Memory such as Kelley Ingram Park, 16th Street Baptist Church, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 4th Avenue Business District, AG Gaston Motel, Historic Bethel Baptist Church.