We were kids in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. That tumultuous year transformed the nation and shaped our lives.

These are our stories.

My church played a huge impact in my life!

Valerie Gilmore Price

Age 9 in 1963

Even as a young child, Valerie had her eyes opened to unjust laws and practices.

My birth name is Valerie A. Gilmore. In the year of 1963, I was a student at Center Street Elementary School. I was a member of St. Paul Lutheran Church located in the Titusville area of Birmingham where the pastor was Rev. Joseph Ellwanger (a white man). Being a member of St. Paul Lutheran Church played a huge impact in my life. Rev. Ellwanger and... Read More

September 15, 1963: The Day our Driver Changed Course

Robert G. Williams

Age 14 in 1963

Robert, age 14 when the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was bombed, reflects on how the event led his mother to work for social justice, as featured in the short video on the Mustard Seed Project, above. Following his story are links to materials on his mother’s work in Birmingham’s Southtown public housing community, including an oral history video of his mother’s reflections at age 96.

Alert: This essay contains a racial slur used by some white people at that time to demean Black children as a group. Our family lived on a wooded hilltop in the white suburb of Mountain Brook, protected from sleepless nights of bombings and police oppression plaguing Black families in the Magic City. My few glimpses of struggles for justice downtown were through safety glass windows of... Read More

Explore all our stories

This is our purpose.

Kids in Birmingham 1963 (KIDS), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, evolved from a few simple ideas: Find a way to capture the memories of Birmingham’s youth during the pivotal civil rights era. Create a historical record, a resource for educators and journalists, and a tribute to the many heroes—both Black and white—whose lives became instruments of change. Finally, execute proactive strategies to spread the narratives of those historic days to audiences everywhere.

Today, KIDS offers dozens and dozens of first-person accounts of what happened in Birmingham during 1963 and in the months that followed. Aligned with those stories, the organization has blossomed into an even more noticeable force focused on Education and Reconciliation: expressing racial truths and history, and building racial harmony, in the city of Birmingham, the state of Alabama, across our country and around the world. Wherever we can, we try to make change happen through programs and actions driven by our four primary initiatives.

Mission Statement

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