Robert Corley

Robert Corley

Dr. Robert G. Corley, teaches full-time with the Department of History at University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB). For nine years, he served as the Regional Director of the National Conference of Christians and Jews (NCCJ, now known as National Conference for Community and Justice). Dr. Corley is active in community boards and agencies in Birmingham, including serving two terms as the President of the Board of Education. Dr. Corley was a member of Mayor Richard Arrington’s Task Force that created and designed the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI) and was a founding member of the BCRI Board of Directors. He grew up in Birmingham and graduated from Birmingham-Southern College.

Surrounded by History – and confused

In the past few years I have realized that growing up in Birmingham and reaching maturity in the 1960s, I was surrounded by History.  At times, it felt like History was literally pulling me into its widening vortex.

I was fifteen in the spring of 1963.  As a white Birmingham teenager observing the critical events in our city at a great distance, I was confused.