On Saturday, Gloria Buford walked with her five grandchildren through Kelly Ingram Park, stopping to look at the statues that illustrated moments in the civil rights movement.
In May 1963, children marched in the streets, were met by police, dogs and fire hoses, were arrested and helped transform a segregated city.
"I got a chance to tell them about the children, about history," Buford said.
The four-day Foot Soldiers Reunion, which concludes today in the civil rights district, has been an opportunity for the young to learn and the old to remember.
"It's a celebration of where we came from," said Richard Turner, 75, of Sandersville, Ga., who stopped in Kelly Ingram Park to embrace his old friend, Birmingham civil rights pioneer Fred Shuttlesworth, a guest speaker at one of the many programs.
"What has been done in Birmingham has laid the basis for a better city, built on the ashes of what was," the Rev. Shuttlesworth said. "At one time, Birmingham was segregation, deprivation, subjugation. There was no power for people of color. Now that has changed."
From Thursday through Saturday, those who were around in 1963 shared the experience with a younger generation. "There had to be foot soldiers, willing to sacrifice their lives and honor and future," Shuttlesworth said.
Oral histories were recorded to keep alive the memories of those who were involved in every aspect of the famous demonstrations led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
"It's recording the history; it's keeping alive the dream," said Wilson Fallin, associate professor of history at the University of Montevallo. "It's helping our young people understand what was done in the past."
A march today will begin at 1:30 p.m. from Kelly Ingram Park to the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex, wrapping up the 40th anniversary observance of the 1963 events.
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