PHILADELPHIA, PA – The City of Birmingham will be a part of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia later this month with an exhibit titled, “Behind the Ballot: Fighting for the Right to Vote.” The exhibit will be hosted at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) as part of PoliticalFest.

In celebration of this year's Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, the convention’s host committee is presenting PoliticalFest, a one-of-a-kind festival celebrating political history, government and the road to the White House.

The non-partisan PoliticalFest will combine multi-media and interactive displays, historical objects and special guest appearances designed to entertain and engage residents, visitors and convention attendees.

The City of Birmingham’s exhibit will focus on the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. The events in Birmingham broke the back of segregation and paved the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voter Rights Act of 1965. Legends of the Civil Rights Movement including the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, A. G. Gaston and W.C. Patton will be highlighted for their contributions to both the movement that changed the world but also their efforts in registering African Americans to vote. Mr. Patton, for example, founded the Alabama State Coordination Association for Registration and Voting and is credited for registering over 1 million people to vote in Alabama and throughout the southeast.

“Birmingham’s story continues to be so relevant to our daily lives. The men and women of Birmingham stood up, sacrificed and came together to change the course of history not just for Birmingham, but for the entire United States and the global community,” said Birmingham Mayor William Bell. “Every opportunity that we have to showcase Birmingham, invite people to visit, and draw the parallels to then and now, the better off we are as a society. As the convention is taking place, we want to remind people that Birmingham is an example of what can happen when individuals come together for a common cause, work together for a greater good and empower not just their generation but every generation going forward,” he continued.

The exhibit is being built and curated by a team of people from the City of Birmingham, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and the Negro Southern League Museum. City staff will travel to Philadelphia to assemble and present the exhibit to the estimated hundreds of thousands of visitors to the City of Philadelphia. PoliticalFest will take place from Friday, July 22-Wednesday, July 27th.

Learn more about HSP's PoliticalFest exhibit.