Alabama NewsCenter — National ‘Balm in Gilead’ conference coming to Birmingham, Alabama, seeks healing from 1963 civil rights wounds

By: Anthony Cook

The year 1963 was marked by a tumultuous, often violent – and sometimes deadly – series of events that set a new course for civil rights throughout the country.

In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of that year, a national conference – There IS A Balm In Gilead, Healing from the Events of 1963 – will be held Sept. 12-14 at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel. The event is presented by The Historic Bethel Baptist Church Community Restoration Fund, Alabama African-American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium, The Minnesota Humanities Center, Alabama Department of Tourism and Travel, Alabama Humanities Alliance and Jefferson County Commissioner LaShunda Scales.

“What happened in 1963 changed not only the city but inspired similar movements for human and civil rights across the nation and around the world,” said Thomas Wilder, pastor of Historic Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham’s Collegeville neighborhood. “Survivors still express remorse and weep whenever they share what they experienced during that time, and the aim of this conference is to not only remember what happened, but to bring about understanding, reconciliation and redemption.”

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