BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) – President Barack Obama signed an order Thursday designating an historic civil rights district in Alabama as a national monument, placing several blocks of a city once rocked by racial violence on par with landmarks including the Grand Canyon.
The National Park Service will now have oversight of a downtown section of Birmingham, Alabama – a focal point of civil rights struggles in 1963 against harsh enforcement of laws mandating racial segregation.
Obama, who leaves office next week after serving eight years as the nation’s first African-American president, acted after Congress failed to approve legislation proposed to bring the several-block area into the federal park system.
“It is such a great tribute to the people of the city of Birmingham that President Obama would make this designation as one of his last actions before leaving the White House,” said Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, who sponsored the legislation.
Agency employees will now be based in the district, which also becomes eligible for federal funding. The Park Service separately announced grants totaling more than $500,000 benefit the area, part of $7.5 million in funding for civil rights sites nationwide.