Birmingham honors the Black businessman who quietly backed the Civil Rights Movement

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/22/ [login to see] /ag-gaston-motel-birmingham-civil-rights
Construction workers are putting the finishing touches on the courtyard of the newly restored AG Gaston Motel.

The renovation of the downtown hotel is the latest addition to the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument designated by President Barack Obama in 2017 to preserve key historic landmarks.

"This is truly sacred ground where we're standing," says National Park Service Ranger Kathryn Gardiner. She points up to a second-floor room where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. rallied protesters from the balcony during the Birmingham Campaign in 1963, when youth joined the fight against segregation in what became known as The Children's Crusade.