THE 15-YEAR STRUGGLE ACQUIRING COLLECTIONS AND CREDENTIALS.

This article reports on the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and how it became one of only two African American museums fully accredited by the American Association of Museums. The idea for a museum commemorating the U.S. Civil Rights Movement came about in 1977, but it was not authorized by the city of Birmingham, Alabama until 1992. Without an acquisitions budget, the museum gathers its materials from donors and other institutions. The article discusses the museum's collections and projects, as well as its accreditation, president Lawrence J. Pijeaux, and employees Wayne Coleman and Angela Fisher Hall.