For answers amid police shootings, many turn to civil rights center

It’s also a reminder, she says, that much work still needs to be done.

Seeking answers after a week of police shootings involving police officers and black victims, followed by retaliation in Dallas where several officers were killed or wounded by a black sniper, many are turning to the past for context.

That always was the hope of the center, spokeswoman Kristie Raymer said: to be a safe haven where the conversation can start.

“We don’t want to take a side,” she said. “We want to be a convener.”

Nestled between the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca Cola, the structure's curving walls were built purposefully to suggest the joining of hands. It goes with the mission of the center: to empower everyone to join the human-rights conversation.

“Everybody feels a connection to what’s going on,” Raymer said. “Our purpose is to shed light, to show the civil rights struggle is the foundation for the human rights struggle.”

The exhibits take visitors on a journey through the civil rights movement, which resulted in legislation furthering the quest for equal rights. Sometimes, it gets real. A 1960s Woolworth's lunch counter set up in a hall on the main floor encourages visitors to place their hands on the counter and see how long they can endure names being called and threats being made. The seat literally moves, simulating seat-kicking at the counter.

Scott Warren and Mike Jones were visiting from St. Louis when protests began in Atlanta Friday. Monday morning, they took a trip to the center for a keepsake as they returned home. Warren saw the well-publicized police shooting deaths of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., and Philando Castile in suburban Minneapolis and immediately remembered Michael Brown, who died in Ferguson, Mo., in August 2014 after being shot by a police officer. The three dead men were black. The police accused in their shootings were not.

Warren, who is white, said he wishes there was more understanding about why the Black Lives Matter movement has taken shape. He admits he hasn’t always understood it himself.

"It's been an evolving belief," said Warren, a teacher. "At first, I was like 'don't all lives matter?' But you have to look at it through a different context. It doesn't mean just black lives matter."

For a group of women in town for the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority’s annual convention, the exhibits hit close to home. Denise McNair, one of four girls killed in a Birmingham church bombing, was their cousin. Pamela Frazer of New York said the police shootings are showing that little has changed over the years. Rita Davis, who still lives in Birmingham, said it is disturbing to see what’s making the national news with regards to the shootings.

“It’s almost like the haves and have nots,” she said. “The poor minority are taking the brunt.”

A poster exhibit shows well-dressed black people, with a brief explainer on why protesters wore their Sunday best as they marched or participated in sit-ins.

“We didn’t want anyone to criticize us for our appearance because our message was controversial enough,” reads a quote from Joan Countryman, a student and protester at the time.

Stan Brown stepped inside the center while visiting Atlanta from Florida. Brown, who is black, said he’s fed up by the recent shootings. Social media has made the reality of how black people are treated more obvious, he said, with no result.

“How long can we watch this?” he said. “What’s been happening has been happening for years. Now, we’re forced to see it happen, and still no justice.

“They’re happy when we pray and sing Kumbaya.”

Dan Szatkowski of Midland, Mich., said it’s sad there’s still so much conflict over race after enduring the civil rights movement and race riots in the 1960s. He and his wife, who are both white, took the tour Monday morning as a reminder of what people who aren’t white have gone through.

“How do you bypass (the center) with everything that’s going on?” he said. “Where are we headed? Where have we gone? Let’s not be naïve. Is there racism in the world? Or course.”

The attention could not come at a better time for the center. Officials admitted recently that ticket sales only cover half the operations costs, with the rest funded through donations. Between 260,000 and 280,000 people visited the center in 2015, its only full calendar year being open, Executive Director Derreck Kayongo told the Atlanta Business Journal.

Raymer said she has not seen attendance figures from the last week, but more people are calling the center, mostly to book the space to have seemingly difficult conversations, using the exhibits as a backdrop.

Plus, at $16 for adults, “we’re the cheapest ticket in town,” Raymer says.

“I’m glad people are starting to look to us,” she said. “I’d love for them to look inside as well.”