City leaders start celebrating towns 200th birthday
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – A town in Alabama recently launched a celebration of its 200th birthday, with many events occurring throughout the year featuring many different events transpiring across the county.City leaders kicked off the celebration with the dedication of the pavilion in Government’s Plaza to the observance of Tuscaloosa’s 199th birthday on December 13th 2018.
The Tuscaloosa Bicentennial celebration consists of a whole host of ways to celebrate this milestone in the county’s history, ranging from a concert festival to a living exhibit entitled “Tuscaloosa Through Time” that will take place from April 24th through the 27th in the Bryant Conference Center at The University of Alabama.
Mayor of Tuscaloosa, Walt Maddox, says he wants the celebration to be a “springboard towards a brighter future.”
Teachers in the surrounding school district plan to use the yearlong celebration to further educate local children about their hometown in innovative ways and give the participating schools an opportunity to showcase their talents during the “Tuscaloosa Through Time” exhibit.
With the implemented curricula, Mayor Maddox describes “we live in a community where in many ways is on the forefront of history, [and] something that few people know is that the representatives of Tuscaloosa actually voted against succession at the beginning of the Civil War…it’s just those types of examples of what our community has done that is important to the overall knowledge of our students…”
City leaders also have a interactive app that allows people to experience Tuscaloosa’s history through a driving or walking tour around the city that the bicentennial commission hopes will be “an enduring legacy resource for visitors and home towners alike.”
The bicentennial commission had many artists who wanted to make a quilt featuring many things that gives the viewer a glimpse 200 years into Tuscaloosa’s past. More about the quilt and its creators can be found here.
The Tuscaloosa Bicentennial Commission hopes the yearlong celebration honors Tuscaloosa in “world-class fashion.”