POWERGRAMS

100% CONNECTED Power to Transform Art exhibit examines 50 years of social change A ON THE COVER: Detail of " Your Scars, Your Beauty," which is among the special pieces of art in the Archives Museum June 13-Sept. 27. Artwork by Ben Harley PAGE 2 mong the many memorable segments in Leah Rawls Atkins' award-winning book about Alabama Power's first century in business is a pivotal event that reached far beyond the workplace. She writes in "Developed for the Service of Alabama" about Sept. 15, 1963, when Walter Baker was teaching his Sunday school class in Birmingham. The First Methodist Church Sunday school building was under construction and Baker, an Alabama Power employee, had received permission from the company to meet at Corporate Headquarters. Suddenly, a tremendous explosion shook the classroom, Atkins wrote. Baker and his class members had no idea what happened, but they decided to cut short their studies and leave the business building. Less than two city blocks away, at the Sixteenth Street Baptist 'A Dark Time/A Defining Moment' by Billy Renkl. Church, Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and "Local art carries a ring of truth to it, establishing Cynthia Wesley had been getting ready for their a human value," said Communications Specialist 11 a.m. "Youth Day" service when a bomb ripped Dan Bynum, Corporate Headquarters. "We are through the basement, killing the four little girls and very proud to share this body of work, that resonates injuring 22 other worshipers. with life, from Alabama artists." The bombing that morning shocked Baker, his Artists in the exhibit include Darius Hill, fellow congregation members and people worldwide, Meredith Keith, Jahni Moore, Chiharu Roach and becoming a turning point in the civil rights Maralyn Wilson. movement. Less than a year later, President Lyndon This one-of-a-kind art show will be open to the Johnson would sign the landmark Civil Rights Act public from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through of 1964, which outlawed Friday until Sept. 27 in the historic Alabama Power racial discrimination in 1925 Building at Sixth Avenue North and 18th public facilities and voter Street in Birmingham. The artwork is available for registration. Baker went purchase from the artists. on to a distinguished career with Alabama Power, retiring in 1983 and passing away in 2010. At 5 p.m. June 13, 2013, the Alabama Power Corporate Archives Museumopens a new exhibit: "From Black Detail of 'Woman With and White to a World Right Arm' by Gary of Color. The Power to Chapman. Transform." More than 30 Alabama artists will exhibit their works examining their state's social transformation since 1963, reflecting on the past and focusing on the future.

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