Superintendent named for sites in Birmingham, Anniston

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The National Park Service has named a superintendent to oversee new civil rights historical sites in Birmingham and Anniston.

The federal agency says Kris Butcher will take over at the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument and the Freedom Riders National Monument starting Oct. 27.

Both sites were created during the final days of the Obama administration, and both are undergoing work to get them ready for the public.

The Birmingham site encompasses parts of the city’s historic downtown black business district including the hotel where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stayed during demonstrations in 1963.

The Anniston site marks the bus station where interracial Freedom Riders were attacked in 1961. Their bus was attacked again and burned a few miles away.

Butcher worked at a park site in Maryland.