The 1948 annual meeting of the Southern Historical Association (SHA) proved to be an unqualified disaster. Southern conservatives had recently bolted the Democratic Party and formed the infamous Dixiecrat Party, nominating avowed segregationist Strom Thurmond as their presidential candidate.

With Dixiecrat fever at high pitch and racial tensions mounting, Birmingham’s conference hosts treated the intellectuals from such places as New York City, San Francisco, and Chicago with marked contempt. They refused to allow black scholars to sit or socialize with whites and forbade controversial historical topics.

As a result, the SHA vowed never to return to Birmingham. And it didn’t for 50 years. Finally, in 1998 the association gave Birmingham a second chance, and participants were astounded by the changes they saw. The city had come a long way from the mean-spiritedness and belligerence depicted in 1960s-era newsreels.

This year, post-Katrina conditions in New Orleans forced SHA conference planners to choose an alternate location for the 2006 meeting. Birmingham will host the more than 1,200 historians from Nov. 15 to 18.

Scholars from Duke, Berkeley, University of Chicago, University of Heidelberg, and many other illustrious campuses will explore topics such as “Victims, Villains, and Violence in Representations of Slavery,” “Race, Lynching, and Legal Executions in the South and Southwest,” and “Southern Society and the Built Environment: Churches, Colleges, and Piggly Wiggly.”

International scholars who study the American South will present papers on “Nazi Racism: The View from the Deep South” and “Military Occupations, Past and Present: A Comparative View.” There will also be two full sessions on Birmingham’s turbulent history, as well as a showing of the famous documentary “Who Speaks for Birmingham?” at the main branch of the Birmingham Public Library in downtown Birmingham, Thurs., Nov 16.

For a complete list of sessions, visit http://www.uga.edu/~sha/meeting/program.htm.

Walking tours of downtown will be offered free and led by Philip Morris, past editor of Southern Living and historic preservationist Linda Nelson. Bus tours will also be offered of fabulous Redmont Park with a light reception at the DeBardeleben mansion, and of African American and Civil Rights sites with an inside look at the historic Black Masonic Temple’s ballroom. The latter tour will be led by Bishop Calvin Woods, president of the local SCLC, and historian Dr. Bob Corley. Tours depart from the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel. Tickets are $15. If you are interested in the bus tours contact Pam King at pamking@uab.edu.

The Southern Historical Association was organized in 1934. Its objectives are the promotion of interest and research in southern history, the collection and preservation of the South's historical records, and the encouragement of state and local historical societies in the South. As a secondary purpose the Association fosters the teaching and study of all areas of history in the South.