J. Max Bond, Jr. served as design architect for the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, which has been developed as an educational, cultural, and research center focused on the history of the civil rights movement.  The building includes an exhibition and information center, as well as a repository for historical materials.  The mandate of the Institute is to promote a comprehensive understanding and appreciation of the significance of civil rights developments in Birmingham, Alabama, with particular emphasis on the national struggle of black citizens and minority participation in the democratic process and free enterprise system.
 
Significantly, the Institute serves as a local history museum, as well as a “living institution” of national and international scope.  Seminars and other special events are incorporated into the the Institute’s program, as a way of maintaining vital links with the neighborhood, city, and region.
 
Visitors to the Institute proceed along a walk that begins at a stepped plaza leading to a terraced court to the rotunda at the brick-and-precast concrete building’s entrance.  Once inside, the progression through the history of the civil rights movement begins with the history of turn-of-the-century Birmingham.  Exhibits are planned with names that are directly related to the course of civil rights:  Barriers, Transition, Movement, Processional, Milestones, and Reflections.  The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute was a project of Bond Ryder and Associates.