Auburn professor creating ‘Alabama Justice’ exhibit for Alabama's Bicentennial

A traveling exhibit, "Alabama Justice: The Cases and Faces that Changed a Nation," will tour the state in 2019, Alabama’s bicentennial year, thanks to funding from the Alabama Humanities Foundation, Auburn University Intramural Grants Program and a College of Liberal Arts Summer Research Grant.

Steven Brown, professor in the Department of Political Science in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University, is conducting extensive research to write about three United States Supreme Court justices appointed from Alabama, and eight landmark cases that arose from this state. He will utilize his research to create content for a traveling exhibit that will make appearances in museums, libraries, universities and public buildings throughout the state during the upcoming bicentennial of Alabama statehood.

The three-dimensional multimedia exhibit is tentatively designed to have 35 display panels, five pop-up panels, video monitors and audio components to allow visitors to learn more about these cases, the justices, the Supreme Court and the Constitution. He is also working on an accompanying exhibition book.

The Alabama Humanities Foundation grant was the most recent agency to approve funding for the project.

"I was very grateful to learn that I had received this grant," Brown said. "As critical as every dollar of the funding is, however, the most important thing to me has been the support of Thomas Bryant, the foundation’s grants director."

Brown said he met Bryant last year when Bryant came to Auburn as part of a College of Liberal Arts grant workshop.

"He [Bryant] expressed initial interest in the idea of the exhibit," Brown said. "He encouraged me to develop the project further… and primarily because of his support for the exhibit, and now with the addition of the AHF grant, the idea of ‘Alabama Justice’ is about to become a reality and it is just very exciting."

Brown says that he has received support from his colleagues and peers and throughout the community and state.

"My department, the College of Liberal Arts and Auburn University have been very supportive, financially and otherwise," Brown said.

Brown says that the project is in its initial phase. He is spending this summer writing a book on the landmark cases and Supreme Court justices that will accompany the exhibit and that was made possible with the help of a College of Liberal Arts Summer Competitive Research Grant.

"Dr. Brown’s initiative is exactly the kind of project we like to encourage through our summer research competitive grants program," said Joseph Aistrup, dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University. "The state-wide educational component of this exhibition aligns with our commitment to outreach and serving the community."

The exhibition is slated to begin its tour on Jan. 1, 2019, in commemoration of Alabama’s Bicentennial.

For more information about Brown, go to his website.