Georgette Norman hopes to use Alabama’s history to build bridges and spark dialogue

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Georgette Norman
Georgette Norman creates Living History each day. The historian serves on the Alabama African-American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium, is former director of the Rosa Parks Museum and is also directing the stage play "Fences" in Montgomery. [Photo Credit: Bruce Nix | Alabama NewsCenter]

Passionate. Friends of Georgette Norman say if they had one word to describe her, that’s what it’d be.

Norman takes a more thoughtful approach. With an undergraduate degree in history and a master’s in education, she describes herself as a true student of history and an artist who paints when her schedule permits. Norman says the arts were not only instilled in her as a child, but also help keep her sane.

Norman says she wants to carefully preserve the historical journey to civil rights and use her rich knowledge of African-American culture to build bridges in Alabama and beyond. She encourages Alabamians to use their history as an opportunity to spark deliberate dialogue, which she believes will help bring about social and political change.

Norman was most recently tapped to serve as project historian on the Alabama African-American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium. She was instrumental in helping identify 20 sites throughout Alabama that played vital roles in the civil rights movement as meeting places or worship centers as recognized by the World Monuments Fund watch list.

Going forward, Norman will be part of a team that will help not only to preserve the actual buildings, but the stories related to the significance of each site so that future generations will understand the major role these sites played in civil rights in Alabama.

Previously, she worked as the first director of Troy University’s Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery. She retired in 2014.

Norman says even though she’s proud of some of her career accomplishments, she remains ever ready to embrace a good project. Her current artistic project? Director of the stageplay “Fences” at the Cloverdale Playhouse in her hometown of Montgomery. These performances are set to debut in April.

Republished with permission from the Alabama NewsCenter.

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