coding civic – By blending computer science with local history, students in Birmingham are transforming their coding projects into interactive digital archives of the city’s civil rights legacy.
The classroom at South Hampton K-8 School in Birmingham. Alabama. usually hums with the rhythmic clatter of students mastering Swift Playground. But this past February, the screens displayed something far more personal than standard software tutorials. Seventh and eighth graders were not just learning to arrange stack layouts and text fields; they were building an interactive archive dedicated to the local pioneers who shaped their own neighborhoods.
The project marked a departure from the passive consumption of technology. For the students. the mission was to move beyond the “All About Me” app templates and instead engineer a four-screen mobile experience. Each application followed a rigorous technical architecture: a title page with high-resolution portraits. an AI-synthesized biographical summary. an interactive “Did You Know?” card. and a media gallery featuring primary source documents and archival video.
This shift in curriculum followed a transformative six-day journey undertaken by their teacher earlier in 2025. Participating in the Institute for Common Power’s “Truth and Purpose Learning Tour. ” the educator traveled from Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn district through Montgomery. Selma. and Birmingham. The experience. grounded in the Institute’s “Movement Learning” framework. emphasized physical engagement with the sites of the civil rights movement—from the Edmund Pettus Bridge to local urban farms—to understand the realities of systematic disinvestment in Black communities.
Returning to the classroom, the teacher saw a chance to pair this historical depth with technical instruction. Students began researching figures like retired Judge U.W. Clemon and activist Charles Mauldin. To manage the dense biographical data, they utilized generative AI tools like Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT. By practicing prompt engineering, they learned to distill complex political and legal terminology into clear, accessible summaries for their apps. The goal was never to replace human research. but to use AI as a co-pilot to unlock the human stories behind the archives.
The initiative culminated in February 2025 at the school’s “Library of Innovation.” The showcase brought together parents. school leaders. and several of the featured pioneers themselves. In a scene that bridged generations. 13-year-old students guided community elders through the navigation paths of their apps. explaining the underlying Swift code while demonstrating the historical milestones they had spent weeks documenting.
This approach draws on the concept of historical empowerment promoted by Terry Anne Scott. executive director of the Institute for History & Equity. By treating coding as a canvas for community storytelling. the program challenges students to view themselves as architects of their future rather than mere observers of the past. For these students, technology has ceased to be an abstract classroom requirement. Instead. it has become a vehicle for civic agency—a way to ensure that the legacies walking their streets are not just remembered. but coded into the digital landscape of the city.
coding Birmingham history civil rights education STEM Swift AI in education South Hampton K-8 Institute for Common Power