Anniston has long been known as The Model City. It was founded as a model new South  town in the post Civil War era by the combination of industrial investment capital from the North with the labor and resources of the South.

During the turbulent days of the 1960's, President John F. Kennedy called Anniston's Bi-racial Human Relations Council "a model for the nation." Over 100 cities nationwide called on city officials to get information on "the Anniston model."

And now today, this program can also serve as a national model of how a town can preserve and understand its' past struggles and conflicts and do so in a way that helps overcome those continuing problems and difficulties today. Already there has been great interest expressed in this project by several national media and organizations.