As Tuscaloosa officially began its bicentennial celebration, historian and author Guy Hubbs reflected on the question of what it means to be a Tuscaloosan.

For Hubbs, the question of who should be counted among Tuscaloosans is one of the fundamental decisions that has helped shape the community’s story.

“Tuscaloosa has a rich history. We are here to night to make note of that history,” Hubbs said during the kickoff for the yearlong celebration on Thursday.

Hubbs wrote a children’s book, “Tuscaloosans” that will be part of the educational program for the celebration and a comprehensive coffee table-style book about the city and its history, “Tuscaloosa 200 Years in the Making.”

As part of the evening, Tuscaloosa 200 unveiled a bicentennial quilt commissioned for the celebration, an 11-minute video recapping the city’s history, and the history books by Hubbs.

The yearlong celebration has monthly themes beginning with history in January. Some of the other monthly themes include civic involvement and women, culture and religion, education, transportation, and the future.

The group behind the celebration began planning two years ago and hundreds of volunteers have worked on the project, said Cathy Randall, co-chair of the bicentennial commission.

“I really wanted to make it for all the people,” co-chair Harrison Taylor said. “It wasn’t my thing or their thing, it was our thing.”

Hubbs reflected on the series of decisions in the last 200 years that cascaded to make the community as it exists today. He noted the decision in the 19th century to locate and then move the state capital, the founding of the University of Alabama, the establishment of the state’s first psychiatric hospital and the growth of rail and river trade. In the 20th century, there were the fights for equality during the civil rights movement and the decision by Mercedes-Benz to build its first U.S. plant in Vance.

Hubbs traced the question of who should be counted a Tuscaloosan through the city’s history and into the modern trends of rapid enrollment growth fueled with students who come from outside the state.

“When we look back at the past 200 years, the problems of transience, racial prejudice and voting irregularities have made it difficult to make a decision of who is a Tuscaloosan,” he said.

Hubbs sees an answer to the question in the response to the April 2011 tornado from the community as well as outside volunteers. The storm untied Tuscaloosans, across racial, socio-economic and geographic lines and drew thousands of volunteers who came to help.

“Perhaps we can learn from those volunteers what it means to call ourselves Tuscaloosans. At our best we don’t define ourselves by how long we have been here or the color of our skins, We define ourselves by what we do, and what we do is work together to build and rebuild our community. That is what it means to be a Tuscaloosan,” Hubbs said.

Mayor Walt Maddox’s comments carried a similar tone.

“We have gone from a frontier village to the front lines of the Civil War and the civil rights, the home of champions to the home of the best automaker in the world ...” Maddox said. “To me, Tuscaloosa 200 is about our character, who we are, our generosity. The future we want to elevate can only be done if we know where we have been.”

Maddox read a resolution naming Hubbs an honorary historian for the city. The mayor reflected on the history of the city ahead of the introduction of the bicentennial quilt by commission co-chair Tim Parker Jr.

Artist Yvonne Wells was the creative director for the quilt. Wells was aided by local artists Becky Booker, Tonyia Tideline, Amy Echols, and Sharron Rudowski. The award-winning quilt maker sewed the completed panels together.

The quilt tells the story of Tuscaloosa through the north, south, east and west regions of the city. Amid the representations of the University of Alabama, industrial sites, historic churches and other landmarks, the Black Warrior River stretches across the panels. Wells’ signature birds fly over the city. The back of the quilt is the state flag.

“This is so outstanding it should be hanging in Louvre when it is done,” Parker said.

Reach Ed Enoch at ed.enoch@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0209.