Alabama History & Culture News: August 29 edition

 

Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these items are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Some articles may be behind paywalls. Enjoy!

DON NOBLE: Novel explores the Civil War through a young doctor's eyes - Tuscaloosa News Tuscaloosa News The dust jacket copy of "Forgiveness" says that Phillip Kendrick of Mobile's Eastern Shore has published scientific articles on nurse anesthesia and patient ...

Descendants of Alabama's Africatown persist despite industrial pollution struggles - Reckon South Reckon South The daily reminders of Africatown's complex history can be seen several times a day, as trains slowly roll past the dilapidated homes, empty, overgrown lots ...

'The Wishbone Boys' book available at Amazon as movie premiers - al.com al.com The book shows the details of the wishbone offense and why it was so important to Alabama football history. In that span, Bryant won three national ...

Alabama Names Ashley M. Jones As Its New Poet Laureate - WBHM

WBHM

She has a new book coming out in September. And her latest accolade: Jones is now Alabama's poet laureate, a goal she has long wanted to achieve.

Smith, Vickery to host book signings in Gulf Shores, Fairhope | GulfCoastNewsToday.com Gulf Coast News Today He was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. After retiring from coaching, Smith and legendary Alabama basketball coach Wimp Sanderson, teamed

Alabama's only historical octagon house was setting for mystery tale - al.com al.com One of Alabama's most unusual homes has been preserved in downtown Clayton. The Petty-Roberts-Beatty House is known for its unique architecture, ...

Reggie Jackson: My journey to visit Selma, Alabama and the history some want us all to ... Milwaukee Independent What makes Selma stand out physically is the now infamous Edmund Pettus Bridge. The bridge across the Alabama River is a National Historic Landmark due to the ...

“An Amazing Alabama” book shines spotlight on state trivia, history - WSFA

WSFA

The book is called “An Amazing Alabama,” written by Karl Stegall, a retired minister at First Methodist Church in Montgomery. He calls this part trivia book, ...

Recent book releases from the TAB Media family - The Alabama Baptist Alabama Baptist TAB Media staff spouse Bryan Gill. “The Devils in Alabama”. The plot of Bryan Gill's first crime thriller/suspense novel involves a tangled web of illegal ...

State's Black Heritage Council to hold virtual forum | News | thewetumpkaherald.com Wetumpka Herald In 1984, the Alabama Historical Commission, the State Historic Preservation Office, created the Black Heritage Council (BHC) to advocate for and advise the ...

Auburn's 'Bloody Sunday' history project named recipient of NEH humanities grant Office of Communications and Marketing An Auburn University multidisciplinary project focused on the infamous “Bloody Sunday” civil rights event that occurred in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965, ...

New documentary puts Alabama community in the spotlight Alabama Public Radio “Afrikan By Way of American” explores the historic community of Africatown. The town was founded by former slaves who were trafficked aboard the Clotilda, the ...

Brock's Gap debate: History buffs raise concerns over city's plan for new parkway in western Hoover Hoover Sun Since 1854, the South and North Alabama Railroad had been working to link Alabama's capital city of Montgomery with the Tennessee River in north Alabama with ...

Miles College awarded a half-million-dollar grant to preserve, restore Williams Hall ... Alabama NewsCenter “HBCUs like Miles College and Alabama State University have played a pivotal role in shaping American history, especially as it pertains to the struggle ...

Montgomery pastor leads tours, seminars about Alabama's Civil Rights history - The Alabama Baptist Alabama Baptist That's why Adams founded Montgomery Deep History, a company that offers walking tours and seminars about the history of Alabama's capital city ...

The Historical Society restores Looney House

Newsaegis

The Looney House, possibly the oldest dogtrot house in Alabama, held a restoration event this past weekend. This is the first official restoration on the ...

'The Show Goes On' — Birmingham's Carver Theatre is Back Birmingham Times The space features a new bar that gives the theater and Alabama Jazz Hall of ... The depth and breadth of Alabama's connection to the history and ...

Wade Hall's postcard collection on exhibit at Troy University

Union Springs Herald

“Military Service: A History in Postcards,” an exhibit now at the Troy ... “Historical Scenes of Alabama” and “Alabama Tourism” can be viewed from the ...

Historian Peggy Jackson Walls draws on locals' memory banks in 'Lost Towns of Central Alabama' The Alexander City Outlook Historian Peggy Jackson Walls poses in the Alabama Room at Adelia M. Russell Library in Alexander City with her latest book, "Lost Towns of Central ...

Alabama Photos of the Day: Two Auburn Bookstores in 1950

I recently ran across these first two photos in one of Auburn University Libraries' digital collections and being a retired librarian and bookstore denizen since the days of my youth, they grabbed my attention. Let's investigate. The photos show the interior of two bookstores in Auburn in 1950, Hawkins' and Burton's. The quotes about each store come from the linked source. At some point Mr. Hawkins died and a bookstore entrepreneur from Tuscaloosa named Paul Malone purchased the store and renamed it Malone's. George Johnston had been working there and took over management; he purchased the store in 1953. The Johnston family took full control in 1960 and renamed it Johnston and Malone, which became J&M in 1968. That's how the store was known when I arrived in Auburn in June 1970. You can read more about J&M here, here and here. I've found nothing yet on Mr. Hawkins' background, but that's not the case with with the founder of the other store, Robert Wilton Burton. Although born in Georgia in 1848, he grew up in Lafayette and spent most of his adult life in the Auburn area. After the Civil War he taught school in Lee County and Opelika until he and his brother opened a bookstore in that town. In 1878 faculty members at the college then known as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama asked him to open a bookstore in Auburn to serve the school and community. Burton's Book Store became a center of literary and intellectual life and operated until 1968. Before his death in 1917 Burton published numerous poems and humorous stories in newspapers and national magazines. With the income he built a one-story house for his family affectionately called the "Four-Story Cottage". Although listed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1980, the Queen Anne-style house on East Magnolia Street was demolished in 1993. In May 1957 Paul Malone was one of the incorporators of Malone's Book Store, Inc. in Tuscaloosa. The business was dissolved in 1968. I raided my parents' collection of Auburn University yearbooks from ca. 1947-1950 and other sources for book store ads and photos beyond the two I found initially. I couldn't stop myself and have included them below in order to create a mini-history of bookstores in Auburn. I wonder if my parents are in either of these photographs. They were at Auburn in 1950. If you have any information or memories about these stores, please tell us in the comments section. UPDATE 19 March 2022 One Auburn bookstore I didn't discuss was Anders, which closed recently after 56 years in business. Hawkins Bookstore in 1950 "Hawkin's Bookstore in Auburn in 1950 was called 'The Friendly Bookstore.' George and Paul Malone took over the store years later and named it Johnston and Malone's." Source: C. Harry Knowles Photographs Collection, Auburn University Libraries Burton's Bookstore in 1950 "Auburn's Burton's Bookstore in 1950 packed with students getting their books from the quarter. Robert Wilton Burton opened the first bookstore in Auburn in 1878 for then Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama. The slogan for Burton's, on East Magnolia and South College, was "Something New Everyday." It closed its doors in 1968 after 90 years." Source: C. Harry Knowles Photographs Collection, Auburn University Libraries Advertisement from the 1949 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook Advertisement from the 1948 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook Advertisement from the 1949 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook Advertisement from the 1947 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook Advertisement from the 1948 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook Advertisement from the 1949 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook Advertisement from the 1950 Glomerata, Auburn University's yearbook In this photograph taken around 1910, we are looking down what is now College Street in Auburn. The building on the right in front of the water tower is Burton's  Book Store. Toomer's Drug Store is the building with the awning.  Source: Auburn University Digital Library  At some point a Wright Brothers Book Store operated in Auburn. "The water tower behind reveals its location on the north side of Magnolia Avenue a few doors east of Toomer's Drug Store. Source: Ralph Draughon, Jr., Delos Hughes & Ann Pearson, Lost Auburn: A Village  Remembered in Period Photographs. New South Books, 2012, p. 129 J & M Bookstore today Source: J & M website

Birmingham Photo of the Day (80): Paris Bookstall Protest in 1971

I came across this photo on the Alabama Archives site as linked below; that page has the following description of the event in April 1971:

"Christian demonstrators marching on the sidewalk in front of the Paris Bookstall, an adult bookstore in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. They are holding up their index fingers to mean "One Way / Jesus Way" (the slogan on a poster used by the same demonstrators at a later event)."

Well, I thought, this one should be interesting to research. And so it was...

Birmingham has had its share of adult bookstores and theaters over the years and Paris Bookstall was one. The business was operated at 2125 Fifth Avenue North beginning in 1969 by Chester McKinney, who also managed the Pussy Cat Adult Theatre at 7610 First Avenue North. More about that facility momentarily.

On February 26, 1970, in a case in Mobile, the Alabama Circuit Court declared a magazine called "New Directions" to be obscene. On March 10 a state attorney and state investigator delivered a letter to McKinney informing him of the the Mobile court decree. On March 31 the two men returned to the store and purchased a copy of the magazine. McKinney was charged and convicted of selling obscene material in a jury trial. He appealed to the state Criminal Court of Appeals, which upheld the conviction. McKinney then appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court rulings on May 9, 1974, and denied McKinney's request for a rehearing.

He did not stop there, however; the U.S. Supreme Court took the case and heard arguments on December 15, 1975, and rendered a decision on March 23 the following year. Justice William Rehnquist delivered the court's verdict: "We reverse." McKinney had been convicted of selling material judicially declared obscene by the court in Mobile but had not been allowed at his own trial to litigate the obscenity of "New Directions". Bill Baxley was Alabama Attorney General at this time.

How much longer the Paris Bookstall operated after this decision I have been unable to discover. McKinney seems to have kept it going for some years despite the protests and court cases.

Oh, about that Pussy Cat Adult Theatre. In April, May, July and August 1971 a city police sergeant purchased tickets and viewed the adult films "Vice Hustler", "Dead Eye Dick", "Love on a Mountain", and "Fantasy of Love" as well as various short films. McKinney was charged with violations of a municipal ordinance against "knowingly exhibiting obscene color motion picture films." His trial court convictions were upheld by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals on October 29, 1973. I've yet to find what happened after that decision; perhaps McKinney paid a fine and devoted his resources to fighting the "New Directions" case.

You can read the--uh--juicy details of the court cases here and here.

Recent efforts to fight adult bookstores and theaters in East Lake are described here and here.

The Paris Bookstall sign can be seen down the sidewalk on the right. Presumably that is the former Bankhead Hotel, now the Bankhead Towers in the background. 

Photo by Ralph Farrow, April 1971

Source: Alabama Dept of Archives and History Digital Collections

Ted's Restaurant in Birmingham

Recently Dianne and I were returning home from Huntsville and decided to stop somewhere for lunch before reaching Pelham. We first tried Niki's West on Finlay Boulevard, a legendary place we've enjoyed several times, but it was packed. So we got back on the Interstate and then exited at UAB intending to go to another favorite, Makarios at Five Points. We never made it, since we passed by Ted's Restaurant and swung in there instead.

We had eaten at Ted's once before, many years ago, and the lunch this time was as good or better than we remembered. We can highly recommend this meat-and-three with a Greek spin. Dianne had the souvlakia which was excellent; she let me have a taste! Since she got the last skewer of that, I tried the baked chicken and it too was delicious--as were the veggies. 

Ted's is one of many restaurants with a Greek pedigree that have opened in Birmingham and Alabama over the past century. Ted Sarris and his wife Litsa opened the place at 328 12th Street South in 1973. Tasos Touloupis and his wife Beba bought the restaurant in 2000 and refurbished the interior and expanded the menu. 

If you are in the area. or even if you're not, give Ted's a try. You can read more about the history of Ted's here. More about Birmingham's Greek restaurants is here and others in Alabama here. 

Alabama History & Culture News: August 10 edition

 

Here's the latest batch of links to just-published Alabama history and culture articles. Most of these items are from newspapers, with others from magazines and TV and radio station websites. Enjoy!

Project named for man killed in 1947 Alabama lynching gets federal funds al.com Multiple other sites in Alabama received grants through the program, including historic Black churches and sites linked to the civil rights movement. Note ...

Birmingham's Jordyn Hudson premieres documentary on youth and civil rights history Alabama NewsCenter Houston Brown, former presiding judge of the 10th Judicial Circuit of Alabama. Former Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington. “Youth have always ...

"The Heathens" By: Ace Atkins Alabama Public Radio Ace Atkins Novel Features Dangerous Road Trip ... Don Noble's newest book is Alabama Noir, a collection of original stories by Winston Groom, Ace ...

Answer Man: What is the origin of the state's name, Alabama?

Dothan Eagle

A: According to an article on the Alabama Department of Archives and History website, Alabama was the name of a southern Native American tribe in ...

Civil Rights Institute calls for increased security after historic marker destroyed

al.com

“With the support of Alabama Power, BCRI has made a commitment to work with the Alabama Historical Commission Preservation Office to replace ...

COLUMN: Old Recording Reveals Alabama Soldier's Lost WWII Stories Patch.com Tuscaloosa Patch Founder and Field Editor Ryan Phillips shares a personal tale about family stories that were thought to be lost to history.

Birmingham Public Library: Book Review: "The 5th Little Girl: Soul Survivor Of The 16th Street ...

Patch.com

Find out what's happening in Birmingham with free, real-time updates from Patch. Let's go! I feel we should celebrate Black History and ...

Group launches fundraising campaign for film about Alabama's voting rights activism alreporter.com Transform Alabama wants its storytelling project to connect today's activists to the state's long history of movement foot soldiers. By. Micah Danney.

Army base unveils historical marker honoring Black soldier who was lynched on base 80 years ago NewsChannel5.com Felix Hall, whose body was found hanging in a ravine at the base on March 28, 1941. The Army Times reports that Hall grew up in Alabama and joined ...

Hunting 80-million-year-old shark teeth in Alabama's Black Belt al.com ... of the ocean,” said Allie Sorlie, education outreach coordinator for the Alabama Museum of Natural History, which organized the fossil hunting trip.

Throwback Thursday: 1926 Rose Bowl, Alabama vs. Washington

Bama Maven

Throwback Thursday: 1926 Rose Bowl, Alabama vs. Washington. Alabama's first appearance in a bowl game resulted in its first national championship ...

Grant awarded to preserve historic Lowndesboro school Lowndessignal This grant is one of 53 projects in 20 states (including 7 others in Black Belt Alabama) that the NPS will fund to help preserve sites and history related ...

Floyd Cooper, illustrator of Black life for children, dies at 65 Daily Press ... a celebrated children's book illustrator who explored African American experiences in stories rooted in history, like one about a boy in Alabama in ...

Plans move ahead on Helen Keller, Rosa Parks statues for the Alabama State Capitol grounds

Alabama NewsCenter

It's not clear whether two women from Alabama who made history ever met. But it won't be long before Helen Keller and Rosa Parks – or, rather, their ...