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.
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
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