Birmingham Airport Exhibit about Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth

I was at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Airport recently picking up my son Amos coming in from Philadelphia. Since I arrived early, I had time to examine the extensive exhibit on the civil rights icon Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth [18 March 1922-5 Oct 2011] located between the baggage claim areas 1-2 and 3-4. 

In the introduction to his Encyclopedia of Alabama entry on Shuttlesworth, Andrew Manis writes, "African American Baptist pastor and the central leader of the civil rights movement in Birmingham, Fred Lee Shuttlesworth (1922–2011) was one of the pioneering figures in the civil rights era. The organization he founded in 1956, the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR), joined with Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to protest segregation in Birmingham in 1963. Partly as a result of those direct-action demonstrations, the U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964."

The exhibit is a compelling portrait of an important individual and important period in Birmingham, Alabama, and American history. You can read more about Rev. Shuttlesworth here and here. Among the numerous articles and books is Andrew Manis' 1999 A Fire You Can't Put Out: The Civil Rights Life of Birmingham's Fred Shuttlesworth and a 2000 volume edited by Manis and Marjorie White, Birmingham Revolutionaries: The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. 

Birmingham Photo of the Day (71): Fannie Flagg & a Model

Wandering around the Alabama Mosaic database recently, I came across the 1966 photo below showing actress, comedian and author Fannie Flagg with a model of Birmingham. The photo was taken at the city's airport.  By 1966 the Birmingham native was well-known locally and beginning her climb to much wider fame. She had appeared in productions at the Town and Gown Theatre before graduating from Ramsay High School. She entered the Miss Alabama pageant seven times and appeared in local commercials. By the early 1960's she was co-host of a morning show on WBRC-TV.  In 1964 she stepped onto the national stage as a staff writer for Allen Funt's popular Candid Camera program. The following year she moved to New York and developed a stand-up comedy act. Flagg soon started appearing  as a regular on television game shows like The Match Game and Password. She recorded two comedy albums as well.  Her greatest success came after this photograph. She appeared in her first movie role in 1970 in Bob Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces with Jack Nicholson. Her first novel Coming Attractions was published in 1981. Since then she has concentrated on her writing career.  The current two-story terminal at the Birmingham airport opened in 1973, so this photo was taken at the previous two-story terminal which opened in 1962. The facility was known as Birmingham Municipal Airport until the name was changed in October 1993 to Birmingham International Airport.  Various questions arise from this photograph. I guess Flagg was making a hometown visit after moving to the Big Apple. Who constructed the model? Why was it in the airport? Perhaps to introduce people new to the city to Birmingham? And what happened to the model???  "Fannie Flagg looking at a model of the city of Birmingham at the Birmingham Municipal Airport."  June 23, 1966 Source: Alabama Dept of Archives & History Digital Collections Birmingham Municipal Airport terminal which opened in 1962. When the 1973 terminal opened this one became office space until demolished in 2011.  Source: BhamWiki

A Living Wall at the Birmingham Airport

I recently posted about a sad memorial at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. Now it's time for one about the facility that's a bit more upbeat.

A few years ago the airport completed a major upgrade to the terminal and its concourses. That work included the installation of a "living wall" of plants in Concourse B. As the airport's web site notes, the wall is "entitled 'Earth Wind and Water: The Landscape of Alabama'. The display is the largest living wall inside any airport terminal in the United States. The wall is 100 feet wide, 14 feet high, and contains 1,400 square feet of vegetated area." The wall is one of several works of art inside and outside the terminal.

Although born in Philadelphia in 1950, artist Murray Johnston has lived in Birmingham since 1953. His specialty is art quilts, and his work appears in many galleries, and corporate and public collections, and has been included in numerous shows over the years. 

The design was installed by the Green Over Grey company based in Vancouver. 

A Sad Memorial at the Birmingham Airport

I've written several posts on this blog that might be classified under a "history in unexpected places" category---things like markers or plaques in very public places that most people pass by without noticing. One such post discussed the Hillman Hospital Annex cornerstone and another a plaque inside UAB's Jefferson Tower. I've also written one about a memorial plaque for Dr. Bernie Moore, an important figure in the founding of Crestwood Hospital in Huntsville.

I remember another such encounter vividly that took place a few years ago on our trip to Boston to visit son Amos. We stayed at a b&b in Cambridge, not far from his apartment, and each day he would meet us, and we walked several blocks to the nearest subway stop to begin our adventures. On our final day I noticed we had been walking right by a marker commemorating Watson's Corner, the site of an April 19, 1775, skirmish connected with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Who knows how many people walk past the marker and never see it, much less stop and read it. The Boston area is crowded with history, even along the sidewalks.

In the Birmingham airport recently I noticed just such an item on the ticketing and departure level---the plaque below, which is located on one end of that floor. This memorial acknowledges the death at that spot of Luke Bresette. The ten year-old, his two siblings and parents were passing through Birmingham on their way home to Kansas on March 22, 2013. After an extensive renovation the terminal had reopened only nine days earlier. The family happened to be in front of a free-standing arrival and departure board when the structure fell over. The father was uninjured, but Heather Bresette and her children were pinned under the sign that weighed several hundred pounds. 

The mother was taken to UAB Hospital and the youngsters to Children's. All survived except Luke, who died later that day. You can read about the incident in more detail and its aftermath here and here. You can see a photo of the cabinet that fell over taken the day the terminal reopened on the BhamWiki site. The plaque below is located on that portion of the wall behind it. 

Birmingham Photos of the Day (50): Airport Terminal Views in 1947

In August I posted an item in this series that discussed a photograph of the original terminal at the Birmingham airport. Since then I've found some more photographs, including several taken inside the terminal. All were taken by Charles Preston in 1946 and 1947, according to the entries on the Birmingham Public Library's Digital Collections site. These pictures seem to be something out of a neat old movie, maybe just after Bogie and Bacall have boarded their plane. As always, I have comments on some  of them. 

As you'll note from the dates noted below, something does not jive. I suspect one or more dates are incorrect. Or the old Birmingham airport terminal was a way station in the Twilight Zone. 

Many other photographs by Preston related to the Birmingham area can be found on the Birmingham Public Library's Digital Collections site. 

Entrance to the Birmingham Airport taken by Preston in February 1947. 

This interior shot shows the Eastern Airlines ticket counter and the coffee shop entrance. The clock tells us it's 10:25 am on that February 5, 1947. I wonder if the next flight is running late?

This Preston photograph is dated June 1946 and also shows the Eastern Airlines ticket counter. What happened? Not sure how this more modern looking counter became the counter above.  

This Preston photograph was also supposedly taken in February 1947. Delta was founded in 1924 as a crop-dusting operation; the airline's headquarters moved to Atlanta in 1941. Note the lone women sitting in a chair; she seems to appear in the next two photographs as well.  

Another February 1947 photo that features the PCA International ticket counter. I'm not sure what "PCA" stood for, and the airline must not have been around long. I couldn't find it on either Wikipedia or a general Google search. And what happened to that coffee shop sign??

A final February 1947 shot features some of the terminal's windows.

Another undated photograph by Preston shows passengers boarding an Eastern Airlines plane.

Birmingham Photo of the Day (49): Airport Terminal

This two-story building opened with great fanfare on May 31, 1931, as the new terminal for the Birmingham airport. A single runway served American Airways flights from Atlanta to Fort Worth.

The present terminal opened in 1973. A detailed history of the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport can be found at the BhamWiki site. That article has a photo of the original terminal taken in February 1947. Based on the vehicle seen in the lower left, the photo below was probably taken earlier. 

I wonder what kind of security procedures passengers had to submit to in 1931? 

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections