Alabama History & Culture News: January 8 edition

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

EJI says 'Just Mercy' among books banned by some prison systems al.com "Just Mercy," based on the book by Equal Justice Initiative executive director Bryan ... It does not report that Alabama prisons banned the book.

Alabama's Princess Theatre continues to charm audiences Alabama NewsCenter Alabama's Princess Theatre continues to charm audiences ... The bright neon marquee, preserved façade and historic lobby – featuring tiles made of ...

Grant to help Brindley Cemetery restoration effort

Cullman Times Online

The cemetery, located on County Road 747 about a mile north of Highway 69, has historic ties to Cullman County and to the state of Alabama. Sixteen ...

Fort Mims' Massacre, Battle of New Orleans, & General Andrew Jackson News Maven The Alabama historical marker reads: ​. "FORT MIMS - Here in the Creek Indian War 1813-14 took place the most brutal massacre in American history ...

Ancient sea turtle fossil found in Alabama named new genus, species

al.com

Ancient sea turtle fossil found in Alabama named new genus, species ... of Paleontology at the Alabama Museum of Natural History James F. Parham, ...

School named after George Washington Carver officially named historic landmark whnt.com School named after George Washington Carver officially named historic ... to be the first school named in honor of the scientist in the state of Alabama. ... A historical marker was unveiled outside and that brought smiles to many ...

Visiting the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama with the Cape Gazette

CapeGazette.com

It is a very sobering depiction of our history that so many of us do not know. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how many people were at the ...

What Is The Connection Between The Classic Novel 'To Kill A Mockingbird' And 'Just Mercy'?

Oxygen

“To Kill a Mockingbird” is the Pulitzer Prize winning book written by Harper Lee, published in 1960. ... setting: They take place in and around Monroeville, Alabama, the New York Times reported in a review of Stevenson's memoir.

Born Into Slavery, This Centenarian Learned to Read at 116, Becoming the Nation's Oldest Student Black Enterprise Walker was born in Union Springs, Alabama, in 1848 and lived in bondage ... Hubbard, who has penned award-winning books for both children and ...

These 2 Alabama actors had roles in 1970's 'Aristocats' al.com “The Aristocats,” which will be 50 years old on Christmas Eve 2020, was the last animated film approved by Walt Disney before his death and the first ...

BICENTENNIAL BASH: Pike County completes celebration of 200 years in 2019 Troy Messenger Pike County joined in the statewide three-year Alabama Bicentennial ... The Brundidge Historical Society has been telling stories of the people, places ...

The city of Enterprise continues to persevere

Alabama NewsCenter

In the late 1800s, boll weevils marched from Mexico, destination Alabama. ... “This puts history in perspective,” says Diane Napoli, Depot Museum ...

Peggy Wallace Kennedy leads readers down The Broken Road of reconciliation Gulf Coast News Today As the daughter of former Alabama governor and presidential candidate ... Now in a new book titled “The Broken Road,” Wallace tells her side of the ...

8. Bicentennial exhibit sees greatest contributions from Lawrence County Moulton Advertiser The exhibit presented by The Alabama Humanities Foundation featured interactive displays commemorating key events in Alabama history.

Looking back at a year of living history in Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa News Looking back at a year of living history in Tuscaloosa ... Blind Boys of Alabama, Moon Taxi and other musicians originating from our fair state: 2019 ...

Historic West End is where Birmingham's Magic was Born Birmingham Times To say that West End has historical significance is an understatement. ... Bear Bryant, University of Alabama football coach; Mary Anderson, inventor of ...

Florida professor was in right place for historical tribute to civil rights icon Rosa Parks Destin Log Florida professor was in right place for historical tribute to civil rights icon ... at the Rosa Parks Museum at Troy University in Montgomery, Alabama.

Remembering Hank Williams 67 Years Later Alabama News Network (press release) Hank is buried next to his wife, Audrey Williams in the Oakwood Cemetery Annex located in Montgomery. Hank's funeral was one of the largest events ..

Bullock County Historical Society quarterly meeting to be held

Union Springs Herald

Bullock County Historical Society quarterly meeting to be held ... An article in the Ledger-Enquirer East Alabama by Virginia Smith dated May 20, 1870 ...

UA and Tuscaloosa: Two centuries together Tuscaloosa News ... said Hubbs, the author of the book “Tuscaloosa: 200 years in the Making,” a history of ... The University of Alabama System estimates UA's economic impact on the ... driver for the city of Tuscaloosa and the entire state of Alabama.”.

Walk through 200 years of Alabama history at Bicentennial Park al.com More than 30 bronze plaques on the monuments provide a rich, concise summary of Alabama history from the perspectives of the famous and from ...

Something about Fairhope & Fort Morgan ca. 1950

The items in this post are taken from a scrapbook at mom's and probably come from the honeymoon they took after their wedding in Haleyville on September 10, 1950. Both were students at Auburn and would not have had either time or money for an extensive trip. Apparently they did make it to the Fairhope and Fort Morgan areas of Alabama. 

In that period Gulf Shores and Orange Beach were not much of a thing in tourism. Until completion of the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway in 1937,  Gulf Shores was largely inaccessible beach and wetlands. A poor road led to the first beach hotel,, opened in the early 1940's and the first post office in 1947. The town was incorporated in 1958. Orange Beach had a similar development. The first hotel appeared in 1923, a paved road came in 1947, electricity the following year and telephone service in 1958. Some vacation cottages were also built in both towns.

Gulf State Park opened in 1939 and by this time organized tourism efforts began to appear in printed pamphlets and Mobile newspaper articles. World War II brought civilian workers and military personnel to the coast from Mobile to Panama City. After the war the tourist trade picked up and continues today. An excellent history of this area is Harvey Jackson's 2012 book, The Rise and Decline of the Redneck Riviera: An Insider's History of the Florida-Alabama Coast. 

Mom and dad apparently chose a more developed place, Fairhope. I would imagine dad's interest in history led them to Fort Morgan. By that time the Dixie Graves Parkway had been built out to Fort Morgan, so roads were pretty good to both places.

I have so far been unable to find any information on the businesses noted below where mom and dad must have eaten and stayed. More information on two individuals named here is at the end of the post. 

If you have information about these places, leave a note in the comments. 

I wonder what's on this spot today. I can find the intersection of South Church Street and Fairhope Avenue on Google Maps or Earth, but with no address I don't know which of the four corners was the one. 

A Robert K. Summersell turns up in Mobile in the 1930 U.S. Census working as a punchman; in the 1940 census he was a salesman. His Find-A-Grave entry is here.

Ras Crenshaw in the 1938 Murphy High School yearbook

Source: Ancestry.com 

According to his Society Security record, Captain Ras Crenshaw was Erastus Sylvester Crenshaw, Jr., born on October 11, 1920, in Bayou La Batre. He died on August 30, 1993.

From a "Welcome to Gulf Shores, Alabama" postcard packet ca. 1960

Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives and History Digital Collecitons

What's Coming to the Blog in 2020?

What's coming to the blog in 2020 you ask? Beats me, I answer....

For several years now I've posted this sort of item on January 1 listing subjects I hope to cover in the coming year. You can read the 2019 post below; it contains links to 2018 and earlier years.

In 2019 I wrote 110 posts, the most of any year since I began the blog in 2014. That number, though, is inflated by the "Alabama History & Culture News" posts I started adding to the blog in July. This post makes a total of 550 on the blog. 

How many posts from the 2019 list did I manage to write?? Well, other than the ongoing ones--some family history stuff, films with state connections, etc--the only one was "A Legacy and Justice Visit to Montgomery". Seems I'm falling further and further behind... 

The "what's coming" posts are really wishin' and hopin' lists. I have a long list of topics I'd like to write about and naturally, no matter how many I write, it keeps growing. New topics just keep forcing themselves into my consciousness. 

So here are some wishes and hopes for 2020.



-The USS Birmingham & Early Flight

-Tallulah Does Birmingham

-Posts on visits to Scottsboro, Arab, Clanton, Calera, etc

-Alabama Actors R.G. Armstrong & Harry Townes [This one was on the 2019 list also; maybe I'll get it done this year! Of course, that goes for all the unwritten posts on these lists...]

 

-The Strange Writing Career of Clement Wood

-Movies with Alabama connections: The Fountainhead, The Dragon Painter, Stars in My Crown, Bright Road, Rebel in Town

-I've wanted to do "Did Mobile's Florence Maybrick Murder Her English Husband in 1889?" for a long time, and I really must get to it this year. Such a juicy story!

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What's Coming to the Blog in 2019?

Once again I want to start the new blog year at AlabamaYesterdays with a review of past efforts and a list of posts I hope--hope being the operative word--to do in 2019. I note that from the 2018 list, only the posts on Carnegie libraries and P.T. Barnum were actually completed. So all the others remain in the ongoing wish list. That 2018 post includes the lists from previous years as well. There are still a lot of topics waiting patiently for their turn. 

First, let's do the numbers:

2018-74

2017-80

2016-99

2015-91

2014-95

A total of 439 posts so far....sheesh....makes me tired just thinking about that...

2019 possible posts:

-Alabama's "Weird Tales" Connections

-Shelby County's Silent Movie Star: Henry Walthall

-Some Old Alabama Postcards (2) [I've acquired a number of new goodies for this post]

-Harriet Martineau Visits Alabama in 1835

-There's a Ticket Stub for That [a journey through 30 or so years of movies, concerts, etc.]. I've actually begun some organizational work behind the scenes on this one, which was also on last year's list. 

-Alabama Actors R.G. Armstrong & Harry Townes [You probably know their faces, since both men had very active film and television careers]

-A Legacy & Justice Visit to Montgomery

-New entries in ongoing series, such as films with Alabama connections

-Family history stuff, such as "A Memory Tour of Huntsville" & "Some Alabamians in New Orleans (2)" [That latter one may become a regular feature as long as our son Amos is living there!]

-The usual crop of posts on "let's connect [fill in the blank] to Alabama!"

-The usual crop of stuff I haven't even thought of yet

I guess I better get to work..

Alabama History & Culture News: December 31 edition

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

Alabama's 200 years in 200 images: To the moon and back al.com Tasked with bringing America to the forefront of that race was Dr. Wehrner von Braun, a technological genius who came to Alabama after developing ...

Book highlighting beauty, stories of historic Auburn structures to be released on Jan. 15

Opelika Observer

Auburn is well known as a college town and as a historic Southern village in central Alabama. The architecture that presently constitutes Auburn's built ...

New species of fossil shark named for beloved Birmingham volunteer Alabama NewsCenter A new species of fossil shark from southern Alabama has been discovered, a team of scientists led by Jun Ebersole, director of Collections at the ...

Author Tim Dorsey to speak at New Smyrna Beach Regional Liubrary Headline Surfer The new book is set for release on Jan. 7. A former newspaper reporter and editor in Alabama and Florida, Dorsey has published 21 humorous crime ... [Dorsey attended AU & edited the university newspaper, also worked for the Montgomery Advertiser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Dorsey]

The year's most memorable book-to-film releases Texarkana Gazette The movie: Much like the book, the bulk of the adaptation directed by Destin Daniel Cretton ("Short Term 12") centers on Alabama death row inmate ...

Alabama's 200 years in 200 images: Freedom fighting from Iwo Jima to Selma al.com ... class of African American pilots in history of the United States to get their wings at the advanced fly school on March 7, 1942 at Tuskegee, Alabama.

A decade of women's history in Alabama al.com The 2010s brought historic gains for women in Alabama, including the Equal Pay Act. 2018 was deemed the “Year of the Woman,” by many national ...

Alabama's population: 1800 to the modern era

al.com

Alabama was a sparsely populated wilderness by the time the first census was taken ... Only one Alabama locale of 1830 — the town of Mobile — qualifies as .... and was collected by the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

“I NEVER FELT LIKE QUITTING” SAYS 80-YEAR-OLD WHO BECOMES ALABAMA A&M ... Black Star News In early December 2019, Donzella Washington made history at Alabama A&M University by becoming the oldest person to graduate from the school.

Meet the new ancient shark species found in southern Alabama Bham Now The Red Mountain Expressway's exposed rock showcases 190 million years of history, more than any other road cut in America! You can find fossils ...

'Just Mercy': An Earnest, Effective Legal Drama NPR It tells the true story of Stevenson's efforts to free a poor black man in Alabama, Walter McMillian, who spent six years on death ... of the original case, but writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton (adapting the book with co-writer Andrew ...

Gardendale resident amasses 40000 postcards of Birmingham, Jeffco

Alabama NewsCenter

“I bought a book for a dollar, and it had a postcard. ... Avenue North and 18th Street, showing the Lyric Theatre before the Alabama Theatre was built.

'Chasing The Bear' is worth your time Sports Illustrated It was both fun and interesting for me to read Lars Anderson's newest book Chasing ... This book is a fun, interesting, entertaining and informative read. ... of the Year Bruce Arians told about his first tenure at Alabama under Bryant.

Longtime Walker College leader dies at 98 Daily Mountain Eagle ... he received a master's degree from the University of Alabama in 1951. ... Services will follow at noon at the church with burial at Oak Hill Cemetery.

BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY To Ring In 2020 At Falcon Theatre Broadway World The play is a brutally honest and candid examination of an array of issues--including race, gender, sexuality, and cultural intolerance--in the historical ...

UA sculpture professor influences future generations Tuscaloosa News The ceramics foundry on the University of Alabama campus is the hottest place to be most days as UA faculty and students use fire to sculpt and cast ...

Quilters sew, share Underground Railroad history Longview News-Journal She found the tattered quilt in Montgomery, Alabama, while killing time and was somehow drawn to the familiar pattern she had seen before.

'Just Mercy' Review: Echoes of Jim Crow on Alabama's Death Row The New York Times Bryan Stevenson's “Just Mercy” is a painful, beautiful, revelatory book, the kind of reading experience that can permanently alter your understanding of ...

When Alabama's Mardi Gras was a New Year's celebration al.com Alabama Department of Archives and History. The grave of Michael Krafft, founder of the nation's first Mardi Gras mystic society, in Magnolia Cemetery ...

Checking out cemetery 'grave shelters' Gadsden Times If it hadn't been for several internet writings, I would never have learned about Alabama's “graveyard” history and grave shelters in particular

A Grapico from Gadsden

On our annual pilgrimages to St. George Island, Florida, we usually spend at least part of one day in Apalachicola. The small town is a working seaport with lots of history and charm. Most of the commercial and residential buildings date from the 19th or early 20th centuries. Naturally, the place is also full of shops and galleries, a bookstore, a brewery and such. 

On our most recent visit the week of Thanksgiving, we made our trip into town on Black Friday so our grandson Ezra could see Santa arrive by shrimp boat. Before that we did some shopping at various places including the Apalachicola Sponge Company. There I found the Grapico bottle. 

The drink was first developed and sold by J. Grossman's Sons in New Orleans in 1914. In 1917 a businessman in Birmingham, Raymond R. Rochell, purchased the soft drink's syrup from Grossman's Sons and began distribution in Alabama. By 1929 Rochell had expanded the business beyond Alabama to Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana. He also began distributing Orange Crush in 1926 and 7-Up in 1933. Birmingham's independent Pepsi bottler Buffalo Rock purchased the company in 1981 and continues to distribute Grapico in the southeastern U.S. A Diet Grapico was added to the product line in 2005. 

More comments are below. You can read about some of Birmingham's other early soft drinks here. 

I bought this bottle for $8. Too bad it wasn't a little less; I'd have bought the one from Birmingham also.

Rochell's company became the Orange Crush-Grapico Bottling Company by 1953. The name was shortened to the Orange Grapico Company in July 1957, so this bottle appeared before then at a bottling operation in Gadsden.

The town has special meaning for me since I was born there. My dad was also born there, and we used to visit often until my grandmother died in 1997. 

The Orange Crush, 7-Up and Grapico bottling company in Birmingham in the 1940's. 

Photo by O.V. Hunt

Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections 

"Older than dirt but a whole lot sweeter" says the company's web site.