Monday, March 8, 2021

Alabama History & Culture News: March 8 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!



Hundreds risked everything in Selma 56 years ago today. This group is trying to identify them
Debra Barnes Wilson was 8 on "Bloody Sunday" in Selma, Alabama. ... her life and why the day is one of the most important in American history.

Author Explores Preacher Father's Silence On Racial Injustice In 1960s Alabama
His father had a pulpit at a critical time and place in American history, 1960S Alabama. John Archibald found his father's old sermons and used them ...


Author Deborah Lamb's new book “Urban Legends of the South” is a spellbinding collection of ten ...
... Deborah Lamb is a compelling compilation of southern ghost stories rooted in historical buildings across Alabama, Tennessee, and Louisiana.

EJI Partners with Community to Dedicate Historical Marker in Irondale, Alabama
... the Jefferson County Memorial Project to unveil a historical marker for William Wardley, a Black man lynched in Irondale, Alabama, on December 7, ...


Jefferson County Memorial Project's searing report on Linn Park's racial history
This space has the potential to bring people together across divides while sharing, remembering and taking part of Alabama's and Birmingham's history.”.


New Book Highlights Founding of Alabama State University
alabamanewscenter.com. In the recently released “From Marion to Montgomery: The Early Years of Alabama State University, 1867-1925,” author ...


This 1962 Alabama school cookbook captures Black history, recipes
Trinity High School, which operated in Athens, Alabama from 1865 until 1970, was the only Limestone County school for Black students. The county ...


DON NOBLE: A look at films set in the South from “Gone With the Wind” to “Gump”
Readers cannot help but be astonished by the scope of this book, by the ... Among the Dixie states, Alabama has been the subject and setting for a ...



By the book: Authors bring naval, African-American history into focus
Alabama author Patti Callahan has fictionalized the sinking of the “Pulaski” in her novel “Surviving Savannah.” The main character is Everly Winthrop, ...


Sheila Washington, founder of Alabama civil rights museum, dies at 61
Sheila Washington, who founded an Alabama museum dedicated to the ... Ms. Washington knew nothing of this history when she was growing up in ...


'From Marion to Montgomery' sheds new light on the founding, history of Alabama State University
While assisting an Auburn University graduate student researching Perry County history, Caver was told, “they've got it all wrong over there. … The ...



What an 1870 Race Riot Tells Us About White Supremacy in America Today
Black History Month may be drawing to an end, but The Atlantic's ... project by talking about the historic riots that took place in Eutaw, Alabama in 1870.

Alabama man rebuilds father's race car from the 1930s
LOCUST FORK, Ala. (WIAT) — Alabama has a rich history of racing like Talladega and the Motor Sports Hall of Fame. One part of the state where ...


America's Political Roots Are in Eutaw, Alabama
They know how history can ripple through time; how politicians and private actors bend systems to maintain control; and how racism and white ...


'From Marion to Montgomery' sheds new light on the founding, history of Alabama State University
While assisting an Auburn University graduate student researching Perry County history, Caver was told, “they've got it all wrong over there. … The ...

Alabama Freedom Rider Catherine Burks-Brooks recalls her civil rights journey
“That was part of history. That's the way I look upon it.” Violence in Alabama. The first Freedom Ride rolled out of Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961 ...

More than 50 years later, Sam 'Bam' Cunningham reflects on historic USC-Alabama game
It helped change college football history. In 1970, Alabama's football program had yet to integrate. No Black player had seen playing time on the varsity ...

Africantown builds a museum for the slave ship Clotilda
There's a part of the story, but it's a larger story and the History Museum working with the Alabama Historical Commission is creating this exhibit to tell ...



Monroe County Courthouse named National Historic Landmark
MONROEVILLE, Ala. (WKRG) — The iconic Monroe County Courthouse in Monroeville has been named a National Historic Landmark. Fewer than 3 ...


The Alabama State Bar's website still lists Madison as disbarred. The gravesite of Arthur Madison ...


'They're a part of history' | Descendants of last-known slave ship survivors work to keep legacy alive
The Clotilda arrived in Alabama's Mobile Bay in 1860. The ship was later burned and sunk to hide evidence of the illegal transport. The trip was illegal ...


WAAY 31 Black History Month Spotlight: WC Handy
16,1873, in Florence Alabama. Handy's musical interest started in early childhood - but because having musical talents and playing instruments were ...


Alabama's Ann Berry set to be sworn in as first Black secretary of the Senate
The significance of being sworn in one day after the conclusion of Black History Month and on the first day of Women's History Month is not lost on ...
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Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Alabama History & Culture News: March 3 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!



This 1962 Alabama school cookbook captures Black history, recipes
Trinity High School, which operated in Athens, Alabama from 1865 until 1970, was the only Limestone County school for Black students. The county ...


DON NOBLE: A look at films set in the South from “Gone With the Wind” to “Gump”
Readers cannot help but be astonished by the scope of this book, by the ... Among the Dixie states, Alabama has been the subject and setting for a ...



By the book: Authors bring naval, African-American history into focus
Alabama author Patti Callahan has fictionalized the sinking of the “Pulaski” in her novel “Surviving Savannah.” The main character is Everly Winthrop, ...


Sheila Washington, founder of Alabama civil rights museum, dies at 61
Sheila Washington, who founded an Alabama museum dedicated to the ... Ms. Washington knew nothing of this history when she was growing up in ...


'From Marion to Montgomery' sheds new light on the founding, history of Alabama State University
While assisting an Auburn University graduate student researching Perry County history, Caver was told, “they've got it all wrong over there. … The ...



What an 1870 Race Riot Tells Us About White Supremacy in America Today
Black History Month may be drawing to an end, but The Atlantic's ... project by talking about the historic riots that took place in Eutaw, Alabama in 1870.

Alabama man rebuilds father's race car from the 1930s
LOCUST FORK, Ala. (WIAT) — Alabama has a rich history of racing like Talladega and the Motor Sports Hall of Fame. One part of the state where ...


America's Political Roots Are in Eutaw, Alabama
They know how history can ripple through time; how politicians and private actors bend systems to maintain control; and how racism and white ...


'From Marion to Montgomery' sheds new light on the founding, history of Alabama State University
While assisting an Auburn University graduate student researching Perry County history, Caver was told, “they've got it all wrong over there. … The ...

Alabama Freedom Rider Catherine Burks-Brooks recalls her civil rights journey
“That was part of history. That's the way I look upon it.” Violence in Alabama. The first Freedom Ride rolled out of Washington, D.C., on May 4, 1961 ...

More than 50 years later, Sam 'Bam' Cunningham reflects on historic USC-Alabama game
It helped change college football history. In 1970, Alabama's football program had yet to integrate. No Black player had seen playing time on the varsity ...

Africantown builds a museum for the slave ship Clotilda
There's a part of the story, but it's a larger story and the History Museum working with the Alabama Historical Commission is creating this exhibit to tell ...



Monroe County Courthouse named National Historic Landmark
MONROEVILLE, Ala. (WKRG) — The iconic Monroe County Courthouse in Monroeville has been named a National Historic Landmark. Fewer than 3 ...


The Alabama State Bar's website still lists Madison as disbarred. The gravesite of Arthur Madison ...


'They're a part of history' | Descendants of last-known slave ship survivors work to keep legacy alive
The Clotilda arrived in Alabama's Mobile Bay in 1860. The ship was later burned and sunk to hide evidence of the illegal transport. The trip was illegal ...


WAAY 31 Black History Month Spotlight: WC Handy
16,1873, in Florence Alabama. Handy's musical interest started in early childhood - but because having musical talents and playing instruments were ...


Alabama's Ann Berry set to be sworn in as first Black secretary of the Senate
The significance of being sworn in one day after the conclusion of Black History Month and on the first day of Women's History Month is not lost on ...
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Friday, February 26, 2021

Beulah Vee's Cedar Chest: A Coda

In July 2016 I wrote a series of five blog posts about a cedar chest full of personal items belonging to my aunt Beulah Vee Wright. She died in 1939 at the age of eighteen, so the items date from the 1920's and 1930's. She and her family lived in Gadsden, Alabama. Below I have quoted the introduction to that first post to give you more details. 

Our family on both sides is blessed--or cursed--with a vast amount of memorabilia--everything from photographs, furniture, lamps, and china, to Native American artifacts found in cotton fields across North Alabama, some of it on my side and some from my wife Dianne's. We have a large amount of material related to her father's long military career, for instance. 

Anyway, Dianne, my brother Richard and I have been puzzling over what to do with all this stuff. None of our kids will have the room or inclination to take much of it, so we have explored other options. Before he died in 2003, Dad made a large donation of the artifacts to the University of Alabama's Office of Archaeological Research in Moundville. A few years ago Mom made a second donation of those materials to OAR. Dad's large collection of books related to southeast Native Americans history and archaeology, as well as manuscripts and research materials for his two published books, were donated after his death to the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Which brings us to Beulah Vee's cedar chest. Last year I contacted Steve Murray, Director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History to see if they would be interested in the items in the cedar chest. I felt it was a time capsule of a white girl and young woman who lived in Gadsden in the 1920's and 1930's. Steve agreed, and I began the usual process of donation. The committee that oversees donations also felt the items would be an appropriate addition to the Archives. On August 26 last year Dianne and I packed up the materials and headed to Montgomery. You can find some photos and more commentary below.


Here's the introduction to that first blog post:

My dad's older sister and thus my aunt Beulah Vee Wright has always been something of a mystery in the family. Born in Gadsden on November 2, 1921, she died soon after her eighteenth birthday on December 10, 1939. She had attended Etowah High School, graduating that spring despite a serious illness that had begun in March. She is buried in Forrest Cemetery in Gadsden with my grandfather Amos J. Wright, Sr., and grandmother, Rosa Mae Wright. 

This event was a cataclysmic one in the family, especially for my grandmother. She never really got over it despite living until 1997. My grandparents' social life apparently changed drastically. My grandfather and father pretty much had to warn everyone not to bring up Beulah Vee's name; the memory must have been too painful. Unfortunately, I never brought the subject up with my father before he died; his memories of his sister would have been interesting to know, since he was 13 when she died.

Despite its effect on her and her desire not to talk about her daughter, my grandmother maintained something of a shrine to her. The furniture purchased for Beulah Vee's bedroom became the guest room furniture in a house where she never lived that my grandparents moved into in the late 1940's. My aunt's portrait shown below hung on the wall of that guest room. And then there was the cedar chest.

My grandmother saved clothes, documents, and various objects of her daughter's life and kept them in the cedar hope chest she and my grandfather had bought for her at some point. Some of those items will be explored in several posts to follow. The chest is stuffed with material--it is a time capsule that captures the life of a young and then a teenage girl in Gadsden, Alabama, in the 1920's and 1930's. 

*******

Below are photographs of several dolls belonging to Beulah Vee and my grandmother that were not discussed in the cedar chest posts. The state archives also decided not to accept the dolls since their collection already contains many examples. I've also included a few photos about the trip to the state archives in Montgomery to transport the donation. 

Further comments are included below some of the photos. 




Here are Beulah Vee and her mother Rosa Mae Wright's dolls patiently waiting 
for the trip to Montgomery. Do you find dolls creepy like so many people?



















This doll is tiny compared to the others. 







Behind these two dolls is a display case that holds Dianne's collection of dolls. 











Here the dolls are packed and ready to go. 



This cradle was made by Beulah Vee's father, my grandfather Amos Jasper Wright, Sr. The portrait of Beulah Vee is one of the few photos of her we've kept. 




The car is loaded up and ready for the trip. The story behind Beulah Vee's painted portrait is told in the first of the five original blog posts. 







We arrived at this entrance of the Archives to do the unloading. Below is a closer look at the signs of the times. 










After all these years of hearing about Beulah Vee and exploring the contents of the cedar chest a few times, I was rather sad to see it leave the family. But we can't keep everything and perhaps the donation will be useful to future researchers and displays at the Archives.









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Monday, February 22, 2021

Alabama History and Culture News: February 22 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!


Books-A-Million's Virtual Event with Author John Archibald Invites a Deep Dive into “Shaking the ...
Moderated by Alabama icon Wayne Flynt and Reckon Interview team members John Hammontree and Ryan Nave and hosted by Books-A-Million and ...

Book Review: 'The Wife Upstairs' sets 'Jane Eyre' in modern-day Alabama
Taking plot and character inspiration from Charlotte Bronte's “Jane Eyre,” author Alabama author Rachel Hawkins cleverly reimagines the gothic ...

The Burleson Family: A history older than the state
... Heaven," a historical book written by David Burleson, Morgan County archivist John Allison spoke to the importance of the family to north Alabama.


Former UA professor Allen Wier to receive Truman Capote Prize at virtual Monroeville Literary ...
... of Alabama from 1980 to 1994, was recently announced as sixth recipient of the Truman Capote Prize for Distinguished Work in Literary Non-Fiction ...


Alabama man recalls his march on Bloody Sunday
It's a day students in America learn about in their history class. It happened back in 1965. It's also a day Reverend Charles A. Dale will never forget ...

Montgomery museum documents history of racial injustice in America
Montgomery, Alabama, is a beautiful city. Behind the elegant buildings, flowering trees and wide avenues, however, lies a history not so beautiful: The ...

Elba Masonic Lodge gifts historical marker to City of Elba
The Elba Masonic Lodge #170 gifted an Alabama Historical Marker to the City of Elba during a ceremony held Saturday, Feb. 13, in Elba.


Construction of Alabama's new Africatown museum begins
Second, we are committed to an exhibition that is not only historically accurate but also is executed to the highest standards of public history and ...

Black Heritage Council helps Alabama's African Americans discover their past
The BHC is an arm of the Alabama Historical Commission and serves as an advocate for the preservation and restoration of African American historic ...

Tour highlights University of Alabama's history with slavery
Tour highlights University of Alabama's history with slavery. UA associate professor Hilary Green's tours shed light on the university's slave history and ...

Researchers with the University of South Alabama are currently examining land across from the Old Plateau Cemetery to assess whether any graves ...

Historical Museum seeks funds to restore its home
We have secured a $15,000 grant from the Alabama Historical Commission to allow us to begin the studies on what it will take to restore the building.


The historical Latham Post Office will get a new home in Stockton
STOCKTON, Ala. --According to the Baldwin County Commission, for 82 years, the Latham Post Office has played an important part in Baldwin ...

'Three Days at Foster' director, sports author Keith Dunnavant discusses Alabama's forgotten civil ...
'Three Days at Foster' director, sports author Keith Dunnavant discusses Alabama's forgotten civil rights pioneers. Black History Month. by: CBS 42 ...


DON NOBLE: Biography shows how John Lewis embodied the social gospel
Meacham's first book was about the civil rights movement. ... Reading what life was like for black families in Troy, Alabama in the 1940s, you can see ...


2021 Harper Lee Award winner Angela Johnson writes about the African-American family experience
Alabama roots wend throughout her novels, poetry and short stories, but Johnson has also written a connected series of novels about growing up in ...

But some normalcy was kept alive inside the historic cemetery. Visitors milled around the Graveyard to pay respects to Cain and Julian “Judy” Rayford, ...
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Friday, February 19, 2021

Birmingham Photo of the Day (78): Motorcycle Police

I came across this photograph as I wandered through the Alabama Mosaic site and thought I would explore it a bit. The item is from the digital collections at the Birmingham Public Library, as linked below. That entry tells us nothing beyond noting it shows Birmingham police officers on motorcycles and was taken by O.V. Hunt [1881-1962]. Oscar Virgil Hunt was a commercial photographer in the city for many years and his work documents decades of Birmingham history. The Library maintains a Hunt collection; more about it and him can be found here. 

I'm sure someone familiar with the history of Birmingham police uniforms and/or the motorcycle type could date this photo more precisely than I can. However, there is another feature that tells us something. That statue in the background is one of William Elias B. Davis, a prominent city physician who died in February 1903 at the age of forty. 

The statue was dedicated in Capitol Park [now Linn Park] on December 14, 1904. In 1957 it was moved to the front of the New Hillman Building and has stood there, more or less, ever since. I've written a blog post on Davis and his physician brother John and their accomplishments. You can also read about them here.  

Thus this photo was taken sometime between 1904 and 1957, no doubt closer to the former than the latter. If you have any more ideas, please leave them in the comments!



Source: Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections


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