The arrest of activist Rosa Parks occurred on December 1, 1955 in Montgomery and led to the 381-day long Montgomery Bus Boycott organized by Martin Luther King. Prior to the event she had taken a course in Race Relations at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee where civil disobedience had been discussed and suggested. She [...]
The Calhoun Colored School (1892-1945), an early “industrial school,” was founded in Calhoun, Lowndes County, Alabama, about 28 miles southwest of Montgomery in 1892 by Miss Charlotte Thorn and Miss Mabel Dillingham in partnership with Booker T. Washington for the purpose of educating the impoverished rural population. R.H. Ellis’ study in Alabama Review, reprinted in [...]
I had never heard of the Society for Industrial Archaeology, but Birmingham is certainly a great location for its Southern Chapter, and I was interested to learn about the Birmingham Rails website, owned and operated by John Stewart, a civil engineer with a fascination for Birmingham railroad and industrial history. The April field trip of [...]
Odetta was born in Birmingham, Alabama on New Year’s Day in 1930. Her father, Reuben Holmes, who died when she was a small girl, was a steel worker, and her mother, Flora Sanders Holmes, was engaged in domestic service. She did not grow up here, but in Los Angeles, and is known for singing the [...]
Jimmie Reed’s Big Boss Man… Luther Dixon and Al Smith wrote this song in 1960, and Jimmie Reed’s version was released in 1961; it’s supposed to be on the list of the 500 songs that most influenced Rock ‘n Roll (Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame). Jimmie Reed, the great blues musician and songwriter, was [...]
Here is the Miles College Choir singing Soon I Will Be Done at the National Black College Gospel Festival in 1976. From negrospirituals.com: Soon-a will be done a-with the troubles of the world Troubles of the world, troubles of the world Soon-a will be done a-with the troubles of the world Goin’ home to live [...]
One doesn’t have the feeling of being on a mountain around Grove Oak, Alabama, but the area is supposed to have an elevation of about 1500 feet in general, and when you are driving to Buck’s Pocket State Park, frequently referenced as being in a natural pocket of the Appalachian Mountain, you might have the [...]
The Russell Cave National Monument is in the extreme northeastern part of Alabama on the border with Tennessee, and probably 25 miles from Chattanooga. Coming from the South, you can take 59 to US 117 North, then take the four-lane US 72 North to 98. The length of the cave is said to be about [...]
The Red Door Theater in Union Springs, Alabama – so-called because of the building’s origins as an Episcopalian Church – is focusing in its 2010 season on plays set in the South and written by Southern authors — “Simply Southern.” The December (and Christmas-oriented) production is The Wise Women by Ron Osborne, showing December 2-4. [...]
The youtube video below shows Republican Robert Bentley at a candidate forum in Arab, Alabama on August 26, 2010, saying to parents that it is their responsibility, not the government’s responsibility, to put their kids through college. For that matter he even suggested that it was not necessary for every child to go to college [...]
David Beito is a University of Alabama history professor who has published widely on southern history. The video below features, among other things, his statement of support for black home-owners in Montgomery who have recently been asked to leave their homes using the “eminent domain” excuse. Below you can see some of the books he [...]
From The Unforgettable Nat King Cole we learn that he was born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1919 – Nathaniel Adams Coles – and that his mother, Perlina Coles, was a choir director at the church. All four of her sons became professional musicians. The African-American community on Chicago’s Southside introduced Nat King Cole to jazz [...]