50 Years Ago - The Birmingham News Reports on the Ending of Segregation in Alabama

September 1963 was a pivotal month for the Civil Rights Movement and Alabama. Violence increased and change was knocking at the door. No longer could institutional racism, personal racism and Jim Crow laws be tolerated in the United States of America. President Kennedy activated the Alabama National Guard to enforce integration. Terrorism by racist groups in Alabama threatened our state and nation. Children's lives were lost due to the murderous hatred of white racists.

Gov. George Wallace Stand in the Door Speech: http://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/schooldoor.html

The ending of Segregation-1963-Birmingham News Stories: http://topics.al.com/tag/This%20Day%20in%201963/posts.html

 September 1963 Daily News Reports From Alabama
Robert Chambliss, Charles Cagle identified as Birmingham bombing suspects (Sept. 30, 1963)

2 men taken into custody in 16th Street Baptist Church bombing (Sept. 29, 1963)

A.G. Gaston, Arthur Shores: 'We still have faith in Birmingham' (Sept. 28, 1963)

King to Birmingham: Negotiate or demonstrations resume (Sept. 27, 1963)

Teens accused of killing Virgil Ware free on bond; Boutwell cuts short New York trip (Sept. 26, 1963)

2 bombs explode in Birmingham but no injuries reported (Sept. 25, 1963)

Emissaries of JFK arrived in Birmingham; injunction signed against Wallace (Sept. 24, 1963)

8 people indicted for conspiracy to interfere with Birmingham school integration order (Sept. 23, 1963)

Teens told of shooting Virgil Ware; Johnny Robinson laid to rest (Sept. 22, 1963)

Editorials denounced Birmingham bombings; Wallace responded to Yale snub (Sept. 21, 1963)

Yale withdrew Wallace invitation, bombing rumors spread (Sept. 20, 1963)

Wallace donated to West End private school effort; school investigation order reprinted (Sept. 19, 1963)

Bombing reward fund reached $76,000; Birmingham leaders called to White House (Sept. 18, 1963)

Carole Robertson laid to rest; Wallace, NAACP criticize bombing investigation (Sept. 17, 1963)

Bells tolled for city-wide minute of prayer; Kennedy called for justice (Sept. 16, 1963)

4 little girls killed in church bombing, 2 young men shot to death (Sept. 15, 1963)

'Dynamite Bob' Chambliss offered $1,000 reward in stabbing of Birmingham detective's daughter (Sept. 14, 1963)

150 student demonstrators filled Birmingham Mayor Albert Boutwell's office (Sept. 13, 1963)

Woodlawn, Banks high school students pushed away demonstrators (Sept. 12, 1963)

In Midfield, 5,000 protested integration of schools (Sept. 11, 1963)

Kennedy federalized National Guard to integrate Alabama public schools (Sept. 10, 1963)

State troopers turned black students away from Birmingham schools (Sept. 9, 1963)

A.G. Gaston: Bombing of home 'doesn't represent the majority of the citizens' (Sept. 8, 1963)

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth: 'We have come this far by faith -- not by violence' (Sept. 7, 1963)

Federal appeals court ordered Birmingham schools reopened (Sept. 6, 1963)

Birmingham school board officially closed integrated schools (Sept. 5, 1963)

Riots broke out as Birmingham schools integrate, Shores home bombed again (Sept. 4, 1963)

State troopers arrived in Birmingham; 200 people demanded Birmingham schools close (Sept. 3, 1963)

Wallace denounced integration in Labor Day speeches; troopers surrounded Tuskegee school (Sept. 2, 1963) (video)

Pastors urged peaceful response as Birmingham schools integrate (Sept. 1, 1963)

For more information - The Southern Oral History Project on You Tube, A valuable resource for Race Relations history: http://www.youtube.com/user/southernoralhistory/videos

Alabama Civil Rights Trail

Montgomery Protests-Martin Luther King in Montgomery (Educational usage-photo Life Magazine) 

"In Alabama, museums, bridges, churches and other sites chronicle key episodes of America's civil rights movement. Walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma during the annual Bridge Crossing, commemorating the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March. Tour the National Voting Rights Museum and visit Brown Chapel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. launched the Voting Rights Movement. Then follow the Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail to Lowndes County, where antebellum history and sweeping plantation homes are juxtaposed against the backdrop of the civil rights struggle." http://www.alabama.travel/road-trips-and-trails/alabama-civil-rights-museum-trail/

Click here to download a full-color brochure of the Alabama Civil Rights Museum Trail

Civil Rights Leader, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth Dies

A Civil Rights icon passes on to heavenly place.
(Library of Congress photo at left) Rev. Abernathy, Rev. King and Rev. Shuttlesworth lead a march for voters registration in Selma, Alabama.



The Birmingham News Special Report, "Unseen Unforgotten"  http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/10/fred_shuttlesworth_obituary.html
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2010/09/rev_fred_shuttlesworth_and_fam.html

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/05/us/obit-rev-fred-shuttlesworth/#
CNN- "The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, who helped lead the civil rights movement, has died, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute said Wednesday. He was 89."

"Shuttlesworth is among the iconic figures honored in the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta. King once called Shuttlesworth "the most courageous civil rights fighter in the South.""

"Shuttlesworth's efforts weren't without a price: his home was bombed on Christmas Day in 1956, but he and his family were not injured.He was, however, hurt in 1957 when he was beaten with chains and whips as he sought to integrate an all-white public school..."

Commemorative statue of Rev. Shuttlesworth located in front of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

(wikipedia) "Fred Shuttlesworth (born Freddie Lee Robinson on March 18, 1922 - October 5, 2011) was a civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism as a minister in Birmingham, Alabama. He was a co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was instrumental in the 1963 Birmingham Campaign, and continued to work against racism and for alleviation of the problems of the homeless in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he took up a pastorate in 1961. He returned to Birmingham after his retirement in 2007."

"Rev. Shuttlesworth was portrayed by Roger Robinson in the television miniseries King. The Birmingham Airport is named after him."



Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth Biography http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=1281&category=Civicmakers

A Story of Jim Crow Injustice

                                              Ms. Recy Taylor today.

Ms. Rosa Parks was sent to Abbeville, Al. by the local NAACP to investigate the rape of Ms. Taylor.

 News articles about the 1944 rape by seven whites who were never prosecuted for the rape of Ms. Recy Taylor.

The story of Ms. Recy Taylor is a story of Jim Crow America, a story of no justice and of tyranny. The story of Ms. Taylor must be told so that we are reminded of a period in our history where racial injustice was the rule and practice. The tyranny of racial oppression can never be allowed to exist and those who perpetrate racial discrimination must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana

In Ms Taylor's case 2 all white male grand juries refused to indite the rapist. Then, as an additional indignity she was harassed by the police who should have been helping her.

Ms. Taylor's husband was offered $100 from each of the rapists as a proposed settlement. This offer was apparently approved by the local legal system.

There were seven men who openly admitted to the community and the Grand Jury that they had raped Ms. Taylor. The Grand Jury refused to return an indictment. This statement by one of the rapists was reported in local media accounts, "N***er- ain't $600 enough for raping your wife?"

"In her book "At the Dark End of the Street" Danielle McGuire writes about the rape in 1944 of a twenty-four-year-old mother and sharecropper, Recy Taylor, who strolled toward home after an evening of singing and praying at the Rock Hill Holiness Church in Abbeville, Alabama. Seven white men, armed with knives and shotguns, ordered the young woman into their green Chevrolet, raped her, and left her for dead. The president of the local NAACP branch office sent his best investigator and organizer to Abbeville. Her name was Rosa Parks. In taking on this case, Parks launched a movement that ultimately changed the world."
"Dark End of the Street" photo gallery: http://atthedarkendofthestreet.com/the-book/photo-gallery/

"Alabama State Rep. Dexter Grimsley personally apologized to Recy and her family for Alabama's failure to prosecute her rapists and deny her justice all of these years. Rep. Grimsley expressed his intent to introduce a House resolution calling for a state apology to Recy Taylor before the current session is out." http://www.examiner.com/feminism-in-dallas/alabama-may-finally-acknowledge-jim-crow-era-rape-of-recy-taylor    http://m.blackvoices.com/blog/bvblackspin/2011/3/22/southern-rape-victim-recy-taylor-deserves-more-than-an-apology/?p=1&icid=bv_bspin_art_prv_p

Tell the Alabama state legislature to support Rep. Grimsley's apology resolution click on this link to sign the petition.

Scottsboro Boys Museum Needs Your Help

In our society's communities there comes a time for measurements of a community's values. What are the citizens values and attitudes, what do the people value in a community? Where injustice has occurred how do citizens work to establish their image to the city, county, state, the nation and the world. The time has come for Scottsboro and Alabama's citizens to measure their values relating to race relations.

 

79 years ago, almost to the day, 9 teenage boys were accused of raping 2 white girls, March 25, 1931. The resulting series of cases become known as the Scottsboro Boys Case. The veil of time has been parted to reveal the truth of the Scottsboro Trials. The cases were a trumped up charge which told the story of racism in Jim Crow America.

The Scottsboro case occurred 7 months after 3 African Americans were kidnapped out of the Marion, Indiana jail where they had been arrested for allegations of raping a white girl. 1 youth escaped 2 were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan by hanging. Fears were rampant that the same would occur in Scottsboro.

History reflects a show of force and cooler heads prevailed in Scottsboro. History also reflects bigotry in Jim Crow Alabama resulted in other than a fair jury trial in Scottsboro and the subsequent cases.

I have traveled around the world in my near 58 years of life. In my travels discussion will eventually come around to "where are you from?" I always proudly answer Scottsboro, Alabama.

Many folks equate Scottsboro with Unclaimed Baggage, within the past 20 years, "snake handling," the Scottsboro case and the stereotype that Scottsboro represents in racism and bigotry. The Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center provides an opportunity to reverse the negative stereotype of Scottsboro, Alabama, to heal the wounds and scars of Jim Crow Alabama and the personal bigotry of a few.

I have recorded the history of the Scottsboro Boys Museum since it opened on December 20, 2009 on this blog. A deal was struck with caring and concerned leadership within the North Alabama United Methodist Conference to occupy the building while the museum staff raise funds for purchasing of the longest standing African American Church in Scottsboro and Jackson County, Alabama. Built in 1878, rebuilt in 1904. The church was literally built by former slaves. The African American Community has purchased this Church many times over in the 132 years it has been in existence. The community, the Methodist Church and all good people have an opportunity to demonstrate exactly where their values lie. Some have stepped up and made big contributions. Senator Lowell Barron, Representatives John Robinson and Butch Taylor are just a few. The Harbin family, the Maples family, Dr Pitts and family of Huntsville, Al. and many others. We have raised $42, 000 dollars but we need $33,000 more for the purchase of the building and property. The United Methodist Conference is asking $75,000 for the property.

No one knows what the future will bring, however I know that an opportunity presents itself to resolve an inequity of history and end a negative stereotype about Scottsboro, Alabama. An opportunity to heal old wounds and educate citizens about the importance of the Scottsboro Boys case and how the case was the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. I know there is no better place to do this than a historical African American Church in Scottsboro, Alabama.

Some have said buying or selling Joyce Chapel is just business, I answer those who would say this loudly, NO IT IS NOT JUST BUSINESS!

Joyce Chapel represents the plight of African Americans in Alabama and specifically Scottsboro. Joyce Chapel represents whether a religious institution places money before souls, the community and the cultural heritage of our nation. Joyce Chapel represents the sacrifice of a people and their religious heritage. Joyce Chapel and The Scottsboro Boys Museum represents America, Alabama, Scottsboro, the Methodists and Christian religious values in general. Now all involved must answer, where do their values and hearts lie? Will there be a celebration of progress in a 21st Century Scottsboro or an epitaph of a dead opportunity and a continuation of a negative stereotype about Scottsboro and proof that a culture of racism exists in 21st Century Alabama institutions and people? How will this chapter of Joyce Chapel's history and that of Scottsboro be recorded?

You fellow citizens and readers have a chance to determine how the history of Joyce Chapel and the Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center will be recorded.

 

Garry Morgan, Historian, Scottsboro Boys Museum

Department of Defense Race Relations/Equal Opportunity Specialist

U.S. Army Retired

Story in The Daily Sentinel by Dwight Patterson: http://www.thedailysentinel.com/story.lasso?ewcd=73f8ab5de4e0f777

Story and Comments on "Left in Alabama." http://www.leftinalabama.com/diary/5939/scottsboro-boys-museums-future-is-in-doubt