Category: African Americans

Rickwood Field: Grand Lady of Baseball

7/17/2023

Dedicated in 1910, Rickwood Field serves as the home of the Birmingham Barons of the Southern League and the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League.
(Photograph by Robin McDonald)

On August 18, 1910, Birmingham looked like a deserted city. All business had closed down, as had many stores in Bessemer and Ensley. It was "Baseball Day," and everyone in town who had the price of a ticket had gone to the grand opening of Rickwood Field. "There has never been such a day in Birmingham or in any other city of the Southern league," wrote one excited newspaper reporter. Sixty additional street cars had been put in service to aid in moving the anticipated crowd of as many as ten thousand people.

"Big Mama" Thornton & "Hound Dog"

8/26/2022

Willie Mae Thornton, also known as "Big Mama" was the first artist to record "Hound Dog" in 1952. Elvis Presley and Janis Jopin also made the song a household name. [Photo/Alabama Heritage Archives]

Elvis Presley may have made "Hound Dog" a household name, but the origins of the song are rooted deep in Alabama.

"Hound Dog" belonged originally to a rhythm and blues singer, named Willie Mae Thornton, who, at the time of Elvis's recording, was making her living on what Black entertainers called "The Chitlin' Circuit." She had a big voice and suitably imperious manners, all of which had given rise to a nickname that had quickly supplanted her given name. On her rendition of "Hound Dog," released as a 78 rpm record, she was billed as "Big Mama" Thornton.

"Big Mama's" version of "Hound Dog," recorded for Peacock Records on a hot August day in 1952 in Los Angeles, was the crowning achievement in the career of a singer who left her mark on rock and blues history. "Hound Dog" quickly climbed to No. 1 on the 1953 all-Black rhythm and blues charts and became a 500,000-plus seller. It also became by far the biggest success in Willie Mae Thornton's career.

The Path to the Schoolhouse Door

10/9/2018

Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy shakes hands with James Hood at an Emphasis 66 conference in Tuscaloosa in March 1966. (Photo Courtesy of W. S. Hoole Special Collections Library, The University of Alabama)

In early 1962, while campaigning for governor, George C. Wallace vowed to stand in schoolhouse doors to block federally mandated school desegregation. By October, following the violence accompanying desegregation at Ole Miss, the University of Alabama clearly was next.

Rosenwald Schools: 100 Years of Pride, Progress, and Preservation

7/7/2018

Philanthropist Julius Rosenwald (seated third from the left, next to Booker T. Washington) served on the Board of Trustees of Tuskegee Institute. (Photo Courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History)

This year marks a year-long centennial celebration of the Rosenwald rural school building program. This program has been described as “one of the most ambitious school building programs ever witnessed in the United States.” And it all began in Alabama as a collaboration between a nationally renowned educator and a prominent businessman.

Silas Orlando Trippe: Amateur Photographer

1/26/2018

African Americans Dallas County Silas Trippe

African-American family, Dallas County, c. 1890. Silas Trippe photographed African Americans at several different locations in Dallas County. (Courtesy Alabama Department of Archives and History)

In 1870 a Civil War veteran from Pennsylvania settled in Selma, Alabama. By profession he was a jeweler, but by avocation he was a photographer. His name was Silas Orlando Trippe, and it is because of his hobby that we know him today.

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Rickwood Field: Grand Lady of Baseball

"Big Mama" Thornton & "Hound Dog"

The Path to the Schoolhouse Door

Rosenwald Schools: 100 Years of Pride, Progress, and Preservation

Silas Orlando Trippe: Amateur Photographer

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