ALABAMA HERITAGE
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Back Issues >
      • Back Issues 141-150 >
        • Issue 149, Summer 2023
        • Issue 148, Spring 2023
        • Issue 147, Winter 2023
        • Issue 146, Fall 2022
        • Issue 145, Summer 2022
        • Issue 144, Spring 2022
        • Issue 143, Winter 2022
        • Issue 142, Fall 2021
        • Issue 141, Summer 2021
      • Back Issues 131-140 >
        • Issue 140, Spring 2021
        • Issue 139, Winter 2021
        • Issue 138, Fall 2020
        • Issue 137, Summer 2020
        • Issue 136, Spring 2020
        • Issue 135, Winter 2020
        • Issue 134, Fall 2019
        • Issue 133, Summer 2019
        • Issue 132 Spring 2019
        • Issue 131, Winter 2019
      • Back Issues 121-130 >
        • Issue 130, Fall 2018
        • Issue 129, Summer 2018
        • Issue 128, Spring 2018
        • Issue 127, Winter 2018
        • Issue 126, Fall 2017
        • Issue 125 Summer 2017
        • Issue 124, Spring 2017
        • Issue 123, Winter 2017
        • Issue 122, Fall 2016
        • Issue 121, Summer 2016
      • Back Issues 111-120 >
        • Issue 120, Spring 2016
        • Issue 119, Winter 2016
        • Issue 118, Fall 2015
        • Issue 117, Summer 2015
        • Issue 116, Spring 2015
        • Issue 115, Winter 2015
        • Issue 114, Fall 2014
        • Issue 113, Summer 2014
        • Issue 112, Spring 2014
        • Issue 111, Winter 2014
      • Back Issues 101-110 >
        • Issue 110, Fall 2013
        • Issue 109, Summer 2013
        • Issue 108, Spring 2013
        • Issue 107, Winter 2013
        • Issue 106, Fall 2012
        • Issue 105, Summer 2012
        • Issue 104, Spring 2012
        • Issue 103, Winter 2012
        • Issue 102, Fall 2011
        • Issue 101, Summer 2011
      • Back Issues 91-100 >
        • Issue 100, Spring 2011
        • Issue 99, Winter 2011
        • Issue 98, Fall 2010
        • Issue 97, Summer 2010
        • Issue 96, Spring 2010
        • Issue 95, Winter 2010
        • Issue 94, Fall 2009
        • Issue 93, Summer 2009
        • Issue 92, Spring 2009
        • Issue 91, Winter 2009
      • Back Issues 81-90 >
        • Issue 90, Fall 2008
        • Issue 89, Summer 2008
        • Issue 88, Spring 2008
        • Issue 87, Winter 2008
        • Issue 86, Fall 2007
        • Issue 85, Summer 2007
        • Issue 84, Spring 2007
        • Issue 83, Winter 2007
        • Issue 82, Fall 2006
        • Issue 81, Summer 2006
      • Back Issues 71-80 >
        • Issue 80, Spring 2006
        • Issue 79, Winter 2006
        • Issue 78, Fall 2005
        • Issue 77, Summer 2005
        • Issue 76, Spring 2005
        • Issue 75, Winter 2005
        • Issue 74, Fall 2004
        • Issue 73, Summer 2004
        • Issue 72, Spring 2004
        • Issue 71, Winter 2004
      • Back Issues 61-70 >
        • Issue 70, Fall 2003
        • Issue 69, Summer 2003
        • Issue 68, Spring 2003
        • Issue 67, Winter 2003
        • Issue 66, Fall 2002
        • Issue 65, Summer 2002
        • Issue 64, Spring 2002
        • Issue 63, Winter 2002
        • Issue 62, Fall 2001
        • Issue 61, Summer 2001
      • Back Issues 51-60 >
        • Issue 60, Spring 2001
        • Issue 59, Winter 2001
        • Issue 58, Fall 2000
        • Issue 57, Summer 2000
        • Issue 56, Spring 2000
        • Issue 55, Winter 2000
        • Issue 54, Fall 1999
        • Issue 53, Summer 1999
        • Issue 52, Spring 1999
        • Issue 51, Winter 1999
      • Back Issues 41-50 >
        • Issue 50, Fall 1998
        • Issue 49, Summer 1998
        • Issue 48, Spring 1998
        • Issue 47, Winter 1998
        • Issue 46, Fall 1997
        • Issue 45, Summer 1997
        • Issue 44, Spring 1997
        • Issue 43, Winter 1997
        • Issue 42, Fall 1996
        • Issue 41, Summer 1996
      • Back Issues 31-40 >
        • Issue 40, Spring 1996
        • Issue 39, Winter 1996
        • Issue 38, Fall 1995
        • Issue 37, Summer 1995
        • Issue 36, Spring 1995
        • Issue 35, Winter 1995
        • Issue 34, Fall 1994
        • Issue 33, Summer 1994
        • Issue 32, Spring 1994
        • Issue 31, Winter 1994
      • Back Issues 21-30 >
        • Issue 30, Fall 1993
        • Issue 29, Summer 1993
        • Issue 28, Spring 1993
        • Issue 27, Winter 1993
        • Issue 26, Fall 1992
        • Issue 25, Summer 1992
        • Issue 24, Spring 1992
        • Issue 23, Winter 1992
        • Issue 22, Fall 1991
        • Issue 21, Summer 1991
      • Back Issues 11-20 >
        • Issue 20, Spring 1991
        • Issue 19, Winter 1991
        • Issue 18, Fall 1990
        • Issue 17, Summer 1990
        • Issue 16, Spring 1990
        • Issue 15, Winter 1990
        • Issue 14, Fall 1989
        • Issue 13, Summer 1989
        • Issue 12, Spring 1989
        • Issue 11, Winter 1989
      • Back Issues 1-10 >
        • Issue 10, Fall 1988
        • Issue 9, Summer 1988
        • Issue 8, Spring 1988
        • Issue 7, Winter 1988
        • Issue 6, Fall 1987
        • Issue 5, Summer 1987
        • Issue 4, Spring 1987
        • Issue 3, Winter 1987
        • Issue 2, Fall 1986
        • Issue 1, Summer 1986
    • Bonus Materials >
      • Alabama Heritage Blog
      • Alabama Territory
      • Becoming Alabama >
        • Creek War Era
        • Civil War Era
        • Civil Rights Movement
      • From the Vault
      • History in Ruins
      • The Nature Journal
      • Places in Peril
      • Recipes
    • Digital Features
    • Links of Interest
  • Online Store
    • Customer Service
  • About Us
    • Awards
    • AH History
    • Meet Our Team
    • News
    • Writer's Guidelines and Submissions
  • Search
  • Donate
Published by The University of Alabama,
The University of Alabama at Birmingham,
and the Alabama Department of Archives and History
Alabama Heritage Issue 136, Spring 2020
Issue 136, Spring 2020
Buy This Issue
Start Your Subscription
Give a Gift Subscription
On the cover: Rabbi Abraham Heschel, a friend and ally of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University)

FEATURE  ABSTRACTS


Montgomery Charles Theatre in 1953A crowd of Montgomery Examiner paperboys was treated to a double feature of Westerns at the Charles Theatre in 1953: Hangman’s Knot (1952) starring Randolph Scott, and a Gene Autry movie, On Top of Old Smoky, based on the famous folk song. (Alabama Department of Archives and History)
Montgomery's Movie Theaters in the Twilight of the B-Western
By Jim Vickrey
 
Though today even our telephones can stream movies, in an earlier era going to the movies was a major social event, especially for youngsters. In Montgomery in particular, for many youth, the calendar revolved around trips to one or more of the city’s movie theaters. Jim Vickrey offers a look back at the theaters of his youth—including the Strand, the Capri, the Clover, the Charles, the Pekin, and others—as well as the films that graced them and the lessons they instilled. Foremost among those lessons were the mores of the “Cowboy Code,” the ideals embodied by the likes of Gene Autry, William Boyd, Roy Rogers, and Alabama’s own Johnny Mack Brown.  
 
About the Author
Jim Vickrey, PhD, JD, is a retired lawyer and former university president who writes from Montgomery. He enjoyed a nearly fifty year-long career in higher education, teaching courses in communication at six southern universities. Since he began going to the movies regularly in the late 1940s, he has seen more than 3,500 feature films, writing more than 2,000 movie commentaries for print and broadcast media since 1979. He has authored scores of articles in scholarly and popular periodicals and written four books, including Roy, “Rocky” & Red Ryder; “Hoppy,” Durango & Mo[o]re: Personal Recollections of What They Taught Us on Saturdays, Riding Together into the Sunset of the B-Western Movie Era, at “The Strand” & “The Bijou” and on Radio & TV (Dorrance Publishing, 2019).
 
Additional Resources
To order Dr. Vickrey’s book, see https://www.bookdepository.com/Roy-rocky-Red-Ryder-hoppy-Durango-Mo-o-re-Ph-D-J-D-Vickrey/9781480990333.
 
To learn more about Alabamian Johnny Mack Brown, see “The Johnny Mack Brown Story” by Philip D. Beidler in Alabama Heritage 38.
 
To learn more about Montgomery’s Davis Theatre, see https://www.troy.edu/student-life-resources/arts-culture/davis-theatre/index.html.

Back to Top

Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Heschel marchOn the successful third Selma to Montgomery March, Martin Luther King Jr. invited Rabbi Heschel to join him. In this famous photograph, King, center, walks with, on his left, Nobel Peace Prize-recipient Ralph Bunche, Rabbi Heschel, and Birmingham civil rights leader Fred Shuttlesworth. On King’s right is Ralph Abernathy. Future congressman John Lewis is on the far left. (David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University)
The Rabbi and Dr. King
By Frye Gaillard
 
Though they may have seemed like unlikely friends from the outside, Rabbi Abraham Heschel and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. established a close and formative friendship that helped determine the course of the civil rights movement. King (born in Atlanta in 1929) looked to Heschel (born in Warsaw in 1907) for input and wisdom at key points during the movement. Heschel, who escaped the Holocaust but lost family members during it, may have recognized something of himself when he first responded to King’s efforts in Selma. Despite their different faiths, the pair found many commonalities in their shared struggle, and they remained friends until King’s untimely death.
 
About the Author
Frye Gaillard, writer in residence at the University of South Alabama, is the author of such award-winning books as Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed America (University of Alabama Press, 2006); A Hard Rain: America in the 1960s (New-South Books, 2016); and Go South to Freedom (New-South Books, 2016). His most recent publication is a book for young readers, The Slave Who Went to Congress (New-South Books, 2020), co-authored with Marti Rosner. Gaillard has been the recipient of the Lillian Smith Book Award, the Clarence Cason Award, and the Alabama Governor’s Award for the Arts.
 
Additional Resources
Info on Rabbi Heschel: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/heschel-abraham-joshua
Info on their friendship: https://www.plough.com/en/topics/community/leadership/two-friends-two-prophets

Purchase This Feature
Back to Top

James Henry Johnson and familyJohnson with his oldest daughter Ressie, her son Truman, and a great-grandchild. He maintained a close relationship with both of his families until the end of his life. (Claire Hamner Matturro)
James Henry Johnson's Murder, Conviction, and Pardon
“Injustice to the Living Cannot Benefit the Dead”
By Claire Hamner Matturro
 
After the 1904 murder of A. J. Rollinson, only one thing seemed certain: James Henry Johnson was responsible. His conviction at trial supported this idea. However, in the days that followed, many unusual circumstances surrounded his situation. Eventually, Johnson received an early release from prison to tend to his dying wife, and he was ultimately granted a pardon. Johnson returned to his life and children, and he established himself as a prominent and prosperous member of Dallas County society.
 
About the Author
Claire Hamner Matturro, a fifth-generation Alabamian, holds a JD and MA from the University of Alabama. A former lawyer, she taught legal research and writing at Florida State University College of Law and the University of Oregon College of Law. She is a former editor of The Trial Advocate Quarterly and author of four legal mysteries published by William Morrow. She is the great-granddaughter of James Henry Johnson. The author gratefully acknowledges the skilled help of Scotty. E. Kirkland, archivist, Reference Section, Alabama Department of Archives and History, in researching the trial and pardon. She is also grateful to several other descendants of James Henry Johnson, including but not limited to Jo-Ann Johnson Costa (author of The Bequest of Big Daddy [Koehler Books 2013] inspired by the Johnson story), Della Johnson Hamner, Milton Johnson, Paul Johnson, Loretta and Barbara Adams, and Wade Johnson for their contributions of research and photographs.

Back to Top

Cowan-Ramser House/White’s Funeral Home 441 East Barbour Street, Eufaula, Barbour CountyCowan-Ramser House/White’s Funeral Home, Eufaula, Barbour County
Places in Peril 2019
By Lee Anne Hewett Wofford
 
Each year, Alabama Heritage, the Alabama Historical Commission, and the Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation collaborate to promote Places in Peril, which highlights significant endangered historic properties in Alabama. Due to the fact that our Fall 2019 issue was devoted to Alabama’s bicentennial of our early statehood years, we are presenting the 2019 Places in Peril list in this issue. The list includes a number of important properties in urgent need of intervention, from a Native American trade canal to hotel, from a funeral home to an African American school and cemetery.
 
About the Author
Lee Anne Hewett Wofford is the Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer for the Alabama Historical Commission (AHC) and has served on the AHC staff for twenty years. She oversees the federal and state historic preservation programs for Alabama including the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage, the Alabama Historic Cemetery Program, the National Register of Historic Places, the environmental review of federal projects, as well as state and federal tax credit programs. A native of Tuscaloosa, she received her BA and MA from the University of Alabama. She is the proud mother of two boys, ages fourteen and ten.
 
Additional Resources
Official website: https://ahc.alabama.gov/placesinperil.aspx
The Pink House: https://www.savethehomewoodpinkhouse.com/
Rosenwald Schools: http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2126
Oaklawn Cemetery Clean-up page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Oaklawnmemorialcemetery/

Back to Top

DEPARTMENT  ABSTRACTS


Richard Grugel deskDecatur woodworker Richard Grugel, who has a day job as a NASA engineer, creates furniture from wood and found objects. (Richard Grugel)
Alabama Makers
Richard Grugel: Giving History New Life
By Courtney Lowery
 
You might imagine that a NASA scientist who develops experiments for microgravity research aboard the International Space Station would just want to kick back and relax in his off time. But not Richard Grugel! Grugel spends his spare time practicing woodworking, using found or scrap objects to craft unique pieces of furniture. The Decatur artist even finds time to show his work at local festivals. As he nears retirement, Grugel may just have some extra time in his schedule—meaning that Alabamians may have even more locally made items in which to delight. 
 
About the Author
Courtney Lowery is a senior at the University of Alabama majoring in history with a minor in anthropology. She is from Decatur, Alabama, and plans to attend graduate school in the fall. She hopes to teach history at a university.

Back to Top

Alabama Governor Gen. Wager T. Swayne
Alabama Governors
Gen. Wager T. Swayne
By Samuel L. Webb
 
The man who led Alabama after its twentieth governor was never elected. Rather, Gen. Wager T. Swayne was appointed as a military governor during Reconstruction. A New York native and Brigadier General in the Union Army, Swayne advocated for humane treatment of African Americans, punishing whites who enacted violence against them, and outlawing chain gangs. He was also formative in bringing the Republican Party to Alabama. Though removed by Pres. Andrew Johnson less than a year into his appointment, Swayne offered Alabamians a new way forward after the Civil War.
 
About the Author
Samuel L. Webb holds a JD from the University of Alabama School of Law and a PhD in history from the University of Arkansas. This department is drawn from Alabama Governors: A Political History of the State, second edition, edited by Webb and Margaret E. Armbrester (University of Alabama Press, 2014).
 
Additional Resources
More info: http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1465    https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Wager_Swayne

Back to Top

Strawberry Fields NYC Bruce Kelly design
Portraits & Landscapes
Strawberry Fields Forever: The Legacy of Bruce Kelly
 

Most people likely recognize—or at least have heard of—Strawberry Fields, the area in New York City’s Central Park that memorializes musician John Lennon. But far fewer know the name of the man who created Strawberry Fields—Bruce Kelly. Kelly, an Alabama native, spent much of his youth in Georgia, where he cultivated a love for gardening and a robust set of opinions about where his mother’s plants should take root. Kelly pursued education and a career in New York City, where he pioneered the field of landscape architecture. His work on Strawberry Fields emerged from his connection to Central Park and its extensive restoration, in which he was instrumental.
 
About the Author
Jenny Enslen Stubbs is a communication studies graduate of the University of Alabama, has enjoyed twenty years in the publishing industry, and currently works as director of Main Street Wetumpka and copy editor of Joy to Life magazine.
 
Additional Resources
 
To learn more about Strawberry Fields, see https://www.centralparknyc.org/attractions/strawberry-fields.

Back to Top

daguerreotype photo of woman and child
Behind the Image
A Tale of a Traveling Man
By Frances Osborn Robb
​
Sometimes one form of technology can assist in unearthing details about another. Though daguerreotypes may not seem like technology in the twenty-first century, in their own era they offered remarkable advances and are still the object of careful study by photographic historians. They can also reveal important details about the art and culture of their creation. For that reason, when a British historian had a daguerreotype with Alabama connections, he quickly reached out to historians in the American South for information. From that correspondence came this tale of a traveling daguerreotype maker and his time in Alabama.
 
About the Author
Frances Osborn Robb is the contributing editor for the “Behind the Image” department of Alabama Heritage. She is the author of Shot in Alabama: A History of Photography, 1839–1941, and a List of Photographers (University of Alabama Press, 2017). She is passionate about historic photographs.
 
Additional Resources
Daguerreotype info: http://www.daguerreobase.org/en/knowledge-base/what-is-a-daguerreotype
Info on George Smith Cook: https://www.nps.gov/people/george-cook.htm
Shot in Alabama  https://www.amazon.com/Shot-Alabama-Photography-1839-1941-Photographers/dp/081731878X

Back to Top

Geneva Mercer's marble memorial to Julia Tutwiler
From the Archives
Geneva Mercer’s “Lasting Tribute” to Julia Tutwiler
By Scotty E. Kirkland
 
The “From the Archives” columns during 2020, the centennial of women’s suffrage, will focus on the important roles of women in Alabama history. In this installment, archivist Scotty Kirkland explores the importance of Julia Tutwiler and the memorial Tutwiler's student, Geneva Mercer, created in her honor. That memorial, a marble sculpture created by Mercer, an accomplished artist, now graces the Alabama Department of Archives and History, a lasting tribute to the woman who shaped life for so many generations of Alabamians.
 
About the Author
Scotty E. Kirkland is exhibits, publications, and programs coordinator at the Alabama Department of Archives and History.
 
Additional Resources
Info on Geneva Mercer: http://www.awhf.org/mercer.html
Info on Julia Tutwiler: http://www.awhf.org/tutwiler.html

Back to Top

Yellow-and-black Prothonotary Warblers bird
Nature Journal
Prothonotary Warblers
By L. J. Davenport
 
Avid birders are prone to curious escapades. After all, they are often up before dawn, traipsing through the wilderness in search of that special, elusive species. So when Alabama Heritage’s resident naturalist heard about prothonotary warblers lurking in Alabama’s Ebenezer Swamp, he well, naturally headed off in hot pursuit of the black-and-yellow beauties.
 
About the Author
Larry Davenport is Paul N. Propst Professor of Natural Sciences at Samford University, Birmingham, and is co-author (with Ken Wills) of Exploring Wild Alabama (University of Alabama Press, 2016).
 
Additional Resources
 
To purchase Davenport’s book, see https://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Wild-Alabama-Publicly-Accessible/dp/0817358307.
 
To learn more about prothonotary warblers, see https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Prothonotary_Warbler/id.

Back to Top

Reading the Southern Past
El Golfo de México (Or the Fishy Sea)
By Stephen Goldfarb
 
This quarter’s installment of “Reading the Southern Past” explores two different texts focused on Alabama’s oceanfront. Taken together, The Gulf of Mexico: A Maritime History (University of South Carolina Press, 2019), by John Sledge, and The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea (Liveright, 2017), by Jack Davis, offer a well-rounded picture of the Gulf of Mexico. While Sledge tracks the area’s political history, Davis explores the natural environment of the area.
 
About the Author
Stephen Goldfarb holds a PhD in the history of science and technology. He retired from a public library in 2003.
 
Additional Resources
The Gulf of Mexico by John Sledge  https://www.amazon.com/Gulf-Mexico-Maritime-History-Non/dp/1643360140
Gulf: The Making of an American Sea by Jack E. Davis https://www.amazon.com/Gulf-Making-American-Sea/dp/087140866X
Back to Top
Alabama Heritage
Box 870342
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
Local (205) 348-7467
Toll-Free (877) 925-2323
Alabama.Heritage@ua.edu
Home
About
Shop
​Books​
Recipes
​Videos
FAQ
UA Privacy Policy
​UA Disclaimer