Issue 152, Spring 2024
On the cover: Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt addresses the press in Alabama. [Alabama Department of Archives and History]
Features
Remembering Bloody Tuesday
By John Giggie
On June 9, 1964, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, experienced one of the most violent events in civil rights history—one often forgotten or overlooked by many. On that early summer day, protestors gathered inside of First African Baptist Church after three months of fighting for equality in the city’s downtown. Intending to walk downtown and drink from white water fountains and use white restrooms, those who would be marching that day had gathered for one last prayer. During this sacred time, police bombarded the church with tear gas, smashed windows, and began to assault and arrest as many people as possible as protestors fled the church. The tragic day of violence would become known as “Bloody Tuesday” and would go down in history as the largest attack upon and invasion of a Black church by law enforcement during the civil rights movement.
2024 Places in Peril
By Paige Thomas and the Alabama Historical Commission
Each year, Places in Peril heightens interest in Alabama’s endangered historic properties. This year’s list highlights an array of resources, including an early twentieth century residence, a historic Black school, a former US Army facility, a small-town commercial property, and one of the oldest African American communities established in the United States. By documenting the history of these places and many other places like them, we can learn more about Alabama’s exceptional residents and the stories they have to tell. As more of these places are emphasized through programs such as Places in Peril, previously unfamiliar histories and stories will come alive and allow current generations a glimpse into a past they otherwise would not have known. The Alabama Historical Commission is committed to encouraging the preservation of these tangible connections with the past so that stories are not lost but instead are cemented into Alabama history for both current and future generations.
Properties Featured:
- D. M. Brasher Department Store and Brasher Hotel, Carbon Hill, Walker County
- Morgan-Curtis House, Phenix City, Russell County
- Dunbar High School, Bessemer, Jefferson County
- Sand Town Community, Mobile, Mobile County
The Battle of Mobile Bay: Eyewitness Accounts of the Siege of Fort Morgan
By Kayla Scott Gurner
In the collections at the Alabama of Archives and History, there is a beautiful, hand-written first-hand account of what one soldier experienced during the last moments at Fort Morgan before Union soldiers conquered the Confederate troops stationed there in 1864. Lt. Joseph Wilkinson recorded the events day by day until his account abruptly ends on August 18, 1864, probably when he was taken as a prisoner of war. From here, author Kayla Scott Gurner brings in other eyewitness accounts to finish the tale, but it is Wilkinson’s journal that illuminates the Confederate point of view as the fort fell.
Sen. James B. Allen:
The Gentleman from Alabama
By Lori J. Owens
Sen. James Browning Allen influenced state and national politics from the late 1930s through the late 1970s. In 1938 and 1942, he secured his father’s former state house seat, leaving to serve in World War II. He returned to politics in 1946, when he won an Alabama senate seat. After serving in state politics off and on until the late 1960s, he ran for US Senate and became Alabama’s “first modern senator.” While in Washington, DC, Allen studied the Senate rules and observed his fellow senators, eventually enabling him to preside over the Senate even though he was a freshman senator. He introduced the “killer amendments” filibuster and led opposition to several pieces of legislation, earning the respect of his constituents and fellow senators.
Department Abstracts
Portraits and Landscapes
Unveiling African American History through the Art of Filmmaking
By Theo M. Moore II
Filmmaker Theo M. Moore II explains how he brings southern African American history to life through his filmmaking company, Hiztorical Vision Productions (HVP). So far, he has made three award-winning films: Crown the County of Lowndes; Hobson City: From Peril to Promise; and Afrikan by Way of American. His latest project, Remembering John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital, is a short documentary created with students from HVP’s internship program, Bama Black History Internship 365 Program. Moore explains that “preservation, education, and revitalization will remain at the core” of what HVP does, and he sees storytelling as “a powerful force” that can “build bridges of understanding.”
From the Archives
Alabama and the American Presidency
By Scotty E. Kirkland
In this issue’s “From the Archives” department, Scotty E. Kirkland introduces readers to a new exhibit at the Alabama State House featuring stories of presidential visits to Alabama. From Pres. Grover Cleveland’s 1887 trip to Montgomery on his nationwide tour to Pres. George Bush showing off his fishing skills on Alabama’s waterways, the photos in this exhibit provide a look at presidential interactions with Alabamians for more than a century. Photos taken of First Ladies, vice presidents, and presidential hopefuls in Alabama during campaign seasons are also included. The physical exhibit will be accompanied by an expanded online exhibit at https://archives.alabama.gov/visit/exhibits/online.aspx .
Alabama Governors
Emmet O’Neal (1911-1915)
Democrat Emmet O’Neal served only one term as Alabama’s governor, from 1911 until 1915. As the state’s thirty-sixth governor, O’Neal’s term led to the repeal of the Prohibition law (replaced with a local option law) and faced the deadly explosion at the Banner Coal Mine in April 1911 (see https://www.alabamaheritage.com/issue-106-fall-2012.html for more information). A financial scandal involving embezzlement of revenue generated by the state’s convict leasing program, O’Neal lost support. Though he was never charged with theft, the scandal made a second term impossible to win. He died in 1922 and is buried in Florence, Alabama.
Reading the Southern Past
Barbour and Eufaula Counties
In recent years, academics have shifted their approach to histories of the South. Stephen Goldfarb surveys those changes, marked by texts such as A New History of the American South (University of North Carolina Press, 2023), edited by W. Fitzhugh Brundage with Laura F. Edwards and Jon F. Sensbach and Reinterpreting Southern History: Essays in Historiography (Louisiana State University Press, 2020), edited by Craig Thompson Friend and Lorri Glover.
Alabama Counties
Autauga County
By Katharine Armbrester and Laura Newland Hill
Author Katharine Armbrester and department editor Laura Newland Hill introduce our newest department to Alabama Heritage. Each quarter we will bring you entertaining information about each Alabama county in alphabetical order. In this issue, we begin with Autauga County, and include information about Wilson Pickett, Prattville, Wilderness Park, and many other notables from and attractions in the county.
