The church was founded when the Rev. Henry M. Edmonds and many members of a Southern Presbyterian congregation withdrew from the local Presbytery. During the first seven years it met in Temple Emanu-El synagogue and held evening services in the . . . — — Map (db m27093) HM
Heavy industry, the reason for Birmingham’s founding, is still an economic force here today. Foundries and pipe plants dot the landscape, the railroad runs through the city’s center, and steam rises periodically in the distance from the quenching of . . . — — Map (db m69019) HM
As Birmingham's civil rights leaders pushed to desegregate city schools, radical opponents in Birmingham pushed back, sometimes violently. Responses against school integration included death threats by telephone to parents who dared send their . . . — — Map (db m187686) HM
After White business leaders failed to remove segregation signs and
hire African Americans, by 1963 Birmingham Blacks felt betrayed by
broken promises. Many Whites wanted the change that Blacks
demanded to be gradual. Some Whites reasoned that . . . — — Map (db m187824) HM
The Industry That Built A City
The minerals needed to make iron-iron ore, coal, and limestone-are abundant in the Birmingham area, and for ninety years men turned these materials into pig iron at Sloss. Sloss pig iron was sold to foundries, . . . — — Map (db m43973) HM
Birmingham's rise to national prominence in the modern American
Civil Rights Movement began several years after Rev. Fred L.
Shuttlesworth arrived in March 1953 to pastor Bethel Baptist Church,
founded in 1904. The church's prior pastors were . . . — — Map (db m188962) HM
The county seat of Jefferson County was moved from Elyton to Birmingham in 1873. On this site stood the first Courthouse in the City of Birmingham. The Italianate style structure was designed by architect W. K. Ball. Completed in 1875, the . . . — — Map (db m27095) HM
Territorial legislature designated home of Maj. Moses Kelly (in Jones Valley) as site of first court in this area of Alabama, 1818.
After creation of Jefferson County, 1819, court held at Carrollsville (Powderly) until county seat established . . . — — Map (db m25743) HM
The first march to City Hall was organized in 1955 by Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth when he petitioned the city to hire Negro policemen. By 1963, thousands of Blacks marched on City Hall to protest Jim Crow laws that were a constant reminder of Blacks' . . . — — Map (db m73036) HM
People across the country took notice of the Birmingham demonstrations.
Donations began pouring in to help post bail for hundreds of marchers,
mostly children. Local leaders estimated the amount for bail at well over
$200,000. As anger grew in . . . — — Map (db m187835) HM
Dr. Mortimer Harvie Jordan and his wife, Florence E. Mudd, constructed their home between 1906 and 1908. After service in the Confederate army, Jordan studied medicine in Cincinnati and New York (under Alabama's famous gynecologist, Dr. J. Marion . . . — — Map (db m26743) HM
In dedication to Julius Ellsberry, the first Black Alabama man to die in World War II; born Birmingham, Ala, 1922.
Enlisted in the U.S. Navy, 1940; First Class Mate [sic] Attendant aboard battleship Oklahoma in the Battle of Pearl . . . — — Map (db m63761) HM WM
In honor of Julius Ellsberry of Birmingham
World War II Hero
First Jefferson County Citizen
to die for his country at Pearl Harbor while serving aboard the U.S.S. Oklahoma December 7, 1941 — — Map (db m70261) HM
Built 1871 (renovated from 1979 to mid-1990s),
1601 & 1630 6th Ave. N.
Kelly Ingram Park was the main battleground in the 1963
Birmingham Campaign, dubbed “Project C" (with “C”
meaning "Confrontation"). The campaign was the . . . — — Map (db m187845) HM
Avondale Park, dedicated in 1886, is one of Birmingham's earliest parks. The park site was chosen because of its natural spring, which was a popular attraction with the local people, as well as a favorite stopping point for weary travelers along . . . — — Map (db m55951) HM
The origins of this park date to 1923, when the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham
spearheaded the drive to successfully create a comprehensive park system
for the Magic City. In 1925, the Olmsted Brothers landscape firm revealed
A Park System for . . . — — Map (db m189282) HM
Responsible for much planning and leadership, the clergy played a central role in the Birmingham Campaign--like the famous Palm Sunday incident in 1963 (see nearby plaque). Local clergy like Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth worked with out-of-town ministers, . . . — — Map (db m73080) HM
In 1822 William Pullen, Revolutionary War veteran, acquired this land from the Federal Government for farming. In 1889 his heirs sold the land to the City of Birmingham for use as the New Southside Cemetery which operated from 1889 to 1909 with . . . — — Map (db m27096) HM
A key reason for Rev. Shuttlesworth's success was that he led the ACMHR
by example. He was the first to put himself, even his family, in harm's
way for the sake of the Movement. He did not ask ACMHR members to
do anything he was not willing to do . . . — — Map (db m189112) HM
Another goal of the ACMHR was school desegregation. ACMHR members
like barber James Armstrong filed lawsuits to put their children in
better-funded all-White schools after the U.S. Supreme Court's
landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of . . . — — Map (db m189114) HM
1962
Segregation was still a way of life despite the ACMHR's heroic and
dangerous direct action campaigns and its multiple lawsuits.
Rev. Shuttlesworth knew he needed to put more pressure on the
city. He and other ACMHR leaders spent . . . — — Map (db m189137) HM
The non-violent marches for freedom in Birmingham inspired sympathy
demonstrations in Alabama, across the United States and around the
world. Average Americans began to insist that the federal government
step in to guarantee Blacks their rights . . . — — Map (db m187821) HM
Built 1926-27, 701 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. N.
The Birmingham Public Library was the city's main branch for
57 years. It was one of several protest target sites during the
1963 Birmingham Campaign. Like the city parks, Birmingham's
most . . . — — Map (db m187712) HM
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. replaced his initial reluctance to using
"children as foot soldiers' with approval. Thousands of newly recruited
child foot soldiers successfully marched toward the retail district, with
hundreds arrested for the . . . — — Map (db m187773) HM
Immediately after the Civil War, Northern church groups funded by
sympathetic Whites rushed to the South to start elementary schools
and colleges to educate freed slaves. Soon afterward, Blacks took the
lead in educating their own children. . . . — — Map (db m187635) HM
Rev. Bevel and his SCLC team targeted high school students such as
cheerleaders, football players and other student leaders as foot soldiers
in the Movement. These popular teens could influence their peers to join
the sit-ins, pickets and . . . — — Map (db m188922) HM
While working his first job after high school at the Southern Club in
Birmingham, he fell in love with a fellow co-worker, Ruby Lanette
Keeler (b. May 30, 1922). He was smitten with her beauty, complete
with dark brown skin and long wavy hair. . . . — — Map (db m187629) HM
Built 1934-35 (remodeled into science center 1997), 216 19th St. N.
The Loveman's Department Store (originally Loveman, Joseph, &
Loeb), was a high-and retail store targeted for economic boycotts, pickets. "Project C" coordinators . . . — — Map (db m188173) HM
National Register of Historic Places
In many ways, the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision fueled the modern Civil Rights Movement. The NAACP's legal team strategically chipped away at the “separate but equal" doctrine to end . . . — — Map (db m188205) HM
On nightly news programs and in newspapers, the images of Birmingham
children under police attack shocked and sickened the nation. It was the
reaction that “Project C” organizers had hoped for. The "Children's Crusade” revived the Birmingham . . . — — Map (db m187837) HM
Built 1955, 1530 4th Ave. N.
Metropolitan AME Zion Church was one of the Movement
churches, hosting ACMHR mass meetings in 1962 and serving as
one of the starting points of the massive demonstrations of
April - May 1963. “Project C" . . . — — Map (db m188033) HM
The railroad trestle support wall across the road is a remnant of L&N's 156-mile Mineral Railroad, the backbone of the local iron industry. This segment ran along the north edge of Vulcan Park on its route around the Birmingham District, linking . . . — — Map (db m83831) HM
The Kiwanis Vulcan Trail follows the bed of
the old Birmingham Mineral Railroad, where
trains hauled iron ore from Red Mountain
mines to furnaces and foundries in
Birmingham. Some remnants of those
mines still remain today. The opening to
Lone . . . — — Map (db m189283) HM
Created 1972 by the Jefferson County Historical Commission, the district is based on this avenue. Morris Avenue was named for one of the founders of Birmingham, Josiah Morris, who paid $100,000 for 4,157 acres of the original site of the city in . . . — — Map (db m27156) HM
Music was as much a tool in the Birmingham Movement as the marches
themselves. The Movement Choir organized by the ACMHR performed
regularly during the Monday night mass church meetings. The choir
sang songs such as "God Will Make a Way Some How" . . . — — Map (db m187820) HM
New Hope Baptist Church and Cemetery were established here on land with a log house donated by Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Jackson Glass on August 21, 1884, for religious and educational purposes. The five-member church began with trustee Manson Glass. On . . . — — Map (db m83832) HM
Built 1916, Remodeled as an IMAX Theater in 1997, 200 19th St. N.
The former Newberry's Department Store was also one of the
first major retail stores where "Project C" demonstrators staged
economic boycotts and lunch counter sit-ins to . . . — — Map (db m188072) HM
The central principle of the American Civil Rights Movement was non-violence, based on the strategies of Mahatma Gandhi, who led India's independence struggle against the British Empire. Being non-violent did not mean being passive. Using "direct . . . — — Map (db m83833) HM
On October 1, 1886, the North Birmingham Land Company was formed to develop a planned industrial and residential town on 900 acres of land, formerly part of the Alfred Nathaniel Hawkins plantation north of Village Creek. The plan included sites for . . . — — Map (db m26700) HM
The original log structure was built c. 1820 - 1830, with the board and batten addition dating to as late as the 1860s. The log cabin was at first one and one-half stories and is believed to be the oldest structure in Shades Valley. Members of the . . . — — Map (db m26697) HM
(Front):Osmond Kelly Ingram 1887-1917
First American sailor killed in action in World War 1, aboard U.S.S. "Cassin"
October 1, 1917.
Medal of Honor
War Cross - Italy
(Back):U.S. Destroyer DD-225
U.S.S. Osmond Ingram . . . — — Map (db m63762) HM
First blast furnace in Jefferson County erected near this site (1863) by Red Mountain Coal and Iron Co. Destroyed (1865) by Federal troops: rebuilt (1873) and second furnace added. Successful experimental run made in Furnace No. 2 (1876) using . . . — — Map (db m27280) HM
In Tribute to
Pauline Bray Fletcher
1878 - 1970
The First Black Registered Nurse of Alabama
Through self-sacrifice, perseverance founded in 1926 Camp Pauline Bray Fletcher.
Renewing the faith and the good health of all black . . . — — Map (db m27393) HM
Rev. Shuttlesworth was not completely satisfied with the settlement Dr. King
worked out with Birmingham's White power structure to end “Project C”
while he lay injured at the hospital. Even so, Birmingham's African Americans
finally won their . . . — — Map (db m187593) HM
Built 1923, 2316 7th Ave N.
Phillips High School was the flagship school in the center of Birmingham. It was named for John Herbert Phillips, the city's highly-esteemed first school superintendent, who served from 1883 until his death in . . . — — Map (db m187704) HM
Rev. Shuttlesworth recruited Dr. King and the SCLC to build publicity for
the Birmingham Movement, King invited popular jazz singer Al Hibbler,
one of the first celebrities to take part in the “Project C" marches. King
hoped Hibbler's arrest . . . — — Map (db m187782) HM
Birmingham Blacks had no love for police, who often harassed and brutalized them rather than protect them from bombings and violence.
Some policemen were suspected Ku Klux Klan members or sympathizers.
Public Safety Commissioner Eugene “Bull” . . . — — Map (db m73032) HM
Built 1952, 1501 7th Ave. N.
Poole Funeral Chapel served as a “safe haven” for demonstrators during “Project C's” mass civil rights demonstrations in
April - May 1963. In 1957, its owners, brothers John and Ernest
Poole, came to the rescue . . . — — Map (db m187905) HM
Birmingham's first public school was named for Colonel James R. Powell, the city's first elected Mayor. This energetic promoter also served as the first President of the Elyton Land Company (now Birmingham Realty), which founded the city in 1871. . . . — — Map (db m83835) HM
Some of the marchers in the Movement also went to the main Birmingham Public Library, where Blacks were not allowed to go. As always,
separate did not mean equal in Birmingham. Its Black citizens had a
small library located in rented space at the . . . — — Map (db m187830) HM
Racial Terrorism and Convict Leasing. Thousands of black people were the victims of lynching and racial violence in the United States between 1877 and 1950 Lynching was
a form of racial terrorism that went beyond only hanging, . . . — — Map (db m173372) HM
April 1916
On April 10, 1916, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a
case from Louisville, Kentucky, where it was illegal
to sell homes to Blacks in areas where Whites lived.
The high court's 1917 decision in Buchanan v. Warley
said Louisville's . . . — — Map (db m189158) HM
A grateful nation remembers Raymond Weeks, founder and director of National Veterans Day.
(Lower plaque)
November 11, 2007, commemorating the 60th Anniversary of America's first National Veterans Day, Birmingham, Alabama. . . . — — Map (db m188212) HM
The Big Seam
The red iron ore labeled "The Big Seam" in the
diagram below appears as an outcrop over this
sign. It extends all the way to Gadsden, 60
miles to the northeast. To the south, it runs as
far as Hoover, where it is a mile . . . — — Map (db m188879) HM
Extending across the crest of Red Mountain, is the state’s second oldest garden-landscaped residential area. Developed from 1911 to 1935 by Robert Jemison, Jr., Hill Ferguson, and Henry Key Milner using landscape architects C. W. Leavitt of New York . . . — — Map (db m41129) HM
Throughout May 1963, the pressure continued to build. The downtown business district was closed, a prominent black-owned motel was bombed, and 3,000 federal troops were dispatched to restore order before Birmingham was officially desegregated. This . . . — — Map (db m73021) HM
1960
This Center Street Historic District was carved from the
plantation of Joseph Riley Smith, who subdivided 600
acres that became Smithfield in 1886. In 1898, the
Smithfield community was home to many Whites,
including Italian and . . . — — Map (db m189177) HM
No one did more to bring about positive change in Birmingham than the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. In his struggle for equal rights, he survived a series of assaults, including the bombing of his home and a brutal armed beating by the Ku Klux Klan. . . . — — Map (db m73025) HM
Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth's tenure as pastor of Bethel Baptist Church (1953-1961) was marked by demonstrations, bombings and passionate sermons critical of segregation laws. His activism earned him a house bombing, frequent beatings, arrests, and . . . — — Map (db m83836) HM
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail’
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter From Birmingham Jail"
is the most important written document of the Civil Rights Era. His
eloquent justification of the movement and . . . — — Map (db m173404) HM
The explosions in August and the deaths of the girls
and two boys in acts of violence on September 15,
all attached to school integration in 1963, deeply
shook Birmingham. The violence stoked deep
resentment and anger in the Black . . . — — Map (db m189191) HM
Built by local industrialist A. H. "Rick" Woodward, this park opened on August 18, 1910. It is the oldest surviving baseball park in America. Rickwood served as the home park for both the Birmingham Barons (until 1987) and the Birmingham Black . . . — — Map (db m22526) HM
Built by Birmingham industrialist A. H. “Rick” Woodward, Rickwood Field served as home to the Birmingham Barons and Birmingham Black Barons for most of the 20th century. Recognized as “America’s Oldest Baseball Park,” . . . — — Map (db m83837) HM
In 1850 George James Roebuck and his wife Ann Hawkins Roebuck built a log cabin at the mouth of Roebuck Spring. His Influence and leadership led to the area around it to be known as Roebuck. In 1900 Alabama Boys Industrial School was located . . . — — Map (db m26688) HM
Roebuck Springs was the first large residential suburb in Birmingham where planning and development were tied to the automobile, and the first community in the city associated with a golf course development. The 1910 land plan was designed to . . . — — Map (db m26684) HM
Built in 1937, Birmingham’s S. H. Kress Five-and-Ten Cent Store was the second completed of the three great mercantile buildings on this intersection. Its construction reflected Kress’s confidence in Birmingham’s economy and marked a break by its . . . — — Map (db m38557) HM
Built 1937, 301 19th St. N.
The S. H. Kress store was another site of economic boycotts
and lunch counter sit-ins during the student-led protests of
Miles College students and their leader Frank Dukes in 1962 and
“Project C” in 1963. Retail . . . — — Map (db m188176) HM
Birmingham had the well-earned reputation of being America's deadliest
defender of segregation in the 1950s and 1960s. Civil rights leaders Rev.
Fred Shuttlesworth, head of the local Alabama Christian Movement for
Human Rights (ACMHR) and Dr. . . . — — Map (db m187681) HM
Front of Marker:
Opened as Alabama Medical College in 1859 in Mobile by Josiah C. Nott and other physicians as part of the University of Alabama. Closed by the Civil War in 1861 it reopened in 1868. Reorganized in 1897, it became the . . . — — Map (db m83838) HM
1953
During the early 1950s, moderate White business
leaders pressured city officials to find and prosecute
the Dynamite Hill bombers and explore racial
reforms. In April 1951, some worked with moderate
Blacks to form the Interracial . . . — — Map (db m189176) HM
White businessmen failed to integrate their stores and remove "Colored”
signs from water fountains and dressing rooms as promised in 1962. As
a result, Miles College students led by Frank Dukes organized a boycott
against the stores. They . . . — — Map (db m187758) HM
Many social scientists of the early 20th century promoted the false
belief that Blacks were intellectually and socially inferior to Whites and
fit only for service jobs. Blacks, therefore, did not deserve to be educated on the same level as . . . — — Map (db m187633) HM
Built 1924 (remodeled for offices in 1995), 413 16th St. N.
Judge Helen Shores Lee bought this one-story building, a
garage from the U.S. Post Office, in 1995 and turned into a law
center to honor her father, pioneer civil rights lawyer . . . — — Map (db m188192) HM
The mass demonstrations of “Project C” forced White Birmingham's
elite business leaders and downtown merchants back to the bargaining
table in May 1963. Once again, leaders of Black Birmingham's power
structure presented a list of demands in . . . — — Map (db m187828) HM
Although Rev. Shuttlesworth resigned from his positions within
the ACMHR and the SCLC in 1969, his dedication to the cause of
equality for African Americans continued for decades after the
height of the American Civil Rights Movement. A split . . . — — Map (db m187576) HM
"Project C” and the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church were
powerful motivators to end racial discrimination in America, but they
were not enough a year later. Even after the assassination of President
Kennedy on November 22, 1963, . . . — — Map (db m187591) HM
1955
After arriving in Birmingham, Rev. Shuttlesworth
became active with the local NAACP and became its
membership chair. He organized 76 Birmingham
ministers to petition Birmingham's commissioners to
hire Black police officers. The petition . . . — — Map (db m187625) HM
One of the last major battles in the struggle for African American civil
rights came in Selma, Alabama. Despite the new Civil Rights Act of
1964, African Americans still faced difficulty voting. Although they
had the right to vote under the . . . — — Map (db m187587) HM
Birmingham's new leaders were much kinder to Rev. Shuttlesworth than their
predecessors. In 1978, officials renamed one of the city's main roads in his
honor. The city's first African-American mayor, Richard Arrington, Jr.,
requested his return . . . — — Map (db m187573) HM
In 1961, Rev. Shuttlesworth finally gave in to his wife Ruby's wishes to leave
Birmingham to become pastor of Revelation Baptist Church in Cincinnati.
But he returned to Birmingham often to organize the Monday night mass
meetings and lead the . . . — — Map (db m187597) HM
By mid-1956, the Montgomery Bus Boycott was crippling that city's economic
base. To stop its success, pro-segregationists searched for a legal loophole to block the NAACP, one of the boycott organizers. That loophole was that it had failed to . . . — — Map (db m187605) HM
The newly formed ACMHR continued Rev. Shuttlesworth's battle to hire Black
Birmingham police officers, mainly as a way to stop White officers from
harassing, beating and, in some cases, even killing Black citizens. When the
city rejected the . . . — — Map (db m187602) HM
The first Alabama - Auburn football game was played on this site, formerly known as the Base Ball Park, on February 22, 1893. The Agricultural and Mechanical College's "Orange and Blue" met the University of Alabama's "Tuskaloosa" squad before a . . . — — Map (db m23500) HM
On February 1, 1960, four Black college students in Greensboro, North
Carolina, sat down at Woolworth's "Whites Only" lunch counter. This
started a national movement where Blacks used sit-ins as a direct,
non-violent action to combat segregation . . . — — Map (db m187827) HM
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church
has been designated a
National
Historic Landmark
This property possesses National Significance in commemorating the history of the United States. In 1963 it was the staging ground for the . . . — — Map (db m63733) HM
Built 1911, 1530 6th Ave. N.
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was designed by Wallace
Rayfield, a renowned Black architect. It was among
Birmingham's most prominent African-American churches.
By the time of the 1963 Birmingham Movement, it . . . — — Map (db m187523) HM
Built 1959, 1410 & 1414 6th Ave. N.
Sixth Avenue Zion Hill Baptist Church hosted strategy and mass meetings during the Birmingham Movement. It also served as the departure points for the April 12, 1963, Good Friday march to City Hall, led . . . — — Map (db m244958) HM
In addition to making iron the furnace produced a molten waste called slag. Workers drained off the slag periodically through the cinder notch, a hole at the base of the furnace. After processing, the slag was sold for use in road building and in . . . — — Map (db m83839) HM
Sloss Blast Furnaces has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
This site possesses national significance in commemorating the history of the United States of America.
1981.
ASM International has designated Sloss Furnaces an . . . — — Map (db m173375) HM
The crossing of railroads in 1872 adjacent to this site gave rise to the industrial city of Birmingham. In 1881 Alabama railroad magnate and entrepreneur James Withers Sloss, capitalizing on the unusual coincidence of coal, iron ore and limestone in . . . — — Map (db m23498) HM
This residential area was carved from the Joseph Riley Smith plantation, a 600 acre antebellum farm, one of the largest in 19th century Jefferson County. Smithfield lies to the west of Birmingham's city center on the flat land & hills north of . . . — — Map (db m26990) HM
The Birmingham Movement was a defining moment for African
Americans determined to win equal citizenship in their own country.
Pictures and stories from the Birmingham struggle touched the hearts of
the nation and the world. Often injured by . . . — — Map (db m188908) HM
At the turn of the last century, Birmingham residents seeking home ownership and escape from the smoke, congestion, and unhealthy living conditions of an industrial city, began moving south. New streetcar lines encouraged the move “over the . . . — — Map (db m83840) HM
In Alabama, White parents used the 1956 Alabama Pupil Placement Act that
let them “choose” which public schools their children would attend. When
Black parents in Birmingham tried to use the same law to send their children
to White schools, . . . — — Map (db m187685) HM
Built 1973, 708 15th St. N.
St. John AME Church and Day Care Center are on the site of
the former church that hosted Monday night mass meetings
during the early 1960s. It was also a center where “Project
C" leaders came to strategize about . . . — — Map (db m187892) HM
Built 1904; Renovations 1948-51, 1500 6th Ave. N.
St. Paul United Methodist Church was the site of the first
mass meeting held on Dec. 26, 1956, following the ACMHR's
(Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights) first
major direct action . . . — — Map (db m187868) HM
Named for St. Vincent de Paul, founder of the Daughters of Charity in France in 1633, the hospital opened December 20, 1898 in the temporarily rented Henry F. DeBardelaben mansion at 206 15th Street South. Father Patrick A. O’Reilly founded the . . . — — Map (db m27523) HM
Construction of the stock trestle/tunnel complex was part of the extensive modernization that Sloss carried out between 1927 and 1931. Much of the work focused on mechanizing the charging operations and equipment—the stock trestle/tunnel . . . — — Map (db m69077) HM
