Lynching in America
Between 1865 and 1950, at least 6,500 African Americans were victims
of lynch mob violence in the United States. After the Civil War, an
ongoing commitment to white supremacy led to organized resistance to
Black . . . — — Map (db m207065) HM
Margaret Elizabeth Merritt of Midway sold two acres for $5 to the state of Alabama in 1921 as a site for an elementary school for African-American children. Built in 1922 with matching Rosenwald funds, the Midway Colored Public School featured oak . . . — — Map (db m60910) HM
On May 11, 2011, 40 students who were retracing the route of the original Freedom Ride, arrived in Anniston. The student Freedom Ride was part of a promotion organized by WGBH/Boston, a member of the Public Broadcasting system. The goal was to . . . — — Map (db m217423) HM
When seven injured "Freedom Riders" arrived at the Hospital on
this date, the mob that had attacked them earlier in the day
followed. The Riders were testing desegregation of public
transportation in the South by riding buses. The bus they . . . — — Map (db m106647) HM
Desegregation of the Library began when two African American
pastors, Reverends William B. McClain and Nimrod Q. Reynolds,
peacefully attempted to enter the building on September 15, 1963.
Their actions were endorsed by the city of Anniston . . . — — Map (db m106644) HM
In the early 1940s, all of the buildings
on Block 148 were demolished to make
way for two new buildings, the USO
Recreation Center and a public health
building. Paul W. Hofferbert designed the
USO building for the Army. Hofferbert
was a local . . . — — Map (db m217677) HM
On May 14, 1961, a Greyhound bus left Atlanta, GA carrying among its passengers seven members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a.k.a. the Freedom Riders, on a journey to test interstate bus segregation. The bus was met by an angry mob . . . — — Map (db m35737) HM
Front
This was the site of the Greyhound bus terminal where on May 14, 1961, a bus carrying black and white Civil Rights Activists known as "Freedom Riders" was attacked by a mob of whites who were protesting desegregation of public . . . — — Map (db m106621) HM
The violence reached a crescendo when a flaming bundle of rags was thrown into one of the broken windows. Within seconds, the bundle exploded, sending dark gray smoke throughout the bus.
Three of the Riders found open windows, dropping to the . . . — — Map (db m217417) HM
Prelude: 12 p.m.- 12:54 p.m.
Just before this picture of the Greyhound Bus Depot at 1031 Gurnee (below left) was taken, approximately 75 men had gathered in front of it. They quickly dispersed as free-lance photographer for The Anniston Star, . . . — — Map (db m217412) HM
Pursuit: 1:25 p.m. - 1:35 p.m.
Heading to Birmingham, the battered bus turned south on Gurnee from the station and west on 10th St. while men rushed to their cars to follow. Police escorted the bus to the city limits where they turned back, . . . — — Map (db m217416) HM
Rescue
Once there, all of the injured were treated at the urging of an FBI agent on the scene. In the meantime, the crowd outside the hospital grew larger and more menacing, with some Klansmen threatening to burn the building to the ground. At . . . — — Map (db m217420) HM
Saint John, founded at the turn of the 19th century, is the first
African-American Methodist Episcopal Church in South Anniston.
The original structure was built in 1922. The current building was
erected in 1951 on the corner of D Street and . . . — — Map (db m144905) HM
Seventeenth Street Missionary Baptist Church served as the home of "mass meetings" for black Annistonians who planned and executed Anniston's part of the Civil Rights Movement. Reverends D.C. Washington (1937-1960) and Nimrod Q. Reynolds . . . — — Map (db m106651) HM
Local "Jim Crow" laws in the first half of the 20th century enforced racial segregation in public transportation facilities throughout the South. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Boynton v. Virginia (1960) upheld that segregation in these . . . — — Map (db m106602) HM
The Ambush: 12:54 p.m. - 1:10 p.m.
The silence didn't last long. Anniston Klansman William Chappell and a screaming mob of about 50 white men surrounded the bus. An 18-year-old Klansman, Roger Couch, lay on the pavement in front of the bus to . . . — — Map (db m217413) HM
While the Riders awaited rescue, the bus continued to burn. The Anniston Fire Department extinguished the flames and administered oxygen. A state trooper called an ambulance, but it took Cowling to force the driver to carry the injured black Riders . . . — — Map (db m217419) HM
The Rides began in May 1961 when the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) decided to test a 1960 U. S. Supreme Court ruling that outlawed segregation in depot restaurants and restrooms serving interstate passengers.
Previously, CORE had organized a . . . — — Map (db m217406) HM
The Anniston City Commission, on May 16, 1963, established by resolution the Human Relations Council, consisting of five white men and four black men. The Council's purpose was to "make recommendations concerning human relations," and its members . . . — — Map (db m106627) HM
Willie Brewster became the target of white extremists after words spoken at a National States Rights Party encouraged them to commit acts of violence against blacks. As Brewster drove home with co-workers from the night shift at Union Foundry, he . . . — — Map (db m106626) HM
The most famous photograph of the Freedom Rides and one of the most iconic of the Civil Rights movement was taken by a freelance photographer for The Anniston Star. Joe Postiglione, called Little Joe by his friends, was tipped off by the Greyhound . . . — — Map (db m217422) HM
The Alabama Knights of the Ku Klux Klan had known about the Freedom Ride since mid-April and had detailed information on the city-by-city itinerary, thanks to FBI memos forwarded to the Birmingham Police Department. In a series of secret meetings in . . . — — Map (db m217411) HM
CORE leadership solicited applicants for the Ride from outside the organization as well as CORE veterans. They tried to achieve a reasonably balanced mixture of black and white, young and old, religious and secular. The only deliberate imbalance was . . . — — Map (db m217410) HM
1st Panel
Two busloads of Freedom Riders arrived in Alabama on Sunday, May 14, 1961, bound for New Orleans. It was an organized effort by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to challenge the South's continued defiance of U. S. . . . — — Map (db m106721) HM
Throughout the first half of the 20th century, race relations in the South were dominated by local "Jim Crow" laws. Although in 1960 the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation violated the Interstate Commerce Act, local laws persisted. . . . — — Map (db m106605) HM
But the Ride didn't end. The national newspaper and television coverage of what had happened galvanized the Nashville Student Movement, which already had experience successfully challenging segregationist practices through lunch counter sit-ins, . . . — — Map (db m217421) HM
This district was once the economic and social hub of Anniston's African American community. In its heyday (1940-1950), the District was a "city within a city," with businesses that catered to the black community. Grocery stores, restaurants, . . . — — Map (db m106650) HM
In Atlanta, the Riders separated into two integrated groups to board two different buses; the seven who were on the Greyhound bus destined for Anniston included:
Albert Bigelow, 55 white male from Connecticut (a retired naval officer, . . . — — Map (db m217409) HM
This is a replica of the original tablet from the 1924 World War I monument located in front of the Clarke County Courthouse. The monument was the first memorial ever erected to honor county war dead. It cost $1,650 and was paid for with . . . — — Map (db m57385) HM
Howell Thomas Heflin retired from a lifetime of distinguished public service in 1997, having served Alabama in the U.S. Senate for three consecutive terms. There he was known as a national leader on judicial, agricultural, defense, and space issues. . . . — — Map (db m28586) HM
D. A. Smith High School
Dale County
The first school building on this site for African Americans was constructed in 1939 and was named Ozark Negro High School. It was replaced during the “separate but equal” period in 1952 and . . . — — Map (db m132087) HM
Presented By
SCLC W.O.M.E.N. Inc., Women's Organizational Movement for
Equality Now
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Voting Rights Bridge Crossing/Selma to Montgomery
March/Jubilee Foundation and others,
Dr. Joseph E. . . . — — Map (db m224569) HM
For centuries, Selma was a city where the rules of race
were enforced by humiliation and fear. But Selma gave
birth to one of the greatest grassroots campaigns in
historythe voting rights movement. The Selma to
Montgomery march was the . . . — — Map (db m112370) HM
'Bloody Sunday' Attack at Edmund Pettus Bridge
A voting registration campaign in 1965 turned tragic Feb. 17 when an Alabama state trooper fatally shot Jimmie Lee Jackson in Marion. It prompted a protest march from Selma to Montgomery that . . . — — Map (db m81944) HM
Brown A.M.E. Chapel (in front of you) served as a safe haven for supporters during the voting rights campaign. Pastor P.H. Lewis and his congregation courageously broke the injunction prohibiting African Americans from holding mass meetings, making . . . — — Map (db m131995) HM
The bloodshed on this bridge
named to honor Klan Leader,
Edmund Pettus, must fuel our
resolve to secure the right to
vote in perpetuity. This park
was designed and donated by
Hank and Rose Sanders to
honor their parents, Rev. D.A.
and Ora . . . — — Map (db m224571) HM
Edmund Pettus Bridge
has been designated a
National Historic Landmark
This site possesses national significance for its
association with "Bloody Sunday," a seminal event in the
Civil Rights Movement. Here, on March 7, 1965, . . . — — Map (db m82037) HM
First Baptist was the first church in Selma to open its doors to members of the Dallas County Voters League as well as to young activists from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. From 1963 to 1965, under the leadership of Reverend M.C. . . . — — Map (db m112366) HM
In 1952, the City of Selma accepted federal funds to build the George Washington Carver Homes Projects. The residences became “The Face of the Civil Rights Movement” to many in the 1960s because Dr. King, the Southern Christian . . . — — Map (db m112354) HM
The George Washington Carver neighborhood served as base camp for the votings rights movement during the tumultuous weeks of March 1965. These blocks of brick two-story homesthe city's first and largest federal housing project for blacks, built in . . . — — Map (db m112365) HM
Highlights of Selma History
Dallas County was created by Territorial Legislature Feb. 9, 1818. Selma Land Company formed Mar. 19, 1819 by George Phillips, William Rufus King, Jesse Beene, Gilbert Shearer and Caleb Tate. Selma incorporated . . . — — Map (db m37679) HM
The Selma-Montgomery March
"Bloody Sunday", March 7, 1965
Mothers of the Civil Rights Movement
Before and Beyond the Bridge
Didn't Let Nothing Turn Them Around!
Presented by
The Evelyn Gibson Lowery . . . — — Map (db m111691) HM
The demonstration that led to the most important advance in civil rights for millions of Black Americans began here March 21, 1965. It was the 50-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, the State Capital.
Defying threats of death, Dr. . . . — — Map (db m83578) HM
Rev. James J. Reeb, an Army Veteran and Unitarian minister from Casper, Wyoming, was working in Boston when Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. appealed for clergymen of all faiths to come to Selma to protest the violence that occurred at the Edmund Pettus . . . — — Map (db m37683) HM
Leader of
The Selma-Montgomery March
"Bloody Sunday", March 7, 1965
He Fed the Hungry
"Unbossed and Unbought"
1926-2000
Presented by
SCLC/W.O.M.E.N. Inc.
Women's Organizational Movement for Equality . . . — — Map (db m111689) HM
Lynching in America
Thousands of African Americans were victims of lynching and racial violence in the United States between the Civil War and World War II. The lynching of African Americans during this era was a form of racial terrorism used . . . — — Map (db m132071) HM
This school was the city of Selma's first public high school for African-Americans. Completed in 1949, the school was named in honor of Richard Byron Hudson, a black educator who had served for 41 years as principal of Clark Elementary School, . . . — — Map (db m82741) HM
The shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson in nearby Marion, Alabama, transformed Brown Chapel from a sanctuary into a staging area for the Selma march, In a passionate sermon SCLC worker James Bevel suggested making a pilgrimage to the State Capitol to . . . — — Map (db m112364) HM
Side A The original church, built one block south of the present site, was consecrated in 1843 by Bishop Leonidas Polk. In 1861, the second Bishop of Alabama, the Rt. Rev. Richard H. Wilmer, was elected there. During the Battle of Selma, St. . . . — — Map (db m37691) HM
Side 1
In January 1885, Dr. Edward M. Brawley, President, Alabama Baptist Normal and Theological School (now Selma University) formed Tabernacle Baptist Church to be an integral part of the students' Christian formation and education. . . . — — Map (db m82034) HM
Side 1
Tabernacle Baptist Church was founded in 1885, and in March of that year, the congregation purchased this site. Built in 1922 under the leadership of Dr. David Vivian Jemison, the current church features bricks from the original . . . — — Map (db m83677) HM
Honoring:
Leader of
The Selma-Montgomery March
"Bloody Sunday", March 7, 1965
"Get in the Way"
"When We Pray, We Move Our Feet"
Presented by:
The Evelyn Gibson Lowery . . . — — Map (db m111683) HM
(The Beginning)
The major civil rights protest, which focused national attention on the issue of racial discrimination in voting & led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, was centered in Selma.
In January of 1963 local . . . — — Map (db m37662) HM
By early 1964, the Dallas County Voters League (DCVL) and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's (SNCC) efforts to organize for voting rights had reached a turning point. In July 1964 Judge James Hare, pressured by Selma law enforcement to . . . — — Map (db m112369) HM
Selma Suffrage Association
established here March 1910.
Joined the Birmingham League
to form the Alabama Equal
Suffrage Association in 1912. — — Map (db m224540) HM
Lynching in America.
Thousands of Black people were the victims of lynching and racial violence in the United States between 1877 and 1950. The lynching of African Americans during this era was a form of racial terrorism intended to intimidate . . . — — Map (db m116817) HM
On this site, in January 1971, Thomas Earl Gilmore, Sr. was sworn in as Sheriff of Greene County. He was the first African American Sheriff in the county's history and served three consecutive terms until he retired from local politics.
Gilmore, . . . — — Map (db m203630) HM
Civil rights pioneer Rosa McCauley Parks was born on February 4, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama. Shortly after her birth her parents James and Leona McCauley, moved here to a 260 acre farm owned by her grandparents, Anderson and Louisa McCauley. Her . . . — — Map (db m182833) HM
(side 1)
The History of Paint Rock, Alabama
Originally Camden circa 1830, the post office was renamed Redman in 1846 and became Paint Rock on May 17, 1860. After the Memphis and Charleston Railroad Co. built a depot and water . . . — — Map (db m69756) HM
Marker front:
Constructed in 1911-1912 and designed by architect Richard H. Hunt, the Jackson County Courthouse is a Neo-Classical, brick building situated on a town square in Scottsboro, the county seat of Jackson County. The front, . . . — — Map (db m22264) HM
On Palm Sunday, 1963 Rev. N. H. Smith, Rev. John T. Porter and Rev. A. D. King led a sympathy march from St. Paul United Methodist Church down 6th Avenue North in support of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and Rev. Ralph . . . — — Map (db m73023) HM
This cemetery is the final resting place of three of the four young girls killed in the September 15, 1963 church bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carol Robertson are buried here. The fourth victim, . . . — — Map (db m61197) HM
The Fourth Avenue "Strip" thrived during a time when downtown privileges for blacks were limited. Although blacks could shop at some white-owned stores, they did not share the same privileges and services as white customers, so they created tailor . . . — — Map (db m26985) HM
In 1963, Birmingham underwent a major political transformation. To
force Commissioner Bull Connor from office, progressive Whites and
Blacks plotted to change the form of government from Commissioners
to a Mayor-Council system. Mayor Albert . . . — — Map (db m187705) HM
Rev. Shuttlesworth and his fellow ministers agreed to call the
replacement organization the Alabama Christian Movement for Human
Rights (ACMHR) so that its reach was both statewide and its aims wider
than the African American community. Adding . . . — — Map (db m188971) HM
The ACMHR used nonviolent direct action as its preferred method of
attacking racial segregation. This was a clear break from the tactics and
strategies of the traditional black middle-class leadership that focused
on petitions and lawsuits. Under . . . — — Map (db m188978) HM
Built 1959-60, 1517 5th Ave. N.
The A. G. Gaston Building's second floor conference room was
the location of regular meetings of Project C's Coordinating
Committee. Here, they planned strategies for the April - May
1963 marches, boycotts, . . . — — Map (db m187976) HM
Rev. Shuttlesworth returned frequently to Birmingham to lead the
ACMHR in a strategic alliance with the SCLC to bring national attention to
Birmingham and the need to end racial discrimination in America.
ACMHR staff worked with the SCLC's . . . — — Map (db m189139) HM
Because of his fearlessness, college student activists who staged
sit-ins and integrated bus rides in the 1960s knew they could depend
on support from Rey. Shuttlesworth and the ACMHR. He supported
Miles College student leader Frank Dukes and his . . . — — Map (db m189134) HM
Built 1913, 310 18th St. N.
The Alabama Penny Savings Bank, founded by Sixteenth Street
Baptist Church pastor Rev. William R. Pettiford, was Alabama's
first Black-owned bank and the second-largest Black bank in the
country by 1907. He . . . — — Map (db m188950) HM
Southern members of the U.S. Congress in 1956 issued the "Southern Manifesto that called the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown decision an "abuse of judicial power." By forcing public school integration contrary to social custom,
the high court had . . . — — Map (db m187661) HM
Shuttlesworth began to dedicate himself to the ministry and enrolled
in Cedar Grove Bible College, a Baptist institution in the Mobile suburb
of Pritchard. He took classes at night while he worked during the day.
The young couple added two more . . . — — Map (db m187628) HM
Child protestors overwhelmed police, who found it hard to confine
them to the Kelly Ingram Park area. Organizers used clever methods
to get them to City Hall before police could stop them. Children were
sent out in pairs. When they got closer to . . . — — Map (db m187836) HM
During the first 30 years of his 54-year-old practice, Attorney Shores practiced all over the State of Alabama - from the Tennessee line to the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile Bay, and from the Mississippi borders to the Georgia limits. During the period . . . — — Map (db m26720) HM
1949
For four decades, Shores was deeply involved in civil
rights challenges handling dozens of cases primarily
for the Birmingham branch of the NAACP on behalf of
African Americans. In the 1940s, the Birmingham
NAACP had grown to more . . . — — Map (db m189188) HM
Built 1940, 1420 7th Ave. N.
The Ballard House honors a time when thriving
neighborhoods; businesses, churches, social, cultural,
and civic organizations; made up a dynamic
African-American community during the first half of
the 20th . . . — — Map (db m187886) HM
Alabama's chapters of the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) were particularly effective in filing federal
lawsuits that challenged racial segregation laws and advocating for
voting rights. NAACP members also . . . — — Map (db m188970) HM
Built 1947-50, 710 20th St. N.
Birmingham City Hall was the administrative center for the
enforcement of local segregation codes. Thus, this building was
one of the major destination points for the Project C" marchers
in the 1963 . . . — — Map (db m187717) HM
Built 1992, 520 16th St. N.
The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute contains permanent exhibitions and photo galleries, offering visitors a self-directed
journey through the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and
1960s to the human rights . . . — — Map (db m187515) HM
Freddie Lee Robinson was born March 18, 1922, in Mt. Meigs,
Montgomery County, Alabama, to Alberta Robinson and Vetter Greene.
The unmarried couple also conceived a girl, Cleola. Because Vetter
could not provide for his growing family, Alberta's . . . — — Map (db m187631) HM
In January 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called ministers of the
church-led movements in Southern cities, including Montgomery and
Birmingham, to a meeting in Atlanta to form a national organization to
help them all. Civil rights activist . . . — — Map (db m189109) HM
Civil rights activist and pastor, the Rev. Calvin Wallace Woods Sr. was born in Birmingham in 1933. The son of a Baptist preacher, Woods attended historic miles college and various seminary institutions. He distinguished himself as a leader during . . . — — Map (db m187533) HM
1937
Most of Birmingham's housing started as cheap,
poorly built living quarters that large coal and
mining companies created near their factories for
their workers. Living in camp town housing
carried a stigma that many Blacks and . . . — — Map (db m189162) HM
The economic center of the Black retail district was on nearby Fourth
Avenue North. This historic area also served as the main cultural, social
and religious center of Black Birmingham. Blacks felt more relaxed
among their own people in and . . . — — Map (db m187761) HM
1955
By the 1950s, North Smithfield was the residential
area of choice for a new generation of Black
middle-class families, despite the terror bombings
meant to scare them away. This new generation of
African American leaders included A. . . . — — Map (db m189171) HM
Built 1924 (Extended in 1957), 1930 8th Ave. N.
In 1924, Municipal Auditorium was one of the South's largest
(6,000 seats) and most modern auditoriums. In April of 1956,
Ku Klux Klansman Asa Carter led an attack on Montgomery
native and . . . — — Map (db m187715) HM
Celebrities of all races - but particularly Black singers and actors such as
Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis, Jr., Eartha Kitt, Lena Horne, and Ossie
Davis with wife Ruby Dee - played important roles in the Movement.
Some, including comedian Dick . . . — — Map (db m187822) HM
1961
Black middle-class families who moved to North
Smithfield included the Davises, the Coars, the
Monks, the Browns, the Coles, the Adamses, the
Wesleys, the Gaillards, the Powells, the Halls, the
Nalls, the Browns, the Nixons, the . . . — — Map (db m189181) HM
The use of schoolchildren in the Movement unnerved Police Commissioner "Bull Connor, as well as the rest of Birmingham. But the success
of D-Day led to a second day, Double D-Day," where more children,
about 2,000, skipped school to protest. . . . — — Map (db m187838) HM
Rev. Bevel gave Birmingham children a chance to play important roles in
the struggle for equality. As their field marshal, he turned hundreds of
recruits into an effective non-violent army that Project C" unleashed
on the retail district. Images . . . — — Map (db m187767) HM
Birmingham's Black schoolchildren played an important role in moving the
city toward ending legal segregation. Under the leadership of SCLC field coordinators, thousands of children left their segregated schools to join the
marches in the downtown . . . — — Map (db m187682) HM
On Mother's Day, May 14, 1961, a group of black and white CORE youth on a "Freedom Ride" from Washington, D.C. to New Orleans arrived by bus at the Birmingham Greyhound terminal. They were riding through the deep south to test a court case, "Boynton . . . — — Map (db m83809) HM
Built 1922, 1630 4th Ave. N.
Built and designed by African Americans, the Colored Masonic
Temple served as their only major business and social meeting
place for decades. The Temple's gilded auditorium hosted many elegant social functions . . . — — Map (db m188188) HM
In the 1940s and 1950s, the NAACP filed a stream of lawsuits against Jim
Crow laws that had given Whites political, economic and social
superiority over Blacks for more than 100 years. Most of Birmingham's
NAACP cases, filed by local Black . . . — — Map (db m187775) HM
Rev. Shuttlesworth often said he expected to die at an early age in his
toe-to-toe battles with violent White segregationists who were bent on
maintaining power. But he outlived Dr. King and Rev. Abernathy, the last of
"the Big Three." He lived . . . — — Map (db m187571) HM
Many African Americans continued to push for the right to an equal
education that the 1954 Brown decision gave them. Despite angry
threats of violence and intense economic pressure, those first few African American families in Birmingham who chose . . . — — Map (db m187693) HM
Community civil rights leaders who helped organize the Movement and embraced the philosophy of nonviolence looked for well-disciplined children with good moral character who would at retaliate if they encountered bullying or violence by White . . . — — Map (db m187690) HM
Leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) learned they could apply economic pressure to White businesses with more effective results than moral persuasion alone. Therefore, the central strategy of the Birmingham Campaign . . . — — Map (db m73037) HM
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