The Birmingham Campaign was a movement led in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) which sought to bring national attention to the efforts of local Black leaders to desegregate public facilities in Birmingham, Alabama. The campaign was led by Dr. Martin Luther … Read MoreThe Birmingham Campaign (1963)
Born on February 20, 1876, in Auburn, Alabama, Louis Augustus Carter was the second African American Army chaplain to be promoted to colonel. Carter received his early education in a local public school, attended Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) from 1895 to 1897, and Selma … Read MoreLouis Augustus Carter (1876–1941)
Oscar William Adams, Jr. was the first African American Supreme Court Justice appointed in Alabama and when he later stood for election to a full term, the first African American elected to a statewide constitutional office. He also litigated many civil rights cases in his … Read MoreOscar Adams, Jr. (1925-1997)
In the article below, Kimberley Mangun, an associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah, describes her ongoing research on the Birmingham (Alabama) World and its longtime editor, Emory O. Jackson. Mangun is writing a cultural biography of Jackson and the … Read MoreEmory O. Jackson, the Birmingham World, and the Fight for Civil Rights in Alabama
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Eddie Marcy was a member of the support staff of the famed Tuskegee Airmen in World War II. Marcy was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 13, 1919, to Arthur and Callie Marcy. His parents moved to Big Stone Gap, Virginia, … Read MoreEddie E. Marcy (1919–2016)
Odessa Cox is the principal founder of Los Angeles Southwest College (LASC), which serves a predominantly black and brown community in South Central Los Angeles, California. Born Odessa Brown on June 8, 1922, in Whatley, Alabama, she was a second-generation community activist. Her father, Chester … Read MoreOdessa Cox (1922–2001)
McKissack &McKissack is the oldest African American-owned architecture, construction, and engineering firm in the United States. The firm’s history began when Scotsman John McKissack, the owner of a construction and brick building company in West Tennessee, purchased an enslaved West African Ashanti ancestor (1790–1865). John … Read MoreMcKissack & McKissack Company (1905- )
John Charles Robinson, nicknamed the Brown Condor, was an African American aviator who fought with the Imperial Ethiopian Air Force against Benito Mussolini and Fascist Italy during the Second Italian-Ethiopian War, 1935–1936. He is also known as the Father of the Tuskegee Airmen for his … Read MoreJohn Charles Robinson (1903-1954)
Thornton Dial, a native Alabamian, was an artist and sculptor famous for yard show-influenced, mixed media pieces that used discarded everyday objects to symbolize the history and experience of African Americans in the South. While he did not belong to any formal school of art, … Read MoreThornton Dial (1928-2016)
Sam Martin Bruce was born on December 7, 1915, in Houston, Texas. Bruce’s father died when he was a young boy. His mother remarried and the family relocated to Seattle, Washington. In 1933, Bruce graduated from Garfield High School and soon enrolled at North Carolina … Read MoreSamuel (Sam) Bruce Martin (1915-1944)
