African American Experience in Birmingham
Bravery and Vision: Black Firsts in Birmingham
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Adams, Oscar William Jr. (1925-1997)
First African American
on Alabama State Supreme Court; first black law firm in Birmingham (Adams,
Baker, and Clemon)
The son of journalist and businessman Oscar William Adams Sr. and Ella Virginia
Eaton, Oscar Adams Jr. was born on February 7th, 1925, and grew up in
Birmingham, Alabama. A graduate of Lincoln Elementary School, Industrial High
School (now known as A.H. Parker),Talladega College, and Howard University,
Adams was encouraged by his father to pursue a political career. He opened his
own law practice in 1947 and represented African-American clients in
precedent-setting cases, one of which challenged the segregation practices of
the Interstate Commerce Commission and another that won African-Americans the
right to be called by their full proper names and titles during court
proceedings. Adams also went on to represent thousands of demonstrators involved
in the Civil Rights Movement protests of the early sixties. Adams’ appointment
to the Alabama Supreme Court was on October 10th, 1980, making him the first
African-American justice to hold that office. After being twice re-elected to
this post, Adams retired from the bench in 1993 and died on February 15th, 1997.
Explore more about Judge Oscar William Adams, Jr. online
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Arrington, Richard Jr. (1934-)
First African American mayor
of Birmingham
Richard Arrington Jr. was born October 19th, 1934 in Livingston, Alabama. When
his father was offered a job at U.S. Steel, the Arrington family moved to
Birmingham and settled in a community near Miles College. Arrington attended
Fairfield High School and earned his way through Miles College by working in a
dry-cleaning business before going on to earn advanced degrees in biology and
zoology at the University of Detroit and the University of Oklahoma. Upon his
return to Alabama, Arrington seemed destined for an academic or scientific
career, teaching at Miles College and serving there as Academic Dean before
becoming director of the Alabama Center for Higher Education and holding the
rank of associate professor of biology at University of Alabama in Birmingham.
However, Arrington’s career took a turn for the political when he ran for a city
council position, where he served from 1971 to 1979 before setting his sights on
the mayoral election of 1979. Arrington won the election and was inaugurated in
1980, becoming the first African-American mayor of what Dr. Martin Luther King
once designated “the most segregated city in America.” He went on to be
re-elected to five terms, leaving office on the 16th of July, 1999, shortly
before the end of his fifth term.
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Arrington Jr. online
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Billingsley, Orzell Jr. (1924-2001)
Co-founder and
president of the Alabama Democratic Conference (ADC), the first statewide
African American political organization in Alabama; first African American
member of the Democratic Executive Commission of Jefferson County
Born on the 24th of October, 1924 in Birmingham, Alabama, Orzell Billingsley Jr.
attended A.H. Parker High School before earning degrees from Talledega College
and Howard University, where he was awarded his law degree in 1950. He was one
of the first African-Americans to earn entrance to the Alabama State Bar and
made a name for himself as a representative for African-Americans, serving as
lawyer for both Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks during the famous
Montgomery Bus Boycott. In what was probably his most famous case, Billingsley
fought for fifteen years to secure the acquittal of Caliph Washington, who had
been charged by an all-white jury with the murder of a police officer. Not
confining himself to the strictly legal arena, Billingsley was active in
political causes as well, agitating for a re-write of Alabama’s 1901
constitution and assisting in the establishment of the Alabama Democratic
Conference and striving to offset the segregationist policies of the Alabama
Democratic Party. Billingsley also took a strong interest in the economic
development of black communities and helped establish Roosevelt City, where he
served as a municipal judge. He emerged from the Civil Rights Era as a widely
respected legal authority and representative for the interests of
African-Americans. Billingsley died in Birmingham, Alabama on December 13th,
2001.
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Clemon, U.W. (1943-)
First African American Federal Judge in Alabama
The son of Mississippi sharecroppers Mose and Addie Clemon, U.W. Clemon was born
on April 9th, 1943, and grew up in Fairfield, Alabama, where his parents had
relocated in search of better jobs. Clemon was an excellent student, graduating
at the top of his Westfield High School Class and going on to earn degrees from
Miles College, where he was again valedictorian of his class, and Columbia
University School of Law. Clemon became an active civil rights lawyer in the
firm of Adams, Burg, and Baker (later known as Adams, Baker, and Clemon). In
1980 Clemon was appointed to a federal judgeship, despite repeated attempts from
the American Bar Association to oppose his appointment. Clemons’ legal expertise
played a significant role in the Civil Rights movement in areas ranging from
school desegregation to suits against discriminatory work practices to promotion
of equal opportunities in higher education. Clemon retired from the bench in
January of 2009 to return to the practice of civil law in Birmingham, Alabama.
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Gaston, A.G. (1892-1996)
First (along with his wife Minnie) to be inducted
in Birmingham’s Gallery of Distinguished Citizens; established one of the first
African American burial societies in the South
Named “Entrepreneur of the Century” by Black Enterprise magazine, Arthur George
Gaston was born on, as he says in his autobiography, July 4th, 1892 in
Demopolis, Alabama: “I was born in that cabin. On the Fourth of July, 1892. I
always liked that birthday.” The cabin in question had been built by his
grandparents, former slaves Joe and Idella Gaston, who helped his mother raise
him after his father died. In 1900 Gaston’s mother, Rosie, moved to Birmingham
to work as a cook and brought her son with her. It was during this time that
Gaston attended the Tuggle Institute, founded by Carrie Tuggle, and after
finishing 10th grade at the Institute he began selling subscriptions to the
Birmingham Reporter. Unwilling to accept the limitations imposed on him by his
brief education, Gaston sought other opportunities to better himself, joining
the army in 1910 and serving until 1918, when he returned to Birmingham and
worked for TCI and sold box lunches to his fellow laborers. It was in 1923 that
Gaston hit upon the idea for a major business that would serve a community
demand: an African-American burial society. What started out as “Brother
Gaston’s Burial Society” was later known as the Booker T. Washington Burial
Society and provided a financial base for many of Gaston’s later enterprises are
now landmarks of Birmingham business history, such as the A.G. Gaston Motel, the
Citizens Federal Savings and Loan Association, and the A.G. Gaston Home for
Senior Citizens. Never one to pass up an opportunity, Gaston notes in his
autobiography that “what I have done, anyone can do, provided he has the will to
achieve, has a clear-cut concept of what he wants to do, and is able to subject
himself to the rigid discipline that will lead ultimately to the realization of
his objectives.” A member of the Alabama Business Hall of Fame and the Alabama
Academy of Honor, Gaston died on January 19th, 1996, in Birmingham, Alabama, at
the age of 103.
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Hall, Ethel (1928-)
First African American elected
to the Alabama State Board of Education
Dr. Ethel Harris Hall was born to Harry Harris and Fannie Mae Harris on February
23rd, 1928. The Harris's lived in Morgan County, Alabama, and due to limited
educational opportunities in their area, they sent their daughter to live with
her grandparents in Jefferson County and attend school in North Birmingham. Hall
later attributed her business skills to living with her grandparents and seeing
how they ran their ice house business, claiming that “helping Grandmother
account for the ice house money had given me the foundation for adding,
subtracting, multiplying, and dividing.” Hall’s education continued at Ullman
High and A.H. Parker High, until she moved back home to her parents and attended
the laboratory high school of Alabama A&M, where she graduated as valedictorian
of her class and then attended the college, obtaining her degree in 1948.
Thanks to financial aid opportunities at the University of Chicago, Hall
obtained her master’s degree in 1953 and after teaching at Westfield High School
and University of Montevallo (where she was the first African-American faculty
member), Hall attended the University of Alabama and earned a Doctorate in
Social Work in 1979. At the end of her teaching career Hall entered politics and
was inaugurated to the Alabama State Board of Education on January 19th, 1987.
She went on to serve six terms, becoming vice chair in 1994, which for all
practical purposes meant presiding over the board since the Governor is
president and not always available to preside. Hall served the State Board of
Education for twenty-four years and remains Vice President Emerita.
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Mays, Willie (1931-)
First African American to win
Major League Baseball’s Gold Glove award
Willie Howard Mays, Jr.--better known to baseball fans as Willie Mays or
“The Say Hey Kid”—was born in Westfield, Alabama, on May 6th, 1931. Baseball
was a family tradition; Mays’ grandfather, Walter Mays, and his father,
William Howard Mays, played with local leagues in Tuscaloosa and Fairfield
respectively. An excellent athlete from a young age, Mays played baseball
with a semi-professional team, the Grey Sox, by the time he was thirteen and
was also a star athlete at Fairfield Industrial School, playing both
football and basketball before his baseball debut with the Birmingham Black
Barons in 1948. In 1951 he joined the New York Giants and for his
performance that season he was named National League Rookie of the Year.
Mays career was interrupted by the Korean War draft in 1951, but after
serving his time in the army, Mays resumed his career in 1954 and enjoyed a
spectacular season with a .345 average, including 41 home runs, 119 runs,
and a Most Valuable Player award. Mays went on to win the Gold Glove twelve
times and was named to the National League All-Star Team twenty-two times in
a row, demonstrating a high level of athletic achievement throughout a long
and successful career, and in the 1960’s Sport magazine called him “the
greatest player of the decade.” Awarded the Key to the City of Birmingham by
Mayor Richard Arrington in 1981, Mays finally received recognition in his
own home town for his accomplishments. He now makes his home in California
and is the guiding force behind the Say Hey Foundation, an organization
supporting education for underprivileged children.
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Rice, Condoleezza (1954-)
First African American woman
as National Security Advisor; First African-American woman as Secretary of
State
The daughter of John and Angelena Rice, whom she described in her memoir of
the same name as “extraordinary, ordinary people,” Condoleezza Rice was born
on November 14, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama. Exceptionally intelligent from
an early age, Rice took music lessons from her mother and was home-schooled,
though her parents had made an unsuccessful attempt to enroll her in first
grade at age three. Mindful of the social climate of the time, Rice’s
parents encouraged her education but sheltered her as much as possible from
the violence of the Civil Rights Movement, with limited success: one of her
friends was Denise McNair, a victim of the bombing of the Sixteenth Street
Baptist Church. In 1968 the family moved to Denver, Colorado, where Rice
continued her music studies for a short time but then became interested in
politics. After earning her Bachelor’s Degree at University of Denver, Rice
attended Notre Dame and awarded a Master’s Degree in Political Science in
1975, which she followed with a return to University of Denver and a Ph.D.
in Soviet and International Relations in 1981. In 1986 Rice was offered a
position on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and from 1989 from 1991 she served
President George H.W. Bush as a foreign policy analyst on the National
Security Council. In 2005 she succeeded Colin Powell as Secretary of State.
Rice left the State Department in 2009 to teach political science at
Stanford University in California, where she is a member of the faculty
today. In addition to her university duties, she continues her lifelong
interest in music and is also an avid fan of professional football.
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Shores, Arthur Davis (1904-1996)
First African American
to serve on the Birmingham City Council
One of the most prominent legal figures associated with the Civil Rights
Movement, Arthur Davis Shores was born in Bessemer on September 25th, 1904
and grew up in the mining community of Wenonah, where he was able to attend
a school sponsored by TCI. He later attended Parker High School and went on
to earn a Bachelor’s Degree from Talladega College and a law degree from
LaSalle Extension University in Chicago in 1935. Shores had been teaching at
Bessemer’s Dunbar High School while working on his law degree, and after he
began his law practice he was for a time the state’s only practicing
African-American attorney. Shores’ first prominent case was in 1940 when the
NAACP requested that he prosecute a police brutality case. Shores consented
and won the case, refusing a bribe to drop the issue and resisting threats
from the Ku Klux Klan. He entered politics in 1952, campaigning for
Stevenson and Sparkman and then seeking office himself with a run for the
state legislature in 1954. In his political career as with his legal career,
Shores continued to take a stand for civil rights, providing legal
assistance to Vivian Malone and James Hood in the famous “stand in the
schoolhouse door” incident at University of Alabama. In 1968 Shores was
appointed to the Birmingham City Council, making him the first
African-American to serve as a councilman. He retired from the council in
1977, citing a desire to return to law practice, and was involved in many
community organizations such as the Birmingham Housing Authority, the A.G.
Gaston Boys’ Club, and many others. Shores died in Birmingham, Alabama, on
December 15th, 1996.
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Tuggle, Carrie A. (1858-1924)
Established first orphan home in Alabama for African American boys
Born May 28th, 1858 in Eufala, Alabama, Carrie Tuggle was the daughter of a
former slave and a Mohawk Indian chief. Tuggle became a social worker and
moved to Birmingham in the early 1900s, where her work with the black youth
of the city was instrumental in the establishment of the Jefferson County
Juvenile and Domestic Court. In 1903, Tuggle opened the Tuggle Institute and
School, the first orphan home in Alabama for African-American boys. The
Institute operated until Tuggle’s death on November 5th, 1924 and was later
renamed Tuggle Elementary School in 1936. Attendees at Tuggle School include
famous jazz musician Erskine Hawkins and Birmingham entrepreneur A.G. Gaston,
who credited Tuggle as being “everything to me when I was a boy growing up
in Birmingham.” Tuggle’s legacy lives on in the present-day Tuggle
Elementary School, where her memorial plaque describes her as “scholar,
educator, servant of mankind, and a Christian woman.” Another memorial to
Tuggle can be found among the Distinguished African-American Citizens
Monuments in Kelly Ingram Park, where her tribute marker hails her “life of
unselfish service to the troubled and the homeless black boys and girls.”
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