Author / Vickii Howell

Posts by Vickii Howell

VICKII HOWELL is an award-winning journalist and founder of BIRMINGHAM VIEW Magazine, the community, lifestyle and business publication she launched in 2003 to capture the voices and faces of progressive Birmingham AL.
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by Vickii Howell

Birmingham: Epicenter of the New Economics Movement?

On Wednesday Thursday, journalism colleague Kathy Times nationally launches her new website – aimed at improving the status of black-owned businesses – in Birmingham that is known as the universal vortex of the civil and human rights movement.

Where2Go411.com is an online destination to help connect black enterprises to local and national buyers, including city governments, school boards, counties, airport authorities, and other entities specifically seeking to aid the growth of these businesses.

Now, if you’re questioning the connection between Birmingham’s civil and human rights history and this announcement, please let me connect the dots for you. Continue reading →

by Vickii Howell

Education Shenanigans Do Not Take A Holiday

I was distressed this morning to hear that the Birmingham School Board hastily called together a 5 p.m.  meeting today – a religious holiday for most people – to discuss the contract of Superintendent Craig Witherspoon.

All the people who are reportedly not Dr. Witherspoon fans will be there. But several of his supporters, who had already planned to be out of town because of the holiday, won’t be there to have a say in what happens at this meeting.

For a while now, I have heard rumblings about plans to get rid of the superintendent, and it’s my fault for not taking enough time to learn exactly what problem(s) the grumblers were having with him. Continue reading →

by Vickii Howell

The Struggle Continues – Bloody Sunday and The 4-1-1

Black History Month officially ended yesterday, but the message it carries is as important today as it was on February 29 (or the 28th, if it hadn’t been for the leap year).

Black History is American History, so it has no one-month limit. And the struggle for equality, unfortunately, is far from over.

I try to get to Selma every first weekend in March for Bloody Sunday commemorations. If you don’t know what Bloody Sunday is, don’t feel bad. Until 6 years ago, I didn’t know either. The annual celebration includes the re-enactment of Selma’s civil rights leaders’ initial trek across the Edmund Pettus Bridge toward Montgomery on March, 7, 1965. Continue reading →

by Vickii Howell

Little Known Black History Facts, and More Events

I am not a historian by inclination. Being young means you focus more on the future and where you want to be when it gets here. But because of several projects that required research into Birmingham’s past has shown me the value of understanding the here and now. Continue reading →

by Vickii Howell

February Events This Weekend and Beyond

As very connected folks in Birmingham, I’m sure you’re well abreast of the latest events going on across the city as February /Black History Month closes out.

I’m sure you know about Bill Cosby’s two performances tonight at the Alabama Theater to benefit Miles College. The Cos has been in the ‘Ham several times over the past year, working as he can to encourage and strengthen the community with his words of wit and wisdom. A good fatherly kick in the pants and advice can motivate us to do better. I hope that somehow his words can especially touch the hearts of some of our youth who seem headed for trouble, like the sage counsel former Judge J. Richmond Pearson shared last week with disgruntled teens at Huffman High.

But you may also want to check out the free film festival that’s going on right now. For Black History Month, the Carver Theatre is hosting the 5th annual E. Desmond Lee Africa World Documentary Film Festival (AWDFF). It’s open to the public and FREE, folks. Continue reading →

by Vickii Howell

Why Black History Month Is Important for Everyone

Renowned historian and author Carter G. Woodson started Negro History Week in 1926 as a way to highlight the contributions of African Americans in a country that distorted the historical records of their contributions.

After all, if black folks, being intellectually and morally inferior as individuals and as a group, had no record of having done anything of import to advance human civilization (according to the reasoning of racially chauvinistic of males in the dominant society in the 18th and 19th centuries),  then what is their worth? It was a sad rationale for racial oppression, without much consequence.

Woodson’s own research of African history – not to mention the work being done by his own American peers and plain ol’ common sense – roundly refuted such arguments. And he wanted black people to know what he knew, as a way to build their self esteem in a society that constantly pulverized it. And he wanted the world to know too, particularly because it would help eliminate prejudice among whites. So he chose February to start his campaign. Continue reading →

by Vickii Howell

The Change We Want to See

Two sets of events events will take place this weekend, things that on the surface have nothing in common. But in my little mind, I see a strong connection.

The first include the weekend of celebratory events planned to commemorate the life and legacy of Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, who died on October 5. The second is the Birmingham Comprehensive Planning meeting on Saturday. Continue reading →