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 →
I first met the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church during the 30-year anniversary of the church bombing, when NBC’s Brian Williams (before he was an anchor) and his television crews broadcast a live, national town-hall meeting from its sanctuary.
I was one of The Birmingham News reporters covering the event, and I was directed to interview him. At that time I only knew Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in terms of the Civil Rights Movement. So Rev. Shuttlesworth’s story fascinated me.
He recounted surviving the first bomb attack on his home. A blast that should have killed him instead inspired him because he knew that God spared him to lead the Movement in Birmingham. Emerging from the ruins of his wrecked home virtually unscathed, he was from then on the fiercest foe of segregation, he said, because he was never again afraid. Continue reading →
When Birmingham’s Artwalk began 10 years ago to draw people to the downtown Loft District and celebrate art there, there wasn’t a whole lot of “there” there. What a difference a decade makes.
I mentioned last week that The Birmingham News would host a roundtable discussion about leadership in Birmingham with local leaders and the community.
Well, that discussion is taking place today at The News, where seating is limited. It will be streamed live from AL.com. But those who want to join the discussion can take part via the online chat with columnist Eddie Lard. The event is from 12:15 p.m. to 2 p.m. Continue reading →
The May 14, 1961, picture of Klansmen savagely beating non-violent Freedom Riders upon their arrival at the Birmingham Trailways bus station helped change the city’s course toward a destiny it has yet to achieve. Continue reading →
I’ve dreamt of tornadoes before. But none of my dreams was ever like the one I had about two weeks ago. In it, the tornado funnels seemed to fall out of a blustery sky toward the ground, one after another, several at a time, two or three funnels in a swirling mass of dark gray clouds.
Another scene in this dream sequence that’s too ghastly for me to repeat here. It was terrible enough to make me wake up. I shoved those scenes deep into a mental corner as I would any bad dream and tried to forget them.
I wish I could wake up from the living nightmare that struck our state last week.To my great discomfort and sorrow, it was not a dream. Continue reading →
There’s a hole in the fabric of Birmingham today. Doris Powell, a long-time neighborhood leader and transit advocate, died yesterday.
She died doing what she did best – communing with neighbors who were her constituents and co-leaders of the Northside community. Ms. Powell was among them at the Fountain Heights Neighborhood park when she collapsed and later died. Continue reading →
My New Year started with a bang: someone crashed into my car.
It was sitting there, parked on the street in front of my apartment, minding its own business, when, at some time in the night/early morning of Jan. 3 or so, some clown ran into it. No ice was involved in the making of this wreck, by the way. Alcohol, maybe.
Old Bessie (an Acura Legend) was the real-deal metal car, not some fiberglass mash-up. So whoever hit it damaged their vehicle, because little flecks of glass covered the hood of my car. But the hit knocked my car off its front-end axle. It was totaled. I don’t know who hit it because the offender took off never left a note or a message.
Because I didn’t have the type of insurance that covered the loss, I was carless for several weeks. Continue reading →