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Episodes from "Historian's Craft," University of Alabama at Birmingham (Summer 2012): 1 through 10 of 14

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  1. Birmingham's Air Pollution Crisis and Federal Intervention
    date November 18, 1971 to November 20, 1971map Jefferson, Alabamatags Clean Air Act, Air Pollution, NEPA, EPA, Environmentalism, Birmingham, Alabama

    Birmingham’s pollution trouble had long been a recurring theme. For years, many had simply lived with the pollution as an everyday part of life. However, in 1971 the County Health Department issued pollution alerts on two separate occasions with daily particulate counts well above national averages. These measurements collected over separate areas of the city could not be ignored any further as a...

  2. The Convict Lease System in Alabama
    date 1909 to 1928map Jefferson, Alabamatags Birmingham, Alabama, convict lease

    https://acrobat.com/#d=ZZMWZ19C-VOVGrdmiX2CFA The picture above shows a group of men tearing up a Birmingham city street in 1909.  At first glance this picture might seem innocent enough.  These men could very well be day laborers just trying to make enough money to get by.  However, they are, in fact, prisoners who had been leased to a private company which Birmingham was paying to do road work. ...

  3. The Ku Klux Klan in Alabama
    date 1865 to 1877map CALHOUN, Alabamatags Reconstruction, Ku Klux Klan

    ”This is an institution of chivalry, humanity, mercy, and patriotism;” These are the words that the founders of the Ku Klux Klan used in describing the purpose of their organization.  This line comes from the founding document of the Ku Klux Klan.  Written in 1868, it outlines what they claim to believe, their purpose, as well as a litmus test for all potential new members. It is impossible to...

  4. Nonviolence in Civil Rights: Is it Successful?
    date March, 1965 to 1965map Dallas, Alabamatags Civil Rights, Martin Luther King Jr., Voting Rights Act of 1965

    On March 7, 1965 African Americans flooded the streets of Selma and headed west to Alabama’s capitol, Montgomery, to participate in a peaceful protest for racial equality. There was a lot of anticipation that led up to this march, as it was a long walk and a big mission. Although Dr. King was not able to attend, the people still assembled at Brown Chapel in Selma, Alabama with high hopes and a lot...

  5. Opposing the Atlanta Compromise by forming the Niagara Movement
    date January 1, 1885 to March, 1909map FULTON, Georgiatags Atlanta Compromise, Niagara Movement

    The Atlanta compromise was delivered to a white audience at Atlanta’s Piedmont Park in September 18, 1895 by Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee University. The Atlanta compromise was an agreement between African American leaders and Southern white leaders. The agreement was that Southern blacks would provide labor to white employers and submit to white political rule if whites assured that...

  6. The Rebellion In Alabama
    date February, 1868 to 1868map MONTGOMERY, Alabamatags Reconstruction, alabama

    The Rebellion in Alabama ”What’s next?  Is Alabama to come back without a new and equal constitution?  Never!  Let her be kept out until doomsday!”  This quote comes from an editorial written by an unnamed author in 1868 by The Independent, a Northern magazine which was complaining about the political situation in Alabama at the time.  One of the conditions for Alabama’s re-admittance...

  7. More to the WCTU than Meets the Eye
    date 1883map SUFFOLK, Massachusettstags Temperance Movement, Temperance, woman's suffrage

    In a letter to a temperance friend in the late 1800’s Francis Parkman, a Temperance supporter, called a woman who was part of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union out on what he thought the Temperance Movement was about. He writes to the woman saying that temperance was nothing more than, “A wedge to universal woman suffrage”. In the late 1800‘s people began to become concerned with the...

  8. Potential Danger for Prohibition
    date January 31, 1920map New York, New Yorktags Temperance Movement, women's rights, Prohibition, woman's suffrage

    In 1920 Linton Smith, also known as the Bishop of Hereford, wrote a controversial article on the Temperance Movement and Prohibition. Linton claimed that prohibition could possibly divide political parties on a, “Sex basis," meaning that female prohibition proponents could vote as a block against male opponents of prohibition. Strong drink was very popular in the lives of men during the time. In...

  9. Communion Alcohol
    date April 9, 1887map ALEXANDER, Illinoistags Temperance Movement, woman’s suffrage

    In a letter dated April 9, 1887 Isabella Maud Rittenhouse described a confrontation with her pastor. Rittenhouse, a teetotaler and member of the Temperance Movement, had demanded to know whether communion wine contained alcohol, to which her pastor dismissively replied that “it amused him to hear these WCTU people talking about unfermented wine; that there was no such thing in Christ’s time”....

  10. Marie Foster: A Woman on a Mission
    date March, 1965 to 1965map Dallas, Alabama, Wilcox, Alabamatags Selma, Voting Rights Act, Mary Foster, Civil Rights

    Marie Priscilla Martin was born on October 24, 1917 in Wilcox County, Alabama. From a poor family, Marie dropped out of high school to get married, and had three children. She eventually went to a junior college and became a dental hygienist. Foster became more involved in the voting rights movement because of her outrage over the racial inequality and injustice that she was constantly witnessing. It’s...

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