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Jefferson, Alabama in the 1920s: 1 through 10 of 10

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  1. First Sitting President to Mention Civil Rights in the South
    date October 26, 1921map Jefferson, Alabamatags Race Relations, african americans

    On October 26, 1921 President Warren G. Harding visited Birmingham, Alabama.  The Magic City was celebrating its semi centennial - fifty years of being a city in the New South. It was a city without a typical Southern past.  Founded in 1871, Birmingham was a model city at this time – railroads, blast furnaces and steel mills marked its landscape.  It was a bustling industrial giant; and, it was...

  2. James Knox: Convict Lease Martyr
    date 1923 to 1926map Jefferson, Alabamatags james knox, convict lease

      James Knox - Alabama’s Convict Labor System Martyr Ex-sailor and convicted felon Mr. James Knox was sent to Flat Top Mine in Jefferson County to carry out what would be his death sentence.  In 1923 Mr. Knox came out of the mine claiming that he “gave out in the mines and the deputies contended that he was a big strong man and was malingering”.  This day, which proved to be Mr. Knox's last,...

  3. What do you do when the Klan is after YOU?
    date October 1, 1928 to November 10, 1928map Jefferson, Alabamatags Ku Klux Klan, Politics

    Major Harwell Goodwin Davis is sitting at his desk and he hears the distinctive ring of the telephone. He picks up the receiver only to find out that the head of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama is the man at the other end. In the 1920s, anybody would listen to what this man had to say, even a man running for Congress. Davis was fast-rising politician that just finished a well-known court case as the Attorney...

  4. The Beginning of the End of Convict Labor in Alabama
    date 1928 to 1929map Jefferson, Alabamatags Convict Labor, New South

    Your name is screamed aloud behind you. So, what do you do? If you are the Attorney General to the State of Alabama in the 1920s, you do not turn around. Major Harwell Goodwin Davis learned this lesson the hard way. Coming out of the Justice Department in Downtown Birmingham, he turned to address the shout he had heard and the next thing he knew, he was waking up in a hospital with a nasty bruise on...

  5. Carmela Anselmo- Teacher and Innovator
    date January 1, 1921 to October 29, 1940map Jefferson, Alabamatags Italians, Immigration

    In 1921 Carmela Anselmo travelled to the United States from Sicily to visit her brother.  She fell in love with America on this trip and decided to stay.  In 1934 Carmela became a citizen of the United States. But she wasn’t satisfied with just becoming one herself, therefore she took up teaching the English language to other native-born Italians in order to help them gain citizenship as well. ...

  6. Black Worker Finds Dignity at Sloss Furnaces
    date January, 1925 to 1940map Jefferson, Alabamatags Sloss Furnaces, Birmingham, Alabama

               On a cold January evening in 1925, the Sloss Furnaces graveyard shift clocked in at seven. From ground level of the plant, one could see brilliant light almost as bright as the sun flowing from the ladles into the troughs as men worked frantically to obtain their quotas of pig iron. In an 1984 interview, Alonzo Gaines revealed life as a black worker at Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham,...

  7. Incident of Racial Tension Reported on Birmingham’s East Lake Line
    date June 6, 1923 to June 21, 1943map Jefferson, Alabamatags Civil Rights, African American, Race Relations, Transportation

    On a hot midafternoon on June 21, 1943, a streetcar filled with passengers eased along the East Lake Line in Birmingham, Alabama. When it reached its next stop no one got off, but one white man and two white women attempted to board the already packed car. The conductor, claiming there was standing room in the “negro” section, told some “negro” passengers who were standing near the entrance...

  8. Soldier Resists Segregation on Birmingham Streetcar
    date June 6, 1923 to June 6, 1946map Jefferson, Alabamatags Segregation, Race Relations, Civil Rights, African-Americans, Transportation

    During World War II , whites and blacks had sacrificed for their country; yet, only the whites who returned found themselves recipients of respect. Around 9:40pm on June 6, 1943 a “negro” soldier boarded a streetcar in Birmingham, Alabama on the North Birmingham Line. Instead of moving to the back of the car, he chose to stand in the white section. White passengers began to complain and the conductor...

  9. Eugene “Bull” Connor Writes Correspondence on the Race Question
    date June 6, 1923 to December 31, 1946map Jefferson, Alabamatags Segregation, Transportation, Race Relations, Civil Rights

    With racial tensions rising in Birmingham, there was only one thing to do: ensure the separation of the races. This was what Eugene “Bull” Connor, Birmingham’s Commissioner of Public Safety during the 1940s, saw as the only option to ensure public peace. This separation of the races included the segregation of Birmingham’s streetcars. In a letter dated June 29, 1944 to Mr. C. L. Harris of Birmingham’s...

  10. An African American Worker at Sloss Furnace Encounters the Color Line
    date 1925 to 1950map Jefferson, Alabamatags Iron and Steel Industry, Economy, Race-Relations, African-Americans

    '"A nigger can't bid for a white man's job." was how Alonzo Gaines described labor divisions among African Americans and whites at the time he was employed at Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1984 Gaines sat down in an interview with the Sloss Furnace Association with the goal of recording his thoughts on his career at Sloss Furnaces, a pig-iron producing blast furnace in Birmingham, Alabama....