A Century That Changed America

Montgomery, Alabama has the dual distinction as “The Cradle of the Confederacy” and the “Birthplace of Civil Rights.”  The orders to fire the first shots on Ft. Sumter, setting off the Civil War, were signed at and sent from the Winter Building on Dexter Avenue.  Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the President of the Confederacy on the front steps of the State Capitol building.  Across the street from the Capitol stands the first White House of the Confederacy, where President and Mrs. Davis lived for three months, before the capital of the Confederate States of America was relocated to Richmond, Virginia.

It was in this building that the vote was cast for cession from the Union and the Confederate
States of America was formed.  Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was named President of the CSA

One of two matching cantilevered staircases going from the first to the third floors. This view is the
second floor, going up to the third floor.  The other staircase is directly behind the photographer.

 


Dome of the capital, looking up from the first floor.



This plaque, in the former Senate Chamber, commemorates the founding of the CSA



 

Dining room in the first Confederate "White House"




President Jefferson Davis' bedroom



The First Lady's bedroom



The first and second sitting rooms in the Confederate "White House"



Almost a hundred years later history was again made in this same vicinity.  Dexter Avenue leads up to Goat Hill, the site upon which the Capitol is built.  Two blocks from the capitol is the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where a young preacher, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., began his ministry.  (In fact, it is the only church where Dr. King ever served as pastor.)  Nearby is the site where Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man.  The resulting Montgomery Bus Boycott ended after 381 days when the Supreme Court declared segregation on public transportation unconstitutional.  And on March 25, 1965, the five day, fifty-four mile Selma-to-Montgomery Civil Rights March, led by Dr. King, ended at those same capitol steps.

The Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began his
ministry, is now on the National Register of Historic Places



Thirty-eight miles from Montgomery is the town of Tuskegee, home of Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University.)  Tuskegee Institute was at one time headed by Dr. George Washington Carver, a botanist, educator and inventor best known for his research into and promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes, which also aided nutrition for farm families.  Tuskegee Institute, itself, however, is best known for training the Tuskegee Airmen.   Until 1939, African-Americans were excluded from flying in the Army Air Corps.  Anticipating that the United States might be drawn into World War II, Congress passed the Civilian Pilot Training Act to train a large number of pilots.  Six Black colleges and one private flying school were included as training centers.
 

Hanger #1 at Moton Field.  This building also contained the first "integrated" lunch
room/snack bar in the armed forces.

Hanger #2 and the control tower. Both hangers now contain museums of the Tuskegee Airmen.

 

The PT-13 Stearman open-cockpit biplane was the trainer used at Tuskegee

The military and the public were resistant in their acceptance of African-American pilots.  Two factors helped to overcome this resistance:  Public Law 18 of April 1939 and the support of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.  A newspaper photo showing a smiling Eleanor Roosevelt in an airplane piloted by Charles Anderson garnered public support.  Charles Anderson, who with Dr. Albert Forsythe, were the first African-American pilots to make a round trip trans-continental flight, oversaw the primary flight training of the majority of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Stars on the map show where the pilots who trained at Tuskegee came from.
By the end of the war, Tuskegee had trained 994 pilots and over 17,000
mechanics, fuelers, and other ground support personnel

In 1943 the 99^th Fighter Squadron was sent to North Africa to fly P-40s on patrol and as bomber escorts.  The 99th later flew P-47s and finally P-51 aircraft.  American bomber crews called them the “Red-Tail Angles” because of their planes’ distinctive red tail sections (painted by the pilots themselves) and because they were known to never abandon the bombers that they were assigned to escort and protect.

Flight jacket and other gear used by the Tuskegee Airmen

Replica of a P-47, with "red tail", flown by the 99th Fighter Squadron

 



The Tuskegee Airmen compiled an impressive combat record.  Collectively,
the 332nd Fighter Group earned 96 Distinguished Flying Crosses

 Moton Field, where most of the training took place, is now a National Historic Site.

For over 100 years, for good or for bad, Montgomery was right in the center of events that changed America.  Today Montgomery continues its role as the political hub of Alabama and a culturally prominent city.  One can attend a play at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, ranked as one of the ten largest in the world, or cheer on the Biscuits, the Class AA baseball team affiliated with the Tampa Bay Rays, at Riverwalk Stadium, or visit the Rosa Parks Library and Museum or stop and see Old Alabama Town, a collection of over 40 authentically restored 19^th and early 20^th century buildings located right in the city’s downtown area. 

The Alabama State Archives building is more than a repository of state records.  It contains a
a very good museum with a new exhibit, Voices of Alabama, depicting the history of the
state from settlement by the French to expeditions to the moon.

One section of the Voices of Alabama exhibit shows "modern inventions" that
made life easier for many people after World War II

Hank Williams, Sr. was from Montgomery.  The Voices of Alabama includes
one of the western suits he wore when he performed at the Grand Old Opry

Entrance to The Alley, the revitalized "entertainment district" in downtown Montgomery 

The Montgomery Biscuits stadium, built in 2004

 

The Biscuits stadium used an historic building, headquarters of the Western
Railway of Alabama, as its offices and gift shop.  The stadium is built
right up against the back wall of the railway building

 

Union Station, once a busy railroad depot, has be restored and now
houses a restaurant and the Montgomery Visitors Center

 

Beautiful mosaic tile floor in Union Station

The former train shed behind Union Station, taken from the landing on the Alabama River.
The tunnel on the left in this picture was constructed to allow wagons to pass under the busy
railroad tracks to bring bales of cotton to steamboats waiting at the wharf for shipment to Mobile

 

As the Spearmint advertisement on the exterior wall of a former dry goods store indicates, Montgomery is a blend of the old and new.  There is plenty to see and do in this capital city.  Take a trip to Montgomery and experience your own Road Stories.

While we were visiting the capitol, Governor Robert Bentley (seated) signed legislation
to compensate victims of violent crime.  The signing took place in the former House
chamber and this picture was taken from the gallery overlooking the House floor.

 

Magic City

Birmingham today is a vibrant city with a storied past, from industrial giant to hotbed of civil rights activity.  A relatively young Southern city, Birmingham was established on June 1, 1871 at the junction of two major railroads, the Louisville & Nashville (L&N) and the Southern Railway.  In addition, nearby was an abundance of raw material for making pig iron:  iron ore, coke and limestone.  Birmingham was the quintessential steel city.  Between 1880 and 1890 pig iron production increased tenfold, and the growth of the city mirrored that of the iron and steel industry.  One major foundry was Sloss Furnaces.  Today, the former Sloss Furnaces complex is on the National Register of Historic Places.  Birmingham’s explosive growth in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s quickly earned it the nickname “Magic City.”

Sloss Furnaces, one of the largest foundries in Birmingham, is operated
today as a museum, and is on the National Register of Historic Places





Furnace No. 1 at Sloss.  Iron ore, coke and limestone were fed into the top of the furnace.
Heated air was injected from the bottom, literally melting the materials to form molten
iron, called "pig iron", which was "poured off" from the bottom of the furnace.



The raw materials were weighed to insure the correct ratios, then conveyed on this
"skip hoist" to the top to feed the furnace.  The blast furnaces ran 24 hours per day.

 

Standing on the steps of Furnace No. 2

The former "cast shed" where the molten iron was poured into sand molds to be cooled
as bars of "pig iron".  Today the shed has been re-purposed for other uses.  The day we visited,
it was being decorated for a wedding.  The venue hosts 45 or 50 weddings each year.





Unfortunately, the impact of the Great Depression on the city was devastating.  Immediately preceding 1929, approximately 108,000 people were employed in and around Birmingham; following the stock market crash, 100,000 of those jobs were lost, prompting President Herbert Hoover to declare Birmingham the hardest impacted of any U.S. city.  World War II brought the city back to life as the steel industry kicked into high gear to produce the equipment and weapons needed for war.  By the 1970’s iron and steel production had moved overseas and Birmingham, like much of the Pennsylvania / Ohio “rust belt” was pretty much out of the iron and steel business.  Fortunately, following World War II, Birmingham had begun to diversify so that its fortunes would no longer rise or fall on the basis of a single industry.

In 1904, Birmingham created a 56 foot tall statue of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and the forge, for its
exhibit at the St. Louis World's Fair. Following the fair, the statue stood at the Birmingham fair grounds for
30 years until it was put on a 124 foot pedestal in Vulcan Park, atop Red Mountain, overlooking the city.

Vulcan is the largest cast iron statue in the world, and the 7th-largest free-standing statue in
the U.S. Funding for the creation of Vulcan Park, along with the pedestal on which the statue
stands, came, in part, from the Works Progress Administration (WPA). 

View of downtown Birmingham from the observation deck on the Vulcan statue









During the 1960’s Birmingham became a focal point of the Civil Rights movement.  A number of significant events occurred here.  Non-violent protests by African-Americans were met with fire hoses and police dogs.  Two pivotal events brought national attention and shocked the nation.  In early May 1963, in an event that Newsweek termed “The Children’s Crusade” students left their schools to march downtown to meet with the mayor.  The marchers were handled brutally by local authorities, resulting in the arrest of some 600 children.  The other event was a horrific bombing on September 15, 1963 at 16th Street Baptist Church which took the lives of four young girls, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins--all 14 years old--and 11-year-old Denise McNair.

These momentous events were instrumental in paving the way for federal civil rights legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.



16th Street Baptist Church, site of the 1963 bombing that took the lives of four girls.



Statues commemorating the four murdered Birmingham girls, in Kelly Ingram Park. The park
was named for the Birmingham resident who was the first U.S. Navy sailor killed in WWI.



16th Street Baptist Church, with the statues of the murdered girls in the
foreground, showing the proximity of Kelly Ingram Park to the church. The park

was a rallying point for civil rights marches, including the Children's Crusade.



After years of healing, the social fabric has been strengthened.  Birmingham has established itself as an important financial hub and today it is one of the nation’s largest banking centers.  The city is also home to world-class medical facilities.  The University of Alabama is the city’s largest employer.  While the downtown area’s population is 212,237 (2010 census) the metropolitan area includes 1,128,000 citizens.  The economy of the Birmingham metropolitan area is strong, and the mild climate, relatively low cost of living and abundance of cultural venues and events make Birmingham a very welcoming city.





Rickwood Field, the oldest professional ball park in the U.S.  Opened in 1910, it was used
continually until 1987.  Now, a Birmingham Barons "retro" game is played here each summer

Among the greats who played here over the years:  Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson
Willie Mays, Leroy "Satchel" Paige, "Dizzy" Dean and his brother, Paul, and "Shoeless"
Joe Jackson, who later was embroiled in the Black Sox scandal in the 1919 World Series



Scenes from three movies have been filmed at Rickwood Field:  Cobb (1994);
Soul of the Game (1995); and 42 (2012), the Jackie Robinson story.

In addition to the Birmingham Barons, the Birmingham Black Barons, of the Negro League,
played here in the days before baseball was integrated.  They won two league chanpionships.

We visited the Birmingham Botanical Gardens at the height of the rose festival

 

 

The Irondale Café in the nearby town of Irondale, was the inspiration for the
Whistle-Stop Café in the movie version of Fannie Flagg's novel Fried Green Tomatos 

 

The Irondale Café on a rainy Saturday afternoon

 

The interior of the Irondale Café.  Their specialty is fried chicken, but the
fried catfish looked really, really good, and it tasted as good as it looked.

 

We camped at Oak Mountain State Park, south of Birmingham, a 10,000 acre park
(the largest state park in Alabama) that is absolutely pristine and gorgeous



Driving up to the highest spot accessible by road in Oak Mountain Park, this is a
view from one of the scenic outlooks.  Parts of this park were created by the CCC







Birmingham, one of the major stops on our tour of Alabama, provided us with great sights and interesting Road Stories.