Category Archives: African-American History

Hugh Davis farm journals, 1848-1880

Hugh Davis (1811-1862) was an Alabama lawyer turned plantation owner. Being a learned man, his record books from the Beaver Bend farm are thorough and articulate, describing both day-to-day activities and overall running of farming operations, including the relationship between … Continue reading

Marking the 50th Anniversary of Desegregation at The University of Alabama

Fifty years ago tomorrow, James Hood and Vivian Malone made history as the first African-Americans to successfully enroll at the University of Alabama. Though initially blocked from entry by Governor George Wallace — during his infamous “Stand in the Schoolhouse … Continue reading

Flashback to Emphasis ’68: Roy Wilkins

Forty five years ago this week, The University of Alabama began its second annual symposium on contemporary issues. Known as Emphasis, it ran from 1967-1971, with varying degrees of success. This week, we revisit some of its more memorable speeches and … Continue reading

James Hood

On any given weekday, you will see a variety of students from different ethnicities, religions and socioeconomic classes wandering the quad, dorms, and halls. As an institution, we have come to reflect and embrace these differences, but the University of … Continue reading

Hidden Gem: comedian Dick Gregory at Emphasis ’70

When he took the stage at UA in October 1969, African-American comedian Dick Gregory joked that he’d meant to be there six months before, for the previous Emphasis program, but he’d been in jail at the time and couldn’t make … Continue reading

Be Thankful for the Right to Vote

“A non-voter is not a half a citizen.” — Interview with H. D. Coke, 1984 Like Coke, many of the elderly African Americans interviewed for the Working Lives Oral History Project remember the struggle to register to vote during the … Continue reading

Small Photo Collections: Central Iron & Coal

The Central Iron and Coal Photograph Collection is a unique window on the mining industry in Alabama around the turn of the twentieth century. Composed of 70 images in four photo albums, this collection of images — depicting the construction … Continue reading

Fred Shuttlesworth

On May 3, 1963, peaceful demonstrators, many of them teenagers, are beaten back in downtown Birmingham by fire hoses and police dogs.  The extreme tactics, ordered by police commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor brought international attention to Project C, the name … Continue reading

1867 Alabama Constitutional Convention

This week we are looking at an item in our digital collection that highlights African-American history, in honor of Black History Month. This item is a speech by Elisha Wolsey Peck, chairman of the Alabama Constitutional Convention of 1867. The … Continue reading

Autherine Lucy

Last week, the beginning of Black History month coincided with an important date in the history of the University of Alabama. On February 3, 1956, Autherine Lucy of Birmingham became the first African-American to enroll at the University of Alabama, … Continue reading