The Birmingham Times
Birmingham’s Linn Park, from the now defunct City Stages music festival to the recently removed Confederate monument, has seen its share of city history.
The seven-acre park that separates Birmingham City Hall and the Jefferson County Courthouse in downtown also may also have been the site of the county’s first lynching, according to a local grass-roots coalition that documents racial terror.
The Jefferson County Memorial Project (JCMP), composed of over 40 community partners, researches the untold history of lynching in the county and the historical links among slavery, Jim Crow and present-day mass incarceration.
Their latest report, “Contested Terrain: A Historical Walk Through Birmingham’s Linn Park” was written by JCMP Fellows, a group of 20 college and graduate students from Birmingham-area colleges: Jefferson State Community College, Samford University, Birmingham-Southern College and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
MSNBC visits Birmingham in honor of Black History Month
Updated Feb 21, 2021;
Ali Velshi, host of the weekend news show Velshi on MSNBC, came to Birmingham this weekend in honor of Black History Month. While in the Magic City, Velshi spoke with residents of the city about its intense racial history, and how that history shapes the fight for racial justice today.
Birmingham, a city known for its role in the Civil Rights movement, is more than 70 percent Black - one of the Blackest cities in America, according to Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin. Velshi hosted a socially-distanced discussion with five Black Birmingham residents where they talked about the city’s racial history, the COVID-19 pandemic and more.
By Bob Dickerson
If there has ever been anyone that I consider myself privileged to have met, anyone who greatly inspired me by his unique entrepreneurial vision in his passionate belief in economic self-sufficiency that would be A.G. Gaston.
He was well organized, had great instincts, understood people and obviously made good business decisions. He was the kind of person who spurred others to action and led by example. He exhibited excellent characteristics like self-discipline, hard work and determination. He was certainly a Black Titan.
How many of us can really say that they met, got to know and actually worked with a true American hero. Well, I actually can and quite often do, especially during Black History Month where in Birmingham we recognize the life and achievements of A.G. Gaston, celebrating him during our conference held in his honor.
bbrc.biz
The coronavirus caused uncertainty in many institutions and wreaked havoc on gatherings for the past year. Last year’s 16th A.G. Gaston Conference was held just in time to avoid the impact of the pandemic.
It ended in mid-February 2020 right before things began to shut down. Conference organizers Bob Dickerson and Gaynell Jackson breathed collective sighs of relief just after the 2020 Gaston Conference ended as other gatherings were cancelled.
Even as plans began for the 2021 conference Dickerson and Jackson assumed that things would be back to normal so they booked space and started making plans for the 17th annual conference. As the months and weeks rolled on not only did the virus not subside but it actually increased.