Alabama Civil Rights, 1950-1969

Over the years Birmingham Public librarians collected newspaper articles about the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama and arranged them in scrapbooks. The articles were clipped from several newspapers including The Birmingham News, Birmingham Post-Herald, and the Montgomery Advertiser. Covering the years 1950-1969, these scrapbooks are now available online.

Volume 1 (1950-1951, 1956-1959 )
Topics covered: Civil rights violations; bus segregation ordered halted by Interstate Commerce Commission; Montgomery bus boycott; attempts at school desegregation; Supreme Court rules bus segregation is unconstitutional; buses fired upon in Montgomery and Birmingham; Birmingham demonstrations; Montgomery bombings.

Volume 2 (1958-1960)
Topics covered: Shuttlesworth sues Birmingham for integration of schools and parks; Civil Rights Commission demands voting records of several counties; George Wallace defiance; President Eisenhower's "message" to Alabama; Registrars ordered to testify to Civil Rights Commission; Montgomery closes public parks.

Volume 3 (1960-1961)
Topics covered: Supreme Court upholds Civil Rights Commission hearings; Montgomery County ordered to release voting records; Mobile ordered to integrate municipal golf course; Macon County ordered to open voting registration to all; Bullock County voting registration declared unconstitutional; Jefferson County denies access to voter registration records; "Freedom Riders" violence in Birmingham and Montgomery.

Volume 4 (1961-1962)
Topics covered: Abernathy and Shuttlesworth arrested in Montgomery; Greyhound Bus Terminal court case; federal court orders halt to Freedom Riders.

Volume 5 (1962-1963)
Topics covered: Sit-in at Talladega; integration of Birmingham airport restaurant ordered; Montgomery Public Library desegregated; military reserve units to integrate; Birmingham voters registration; school desegregation suits filed by Justice Department; Birmingham sit-ins.

Volume 6 (1963-1965)
Topics covered: Rioting and lootin in Birmingham; President Kennedy and Governor Wallace confer; Gadsden marches; State Police sent to Birmingham; white mob attacks black ministers at Anniston.

Volume 7 (1965)
Topics covered: Mob violence at Marion; Wallace bans nighttime racial demonstrations in Dallas and Perry Counties; civil rights compliance forms signed by several state officials; violence in Montgomery; voter registration; Wallace requests U. S. Marshals; bombs are discovered in Birmingham.