Parker High School Yearbook Available Online

The 1958 edition of Parker High School's yearbook The Bison is now available online. The following years for The Bison are available for viewing in the Southern History Department: 1952 (photocopy), 1958, 1962 (poor condition), 1969(damaged)-1970, 1972, 1977-1978, 1986, and 1991.

Did you know the library is seeking yearbooks for all Birmingham schools? If you would like to donate a yearbook please contact the staff in the Southern History Department at 205-226-3665. 

Bull Connor Papers Available Online

The Theophilus Eugene "Bull" Connor Papers, 1951; 1959-1963 are now available online. The papers, which consist of letters, memoranda, clippings, photographs and reports, are the office files kept by Connor during his last five years as Commissioner of Public Safety. The digitization of his papers includes over 30,000 items and was made possible by a grant from the Library and Technology Service Act (LSTA).

Ku Klux Klan Scrapbook of Newspaper Articles, 1913-1967



The Birmingham News
June 15, 1948

A scrapbook (517 pages) of collected newspaper articles covering the Ku Klux Klan for the years 1913-1967 has been added to Birmingam Public Library's Digital Collections database. The bulk of the articles cover the 1950s and 1960s.  

Birmingham Public Librarians culled local newspapers and some national papers to locate and cutout articles about the KKK. The scrapbook was digitized from the microfilmed copy of the scrapbook thanks to a generous grant from the Library Services and Technology Act.

Let's Get Rid of Alabama's Shame

Let's Get Rid of Alabama's Shame : The Convict Lease or Contract System published by the Statewide Campaign Committee for the Abolishment of the Convict Contract System in 1923 is now available online.

"There are 3,000 men and women in the penitentiary (in Alabama); there are 2,500,000 out of it. The suggestion that these millions are dependent on a handful of convicts to earn money for the support of their government is an insult to the law-abiding, self-supporting and self-respecting citizens of the state."

Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth Interviews Available Online

Historian Andrew M. Manis recorded interviews with Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and several of his friends and family while conducting research for his book, A Fire You Can't Put Out. Thirty-three of the sixty interviews have been transcribed and are now available online.

Collection Description:

Manis, Andrew M.

Oral History Interviews, 1987-1989

(AR 1437)

Andrew M. Manis has served as Assistant Professor of History at Macon State College in Macon, Georgia, and the Religion and Southern Studies editor for Mercer University Press. He is author of the books Southern Civil Religions in Conflict: Black and White Baptists and Civil Rights, 1947-1957 and A Fire You Can't Put Out: The Civil Rights Life of Birmingham's Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. This collection contains tapes and transcripts for 33 oral history interviews conducted by Andrew M. Manis as part of the research for his book A Fire You Can’t Put Out. The interviews relate to the Civil Rights Movement generally and to the life and career of Birmingham civil rights activist Fred L. Shuttlesworth. 

 

Interviewees: Oscar Adams, R. L. Alford, Lewis L. Anderson, James Armstrong, Harold Bester, Ricky Shuttlesworth Bester, L. Venchael Booth, Anne Braden, Alexander Brown, Malcolm Burroughs, J. L. Chesnut, Wallace Chilcoat, Alvin Cleveland, Reuben Davis, John Drew, Frank Dukes, Vivian Durant, Thurman Echols, James Farmer, Veronica Chappell Flemmon, Edward Gardner, Carter Gaston, Phyllis Gooden, Aldrich Gunn, Lola Hendricks, Norman Jimerson, Edward Johnson, Colonel Stone Johnson, Terry Lee Lane, Bill Leonard, Harold Long, Joseph Lowery, Jonathan MacPherson, Laverne Revis McWilliams Martin, Patricia Shuttlesworth Massengill, Eula Mae Mitchell, James T. Montgomery, Charles Morgan, Diane Nash, C. Herbert Oliver, James Orange, John T. Porter, Julia Rainge, F. D. Reese, James Roberson, Pinky Shortridge, Clifton Shuttlesworth, Eugene Shuttlesworth, Fred Shuttlesworth, Fred Shuttlesworth, Jr., Daphne Sloan, Glenn Smiley, Nelson H. Smith, Jr., David Vann, C. T. Vivian, Wyatt T. Walker, Marvin Whiting, Betty Williams, Cleola Willis, Louretta Wimberly, Daisy Winston, Abraham L. Woods, Jr., Calvin Woods

Neighborhood Newspaper Articles Added

Newspaper clipping files for the neighborhoods of Five Points South (60 articles), Huffman (40 articles),  Smithfield (10 articles), and South Highland (15 articles) are now available online.

Pratt City Newspaper Articles Added

Newspaper articles about the Pratt City neighborhood have been added to the Digital Collections Database. The 64 articles cover the years 1932-1983 and discuss topics such as Pratt City pioneers, neighborhood projects and urban renewal. 

Sloss-Sheffield's Publication (1926-1960) Available Online

In November, 1926, the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Company began a monthly publication titled Pig Iron Rough Notes. It's primary goal was to contribute to the advancement of the foundry trade and serve as an educational and technical tool for the workers. Over 90 digitized issues (1926-1960) highlight the steel industry, the men involved, and new techniques in the trade.

Gee's Bend Oral Histories

In the early 1980s, Kathryn Tucker Windham conducted oral histories with residents and former residents of Gee's Bend, Alabama. Transcripts of her interviews are now available online.

Jemison Real Estate's Magazine Online

Jemison Real Estate and Insurance Company developed the cities of Fairfield (Corey) and Mountain Brook. The company also built several neighborhoods, hotels, apartments, and office buildings in Birmingham. In order to promote their real estate ventures the Jemison Company published Jemison Magazine. This fascinating serial is now available online and covers the years 1910-1914 and 1926-1930. It provides numerous photographs, architectural plans, biographies, and articles which will enhance the knowledge and appreciation of the Birmingham metro area.

First Annual Play Ground Day 1914

Now available online is the 1914 publication Play ground day: greater Birmingham play ground demonstration. It includes many photographs of children on local playgrounds, names of the children, and photographs of city officials and leaders.

New items added in January

Check out the more than 125 items added in January

Avondale Mills Newspaper

The Avondale Sun, a newspaper published by Avondale Mills for its employees, ran from 1924-2006. Over its 82-year history, it published community and employee news, company information, and photographs.

G. Stephen Felker, chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Avondale Mills, Inc., donated the Avondale Sun newspaper collection to the B. B. Comer Memorial Library in 2006. The B. B. Comer Memorial Library digitized all available issues covering the period from 1924-2004, and in the summer of 2010 the Birmingham Public Library (BPL) and the B. B. Comer Memorial Library reached an agreement for BPL to catalog and host the digitized images.

This newspaper is a valuable resource for all of Alabama. Enjoy!

Norwood Neighborhood Articles Added

Newspaper articles about the Norwood neighborhood have been added to the Digital Collections database.

Elyton Newspaper Articles

Newspaper articles about Elyton, former seat of Jefferson County (AL), are now available online.

Mayor Richard Arrington

Newspaper articles about Mayor Richard Arrington have been added to the Digital Collection.

Beautiful Homes and Buildings of Alabama

George P. Turner and J. T. McPherson's architectural book Beautiful Homes & Buildings of Alabama is available online. The book includes drawings, plans, photographs, and advertisements.

Birmingham School Survery 1923

The Birmingham School Survey published in 1923 is now available online. Information included in the survey: the condition of school buildings, the need for additional buildings, construction cost estimates, comparisons with other cities, statistical tables, maps, and photographs of school buildings.

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.

Mississippi Civil Rights, 1948-1968

Over the years Birmingham Public librarians collected newspaper articles about the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi 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 1948-1968, these scrapbooks are now available online.

Volume 1 (1948, 1956-1957, 1960-1962)
Topics covered: Segregation "watchdog" committee; Parker lynching; "Freedom Riders"; Philadelphia black church burned; voting registration disputes; James H. Meredith; contempt of court charges sought against University of Mississippi officials; Governor Ross Barnett bars Meredith from "Ole Miss".

Volume 2 (1962-1966)
Topics covered: University of Mississippi rioting; mob threatens Meredith during second week of classes; federal injunction bars state from halting desegregation; Civil Rights Commission investigator arrested in Greenwood; second black enrolled at the University of Mississippi; Meredith graduates; Medgar Evers slaying.

Volume 3 (1966-1968)
Topics covered: Memphis to Jackson march; Philadelphia slayings reopened by Justice Department; eighteen charged with slayings; seven found guilty.