Glenn Stephens

Scales, Tyson Seek Delay in Vote Over Giving UAB Responsibility for Indigent Health Care

Jefferson County Commissioners Lashunda Scales and Sheila Tyson took their effort to delay a vote on a UAB healthcare authority to the sidewalk in front of Cooper Green Mercy Medical Center. The pair, backed by dozens of Cooper Green employees and some patients, held a news conference today to voice concerns about giving UAB responsibility for indigent care when the commission meets Thursday at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Bessemer. “We’re asking the public to contact their own commissioners to let them know how they believe they should vote,” Scales said. “We still have a duty to the folks who put us in office.” The healthcare authority will provide indigent healthcare in Jefferson County. Scales and Tyson said a document that was moved to the commission agenda on a 3-2 vote Tuesday is a business contract that doesn’t address the needs of the county’s poor.  Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Doug Jones’ story about the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, and the prosecution of the Klansmen who did it, provides perspective on the past and present.

“Bending Toward Justice: The Birmingham Church Bombing that Changed the Course of Civil Rights” by Doug Jones with Greg Truman (St. Martin’s Press, 2019) “Maxine McNair’s screams were primal,” Doug Jones writes in Bending Toward Justice. As McNair searched for her daughter Denise in the rubble of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church she knew, the way a mother would know, that the unthinkable had finally happened. The 1963 Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing that killed Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins happened because white Americans were angry. Birmingham’s public schools were integrated the week before the bombing, and as whites saw dents and cracks appearing in the wall that separated them from black Americans they became resentful and afraid. And a few whites, bitter losers clinging to the bottom rung of the white racial hierarchy, were willing to do more than just gripe about it. They were willing to commit murder. "Bending Toward Justice" accomplishes what good history should accomplish. The book helps readers understand the past and the present. And the events of 1963 are relevant now because sometimes history does backflips. That’s not to say that history repeats itself, because it doesn’t really. But occasionally, without looking where we’re going, we jump back to a spot we thought we had left behind. And then we have to retrace our steps to see how it all turns out this time. Read more.

by James L. Baggett

After 14 Years, Dovertown Community Is Weary, but Still Fighting Strip Mining

For 14 years, residents of the Walker County community of Dovertown, near Cordova, have lived under a cloud. Coal companies have been wanting to strip-mine a nearby area along the Black Warrior River’s Locust Fork tributary. The threat to the 200 people who live there is existential, they believe, as they’ve seen other small towns nearly fade away once the ground around them was shoveled away to get at a seam of coal. At issue is whether the Alabama Surface Mining Commission will issue a new five-year permit to Mays Mining Inc. for the No. 5 Mine. Some of the people of Dovertown plan to speak in opposition at an informal public conference called by the commission for Wednesday, April 17. Read more.

by Hank Black

Stay tuned for ruling on who is the legal mayor of Fairfield

A Fairfield resident angrily stormed out of the courtroom of Circuit Court Judge Eugene Verin, slamming the door behind her, after the judge said Friday that it will be next week before he makes a ruling on whether Eddie Penny is the legal mayor of Fairfield. The Fairfield City Council removed Mayor Ed May II from office, citing a state law, when May missed City Council meetings over the course of 120 days. Friday was the second day that about two dozen residents of the city showed up in the Bessemer Cutoff Courthouse, hoping for an answer to the question of whether Penny, the former council president, or May is the legitimate mayor. “If you all will just hang with me for another week, I’ll do the best that I can,” the judge said. “I can almost assure everybody here that what I say won’t be the last word. (The ruling) will be appealed.” Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

MLB Youth Foundation Reassessing Plans for Youth Academy at George Ward Park

“It’s truly a sad day for Birmingham,” Birmingham City Councilor William Parker said Tuesday after revealing that Major League Baseball Youth Foundation was “reassessing” its plans to build a youth academy at the city’s George Ward Park. The announcement preceded a long series of monologues from councilors, Mayor Randall Woodfin and members of the public, all of whom had differing opinions on what had scuttled the deal. Some councilors attributed the MLBYF’s decision to a racially charged campaign by residents who opposed the academy. But others, including Council President Valerie Abbott and several members of the public who spoke at the meeting, pinned the plan’s apparent failure on a lack of communication between the council and neighborhood associations. Eventually, the council opted to set a public meeting with residents to clarify details about the project — which councilors said they hoped would save the deal with the MLBYF. The Major League Baseball Youth Foundation had planned to construct a $10 million youth academy in the 120-acre George Ward Park, located in the city’s Glen Iris neighborhood. The academy, which would take up about 20 acres, would serve as a free, year-round training center — for baseball, softball, and “life skills,” according to the MLBYF’s proposed contract with the city — for the city’s youth. There are 11 such academies throughout the country; it would be the first for Alabama. Read more.

by Sam Prickett

George Taylor, Aug. 23, 1934, Stockham Park

George Taylor was born in 1905 in Washington County, a rural county in southwest Alabama that was home to many plantations. He was one of seven children of Ike and Allien Taylor. There is no record of Mr. Taylor’s occupation or why he was in Birmingham, but the industrial city provided jobs for many from

by Ashley Pates, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Elizabeth Lawrence, July 5, 1933, Birmingham

During the last week of June 1933, Elizabeth Lawrence, an African-American mother and school teacher, was killed by a mob in her own home near Birmingham. Ms. Lawrence was walking along a country road about five miles from her home when a group of young white children began taunting and throwing rocks and dirt at

by Tammy Blue, University of Alabama at Birmingham 

Will McBride, July 12, 1923, Adamsville

Will McBride, 60 years old, from Adamsville, Alabama, was murdered on the night of Thursday, July 12, 1923. No more personal information is available about him, except that he was described as an “old man” by a crowd of school children.  Mr. McBride first came before the court on a charge of assault after children

by Jimena Ortiz-Perez, Lawson State Community College

Wilson Gardner, Aug. 23, 1913, Kilgore

Wilson Gardner was born in 1861 and married to Hattie Gardner in 1898.  On August 23, 1913, Wilson Gardner was hung by a belt under a trestle in Kilgore, Alabama. The authorities stated that there “were no clues to the Jefferson County lynching.” It is believed that Mr. Gardner was beaten to death before he

by Hana Presley, Jefferson State Community College

John Chandler, Jan. 28, 1912, Bessemer, 3rd Avenue and 19th Street

On Sunday, January 28, 1912, at about 3 p.m., a white mob lynched John Chandler in Bessemer, Alabama. Reports from the time say Mr. Chandler was also known as John Prentiss, but no other information is known about his age, family, or occupation.  Mr. Chandler, along with Forney Smith and Charles Paige, had been arrested

by Glenn Stephens