'Alabama's Civil Rights Trail' by Frye Gaillard
http://blog.al.com/entertainment-press-register/2010/03/book_review_alabamas_civil_rig.html
by SCOTTY E. KIRKLAND
March 28, 2010
"Alabama's Civil Rights Trail: An Illustrated Guide to the Cradle of
Freedom" by Frye Gaillard (University of Alabama Press, $24.95)
Some of the most pivotal moments of the modern civil rights movement
occurred in Alabama. In 1955, the state's capital witnessed a
historic bus boycott that roused black Americans throughout the
country to similar protests for equality, and propelled a young
minister, Martin Luther King Jr., into a nationwide spotlight. In
1963, images from the bloody confrontations between civil rights
activists, young and old, and police in Birmingham helped generate
widespread support for new laws guaranteeing equal access to public
accommodations. The Selma-to-Montgomery March of 1965 helped ensure a
long-awaited action by President Lyndon Johnson on the issue of
minority voting rights. Throughout Alabama, in its rural hamlets and
bustling cities, white and black residents shared in these momentous
times. What emerged was an abundance of important landmarks worthy of
remembrance.
No state has gone to greater lengths to identify and commemorate its
civil rights history than Alabama. In his latest book, Frye Gaillard,
a writer in residence at the University of South Alabama, produces an
impressive catalog of historically significant civil rights sites for
his native state. "Alabama's Civil Rights Trail: An Illustrated Guide
to the Cradle of Freedom" is a welcome addition to the ever-growing
catalogue of books on Alabama history and civil rights tourism. But
Gaillard's book is no mere travel guide. "Alabama's Civil Rights
Trail" also provides readers with a concise narrative of the Alabama
movement and its impact on America.
Apart from the more well-known sites in the book Birmingham's Kelly
Ingram Park and Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge, for example there are
numerous lesser-known entries, like Montgomery's Cleveland Courts
public housing project, where Rosa Parks once lived. Her old
apartment, Number 634, is on the National Register of Historic
Places. Another lesser-known site speaks to Gaillard's knowledge
about the nature of civil rights organizing. Birmingham's Armstrong
Barber Shop, located at the corner of Eighth Avenue and Sixth Street,
was an important meeting place for members of the city's black
community. The store's owner, James Armstrong, was greatly influenced
by the courage and conviction of the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. In
September 1963, Armstrong enrolled his two young children into the
previously all-white Graymount Elementary School. In response to this
and other events, the Ku Klux Klan bombed Birmingham's Sixteenth
Street Baptist Church on Sept. 15, 1963.
Gaillard's ability to connect the events throughout the state makes
"Alabama's Civil Rights Trail" an important contribution. His text is
largely adapted from his highly acclaimed 2004 synthesis, "Cradle of
Freedom: Alabama and the Movement that Changed America." Gaillard's
considerable talents as a journalist and a storyteller are evident on
every page. He clearly understands the importance of the events he
describes, both to the individuals involved and to the nation as a
whole. A series of carefully selected photographs and well-drawn maps
accompany each section, making the book both a usable tourist guide
and an intriguing journey within itself.
Gaillard is also to be commended for the breadth of this book. The 23
cities included in the guide span the full length of the state, from
Florence to Bayou la Batre. In contrast, the state tourism
department's civil rights trail guide covers only five cities,
Birmingham, Greensboro, Selma, Montgomery and Tuskegee. Gaillard's
more inclusive view of the important sites throughout the state
provides us with a much more accurate picture and reflects the
scholarship of his previous works on Alabama's rich civil rights history.
South Alabama is featured prominently in the new book. His chapter on
Mobile, entitled "City of Progress, City of Backlash," describes 12
historic sites, including the Old Slave Market, Africatown, the
offices of activist John LeFlore and lawyer Vernon Crawford, and
others. Gaillard's Mobile chapter also includes short sections on the
lives of Wallace Turnage, a local slave who escaped to freedom during
the Civil War, and Michael Donald, the young black man killed by
local Klansmen in 1981. There is another important section featuring
Bayou la Batre, an excellent example of the "new old south,"
according to the author. This section is based on Gaillard's previous
book, "In the Path of the Storms."
There is a continuity to the Mobile sites that deserves mentioning.
Every Mobile location in Gaillard's book is part of the larger Mobile
African American Heritage Trail, which is, without question, one of
the largest commemorative trails for a city of its size. The people
who conceptualized and developed the trail are to be commended,
indeed. Their efforts to preserve Mobile's unique black heritage
should stand as a model for other communities.
"Alabama's Civil Rights Trail" combines familiar and unheralded sites
that commemorate the state's unique history. Included in the book are
battlefields, like Lowndes County, where the Black Panther Party was
born in the aftermath of the Selma-to-Montgomery March. Yet there are
also sanctuaries, places of civic support and spiritual renewal, like
Birmingham's Miles College and Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church,
where Robert Graetz, a white minister, preached during the Montgomery
Bus Boycott. Gaillard's fine book breathes new life into each of the
historic sites it celebrates.
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(Scotty E. Kirkland holds a master's degree in American history from
the University of South Alabama. He wrote his master's thesis on
politics and civil rights in post-World War II Mobile. He may be
reached at sekirkland@yahoo.com.)
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