Spring "Break" Through (2017)

Three or four years ago, I heard stories about college students traveling through Anniston on Civil Rights "tours." Finally, I've now been privileged to be part of such a group, which included 30 Ohio University students and a few faculty members. Half of the students are journalism majors from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, which I serve as director.

The trip brought me full circle, having been born in Anniston nearly 60 years ago. I didn't exactly grow up in Anniston, though I spent some interesting years here during my youth. As noted elsewhere in this blog, my family spent most of my years until college in Thailand, where my folks were missionaries. But we'd furlough for a year at a time every few years in Anniston, which meant I was here for kindergarten, sixth grade, and eleventh grades. But for two years of college in Birmingham, I've spent my entire adult life "up north," in NYC, Seattle, and for the last 30 years Ohio.

In the photo above, I'm talking to my Ohio students in the alley where the Greyhound bus with Freedom Riders was attacked on Mother's Day 1961. Today, an impressive mural explains in graphic detail the events of that horrific day, when folks in their Sunday best stalked the wounded Greyhound on its way toward Birmingham, attacking it in full measure about six miles west of Anniston. The burning of the bus took place roughly a mile from the home I lived in until we left the U.S. just three years prior to the attack.

Just after the above photo was taken (by journalism major Demari Muff), we boarded our tour bus and headed for Sunday morning worship at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.

Never once in my two years of college in Birmingham in the mid-1970s did I contemplate attending a service there. It would have been only about a dozen years after Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Carol Denise McNair were killed when 15 sticks of dynamite tore through the church on a Sunday morning in 1963. I wish it hadn't taken so long to show up for a service.

I was grateful to be able to share my story with our students and my colleagues. I'm not exactly sure why. All I know is that my students needed to be in Anniston, to understand what hate, and courage, can do. Anniston isn't really my story. But it's a story I know.

Epilogue

This week was also amazing because my wife and I were back in Anniston later in the week, when the students at Oxford High School performed "Freedom Riders" by Tom Quinn of Philadelphia. The evening certainly was remarkable on any number of fronts, especially given the proximity of the evening's performance to "ground zero" of the 1961 attack on the Freedom Riders. Even more remarkable was that the performance by a diverse collection of 30 or so high school students was not atypical of many high school theatrical performances. The high school actors were earnest in their on-stage performances, whether playing the role of Malcolm X or racist white students. Together, they sang the songs of the movement. And together they celebrated their drama teacher, who is retiring at the end of the school year after 30 years at Oxford. The evening was made even more remarkable by the diversity of the 200+ audience members, and the fact that the playwright himself was in the auditorium, sitting directly across the aisle from me.

My mother was a teacher at Oxford for a year, from fall 1946 through spring 1947, some 70 years ago. Which brings this story back around to what this week means to me.

In the end, it's some kind of closure. Or maybe a new stage. For several years, I've been meaning to stop by my old elementary school on 10th Street. I'd heard about it briefly from my friend David Rice, the former pastor of Anniston First Presbyterian Church, located directly across the street from the school. When I attended the school back in 1968-69, I recall two African American students in the 5th grade. I think the rest of us were white. Today, the school demographics are pretty much flipped.

I decided it was very important to stop by the school on this trip, to meet the principal and "see how it's going." I went into the same office I'd visited only a time or two back in the sixth grade, to find Mr. Dexter Copeland. He agreed to show me my old classroom, now occupied by second graders busy at work. It was great to be back, finally, and tell Mr. Copeland a few stories I remembered about my days in his school, nearly 50 years ago.



I also learned this week that my parent's neighbor, Charlie Whatley, would have been a high school classmate of mine in 1973 had he transferred to Anniston from the black school, Cobb, the same time many other African American students made the move. Neither of us was sure why some students transferred in 1973 and others a year later, but I wish I could have met Charlie those 40+ years ago. He's a great neighbor to my Dad, and I'm sure he'd have been a great classmate.

Historic week in Alabama

This was a week of Big News all across the country. SCOTUS rulings on Obamacare and gay marriage shook the nation. But here in northern Alabama, where I was visiting this week, a flag garnered equal billing in newspaper headlines.

From the Anniston Star:

Confederate flags removed from Alabama Capitol grounds

Here's a snapshot of a local man showing his unabashed enthusiasm for the Confederate flag.

Perhaps Annistonians, who reside in the county seat of Calhoun County, have a special burden to consider, as pointed out by Anniston Star columnist, Phil Tutor: The flag, our reputation and Mr. Calhoun

Of course, the very real consequences of massive social upheavals are felt on a daily basis from here all the way up to Charleston, SCouth Carolina.

Decades after desegregation orders, courts still supervise Anniston’s schools

I also made a quick trip to Atlanta to meet with Rev. Phil Noble.

Rev. Noble was pastor of Anniston First Presbyterian Church back in the late 1950s until 1971 or so. His critical work on behalf of race relations in the Model City earned him Target #1 status with the local KKK. He told me when we met how glad he was that he didn't know that at the time.

When I was in the sixth grade, we furloughed in Anniston. I never met Rev. Noble, but our house was just about a block from his church. My friends and I played basketball for hours and hours on the church's outdoor court. Little did I know what a hero he was, until I read his book, "Beyond the Burning Bus," released about ten years ago.

It was a privilege to meet him on Saturday, and to visit about his years as a pastor in Charleston following his years in Anniston. He said he was proud of how the people in Charleston came together following the killing of nine members of an African American church during a Wednesday evening Bible study. It could have been different, but perhaps because of the leadership of people like Rev. Noble, it wasn't.

Back to Anniston

It's been a long time since I last posted on this blog. Life gets busy.

But I just returned from a trip to Anniston to visit family, and came away with some thoughts I wanted to share. The first set of thoughts relate to a newsletter my father wrote from Thailand back on May 22, 1961, intended for folks in churches all across Alabama and other parts of the south.

The date was one week after folks in Anniston fire-bombed a Greyhound bus full of Freedom Riders. Most of the newsletter relayed information about the missionary work being done in Chacheungao province in eastern Thailand, where my parents had gone to serve in 1958. I was 15 months old when we arrived in Thailand that October.

In the "P.S." section of the newsletter, my father typed out the following plea:

"For about a week now the headlines in our newspaper, The Bangkok World, have been telling the tragic news of race riots, cruelty, and violence in Anniston, Montgomery, and Birmingham. When the questions come, from the Thai and Chinese people, we have to explain that not all Alabamians are Christians, nor do they have the love for God and their fellow-men that they should have. Our consolation (as weak as it is) is that you are also as troubled and disturbed by such unchristian behavior and lack of brotherly love as we are. We join with you in praying that people may turn to God and have a new-birth which will cause them to love one another. You please pray with us that these headlines and news stories (being read all over the world) will not hinder the cause of Christ and His Kingdom's progress over here."

I can tell you that I wept when I read these powerful words written by my father more than 50 years ago. I have no doubt that they were meant to be a powerful rebuke from 12,000 miles away, and I can only hope they had the intended effect.

One year later my family returned to Eulaton, Alabama for a one-year furlough. Our house was about one mile from where the Greyhound bus was torched by folks on that 1961 Mother's Day. As a kindergartner, I didn't know about these events, and only became interested in them in any real way after watching Spike Lee's film, "4 Little Girls," about five years ago. 

I was struck when I watched the film by how young everyone seemed all these years later. Then I realized the startling truth: It didn't happen all that many years ago. That's when I decided to start digging into my Anniston history, instead of just my Thailand history.

When I was back in Anniston this last time, I was at a local glass store that I thought to be in the building that once housed the Greyhound Bus depot. The man said no, it was just down the street about a block. The man, who was white, encouraged me to go down the street to look at the mural of the bus painted on the wall on the alley way that was once where the buses exited the depot area. He acknowledged that it was a difficult history for Anniston, but seemed pleased that it was recorded in this public, artistic way. 

I was impressed with the quality of the presentation, which included a number of information panels that depicted a photo/text history of that day in May, 1961 that my father later wrote about from Chacheungsao, Thailand.

A couple blocks over, a similar depiction of the Trainways bus was visible at the location of the former Trainways Bus depot. That bus was the one attacked after it arrived in Birmingham later that afternoon on May 14, 1961.

For more on the fateful day in May, 1961, read the Anniston Star's anniversary coverage from May 11, 2011. You also can read more about the two bus murals.

Newsletter details two noteworthy discoveries

The current issue of the Spirit of Anniston newsletter features two articles of interest to me.

One article explains the discovery of the whereabouts of Ann Everett Sumners, director of the Anniston Public Library at the time of the "Library Incident" in 1963. The article further describes her recent return to Anniston for the purpose of being interviewed for an oral history of the momentous events of the early 1960s. The Spirit of Anniston newsletter includes a recent photo of Charlie Doster and Ms. Sumners. Doster has been referenced several times in this blog, especially of late. In his 2003 comments delivered on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the "Library Incident," Doster had noted that Ann Everett was nowhere to be found at that time, nor were any other members of the 1963 library staff.

The second discovery of note described in the newsletter comes in the article, "Civil Rights heritage key to economic revival." A group of California college students accompanied by a professor were traveling from Atlanta to Birmingham as part of a program focusing on the Freedom Riders of the early 1960s. The article explains how, with the help of Spirit of Anniston director Betsy Bean, the group stopped off in Anniston to visit the site of the Greyhound Bus station on Gurnee Ave just off of West 10th St., where a KKK-friendly mob first attacked the bus on Mother's Day, 1961. Ms. Bean then escorted the college students to the location on Highway 202 where the bus broke down and was attacked and burned by the trailing mob. While this discovery no doubt was important for the students who wanted to learn more about the 1961 incident, perhaps the more important discovery was the one pointed out the headline of the article. There's a market for this kind of educational opportunity. Anniston appears ready to take advantage of that discovery.

Remarks by Charles Doster at Anniston Library ca. Sept 15, 2003

Editor's Note: I received the following text from Mr. Charles Doster, who served on Anniston's Library Board in the early 1960s, and was instrumental in the integration of the Anniston Public Library in 1963. He delivered these comments on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the "Library Incident," which has been referenced previously in this blog. I received contact information for Mr. Doster from Rev. Phil Noble, and was delighted when he responded to my email inquiry. The purpose of my email was to request an interview for this blog. He sent this text along with his response, as well as an added thought, which I will include at the end of his prepared remarks. RKS

Remarks by Charles Doster at
Anniston Library ca. Sept 15, 2003

Before I start talking I want to make one comment. I’m going to quote Miller Sproull because it applies to Miller and it applies to me. “The events at the public library in Anniston in 1963 changed my life.”

In a moment I’m going to demonstrate to you something about it.

My name is Charlie Doster. I’m a septuagenarian. I’ve been practicing law here for over 50 years. The integration of the library is so old now that I can call Maudine, Gordon. Bob and Leon by their first names and nobody’s gonna complain about it They call me by mine, too.

In 1963 I was one of the junior partners in the law firm one of the senior members of which came and complained to Charlie Martin about integrating the Baptist Church. Please don’t deny It, Charlie. I won’t believe it if you did . But to a certain extent, if that is not true, it certainly could’ve been true.

Maybe I’m guilty of that Shakespearean observation that “Some are born great; some achieve greatness and some [like me] have greatness thrust upon them.”

Since 1963 I have considered the question of “Why me?” I knew of few, if any, white people who were long on integration. Why did I not turn tail and say “This ain’t my fight.” There may be many answers to that. Let me tell you of some that have occurred to me.

(1) Integration of public facilities was the law of the land under the recent albeit unpopular rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States. As a lawyer I have some duty to see to compliance therewith. More importantly, to me at least, was that if a person has a right, then I feel a deep commitment to seeing that he is given the chance of exercising that right. And that applied to Rev. Reynolds and Rev. McClain.

(2) What could be so onerous about letting a black man read a book in the library? If there is any place where integration was of little consequence it was in a public library, including that of Anniston, Alabama.

(3) I dislike losing law suits. I knew that if we were sued we could delay for a while -maybe even a year - but we would clearly loose. And with the loss would come a federal injunction which I considered dangerous and degrading.

(3) Leonard Roberts was one of the Committee that asked us to integrate the Library. My respect for him led me to think that if Leonard said it was all right, it, in all probability, was all right.

(4) I’m a history buff. I knew of the caste system in India and I was aware of the fairly unanimous condemnation of their treatment of the “Untouchables.” I found it difficult to differentiate what “they” did to the “Untouchables” and what we were doing to the black citizens of our area. That might have been, in the minds of some, a stretch. But I worried about it.

(4) Not long before 1963 I had an experience that was new to me. The black folks that I knew were mostly servants, poorly educated and not to the manor born. Then I was sent by some client or other to talk to a black farmer. I don’t even remember his name or where he lived, although I think it was north of Jacksonville. He was distinguished, articulate, and so honest that it was like a bright light in the darkness. His home was clean and tastefully decorated. He was respectful but not obeisant. The legal question was about a land line and he had been in adverse possession for far longer than was necessary to acquire title from my client. It was his right. He said to me, essentially, “Mr. Doster I do not take another man’s land. I try to keep my reputation spotless. If there is a problem please bring me whatever it takes to clear it up. And I will cooperate without question.” I think he was the first black middle class person I had ever met. He made a great impression on me. I wish I could remember who he was. In short he was a gentleman such as I had been taught to recognize and respect. He probably doesn’t remember me much less know what an impression he made on me. I expect he would be most surprised to learn what I am reporting about his influence on me.

(5) Dr. Clanton Williams was the man’s name. “Clancy” had been a history professor at the University of Alabama, but was (in 1950) appointed the first President of the University of Houston. He was an advisor of sorts to a group of which I was and remain a member. Maybe I had chatted with him a dozen times. I never took any of his classes. He stopped by casually one evening just before leaving for Houston. Among other things he said something to us (maybe there were a dozen or so of us listening to him.) Remember that this was 50 plus years ago now and 12 or so years before 1963. What Clancy said still stirs my soul. “Gentlemen, at some point the history of the United States may be written as a footnote, thus: ‘In the latter part of the 18th Century a country came into being with the best policies of self government then known to civilization. They called it the United States of America. It lasted and flourished for several hundred years. Unfortunately it never learned to deal with its African population and consequently did not survive.’ “ Dr. Williams continued: “I hope that you gentlemen and your generation will in your time attempt, as best you can, to deal with that issue and prevent that footnote from being composed, much less written. My generation has found the problem insurmountable.” But wait: It did not happen! I have since inquired among some who might have been there but as far as I can ascertain I am the only one who heard Clancy. Or did I? I can tell you without fear of contradiction that I do not make it up. As I said, Clancy Williams’ words stirred my soul although they did not in 1963 dominate my current stream of consciousness.

It fell my lot several years before 1963 to become either the chairman of the board, or acting chairman of the board of the Anniston Public Library. Some 20 months before Sept., 1963 I had tried to get the library to adopt without publicity an integration resolution but for various and sundry reasons I won’t go into now I was unsuccessful in that. Suffice it to say we’d had this under discussion for some time.

This is a good time to introduce to you the Library Board. Harry Ayers had just retired from it and was replaced by Cody Hall. The other members were: Mrs. Lucien Lentz; Mr. Rudy Kemp; and Mr. Tom Turner. Mr. Turner and I are the only ones surviving today. All of them were courageous and determined. It was a fine group of people to work with. I was and remain proud of them.

We were called on by Phil Noble and Rev. Bob McClain and Rev. Nimrod Q. Reynolds and (I remember most specifically) Leonard Roberts. I adored, respected and admired Leonard as much as anybody I guess I ever knew except maybe my wife, my father and my progeny. They came to call on the library board and said we’re gonna do some integrating. We are members of a Committee that the City Commission has appointed and we want the library in on it.

In response the Library Board wrote the City Commission a letter saying in substance: “If you’ll support it, we’ll go along with it.” We knew that Jack Suggs, then Police Commissioner, who’s essentially a very fine man and I’m willing to defend that if you want me to at a later time, was not for integrating anything. He was going to oppose it. We knew that. We knew exactly where he stood. A Right To Read (a book written about this and other Alabama library integrations), says flatly that a resolution was adopted by the City Commission approving the integration of the Library. It was not. I haven’t read or gone over all of the minutes but no such resolution was adopted by the City Commission. Weeks later I got a letter from a very courageous man whose name was Miller Sproull. Miller’s letter said “If the library board elects to integrate the library, a majority of the City Council will support the library board.” I took it to the library board, and the library board adopted the resolution. The die was cast.

We made so damn many mistakes that it’s just plain embarrassing. We said it was going to be effective September 15th. We should have said it was effective September 15, 1935. We never should have announced it in advance. We did it on a Sunday when every member of the Ku Klux Klan didn’t have a damn thing to do except make trouble for everybody else. We let it be known to certain people, we had to – the City Commission among others – well then it got to the police force and from there to the Klan but I can’t prove that. The only thing we did right was we selected the right Sunday. It was the same Sunday that four pretty little innocent black children were killed by a bomb in a church in Birmingham, AL thus
getting us off the front page of some of the papers in the United States of America. I’m not bragging about that but it was the only thing that went well for us.

Of course, you all know that Mr. McClain, Rev. Bob McClain and Rev. Nimrod Quintus Reynolds came to integrate the Library on September 15, 1963. They were met by the Klan. They were beaten. Beaten with clubs and chains within an inch of their lives. A gun was fired, its bullet narrowly missing Bob McLain. They ran and they got out. Fortunately they survived but Mr. Reynolds was in bed for a long, long time. A week or longer I guess. Mr. McClain was able to get up and move around some.

The next day, the library board had met and a lot of other things had gone on that evening.

We went to pay a call on Mr. Reynolds to express our sympathy and then the President of the United States called us. We were out at Mr. Reynolds’ house and they said the President of the United States is on the phone at Miller Sproull’s house. My inclination was: Let’s get the hell out of here and go! Somebody, some idiot in the bunch, said “Let’s have a prayer before we go”. I started to argue with him but I didn’t have the nerve and we stayed and had a 3 minute prayer that seemed like 45 minutes.

Frank Crow, the policeman, drove us out to Miller Sproull’s house right through the middle of town at 85 miles an hour. I’d never been so scared in my life. I talked to John F. Kennedy, the President of the United States and we got some very calming words from him. I knew he wasn’t going to be able to solve our problems but at any rate I thought maybe the black folks would get the idea that we were taking them seriously and that’s one of the things we did. But of course it was a joy, a privilege to have been able to talk to the President of the United States.

The next day we took Rev. Smitherman and Rev. McClain into the library. There never was any question about that’s what we were going to do. And if we did anything right, that was it. This may have been my original idea but whoever suggested it, there was no dissent. This was our finest hour. Incidentally, it seemed like they stayed in the Library for a week. I wanted so bad to get them out of that library and avoid another “incident.” But they read every book in the library. I was “antsy.”

Then I started making speeches. I made speeches to a half a dozen churches, the Kiwanis Club and the Rotary club and I said, and maybe this isn’t the way you think I should have handled it but if you agree or if you disagree that’s fine. I said, “I’m not going to ask y’all to support integration, but I am going to ask you to condemn hoodlumism in this town, in your town, in my town and at my library”. And almost every one of them went along. Everybody in this town turned against that gangsterism or hoodlumism or whatever you want to call it. That was a successful thing. Without the support of the leadership of Anniston we were lost.

A 22 year old girl who was head of the staff of the library and acting Librarian. Her name was Ann Everett. A fine lady but we don’t know where she is. And incidentally we don’t know where anybody is who was on the staff of the library at that time. Nobody. Isn’t that amazing? It’s just been 40 years. And this lady is 65 years old, probably still around somewhere. But we don’t know where she is. At any rate, I felt like she needed some help. So essentially I would go to my office from 8 to 9 and then I would go to the library from 9 o’clock until the library closed.

Now you want to know why or how this changed my life? I thought my job was going to be in jeopardy. It turns out my partners, none of whom would approve of the integration of the library, supported me. I was not sure they would; I never asked them to, but they never turned on me. None of the Library Board ever flinched but we all wondered whether or when we might be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. Or beat up by the Klan. Would all or a substantial number of my clients leave for greener fields? How would jurymen view me?

Right after September 16th, a bunch of Klansmen would come in and out of the library; in and out, in and out; we knew which ones they were. We didn’t know their names but we recognized their clothes and, of course, we knew they couldn’t read. I had to get rid of them. So one day about a week or so after September 16 I saw an elderly gentleman sitting in the library. In my mind a light came on and I said “Ah, I’ve got the idea.” “Jerry, would you please come in here?” I was speaking to Jerry the policeman and I said “We’ve got a new rule; the board’s just adopted it or is gonna adopt it at the next meeting, but you may start enforcing it right now. Identify everybody in this library; if they don’t have a card, walk them to door and tell them they can come back tomorrow but they can’t sit here and read a book if they don’t have a library card. Start with that man right over there. I knew him very well. He probably was in his late sixties. Well dressed. Distinguished. He was an elderly gentleman, but he was a gentleman. Jerry walked over to him – “Let me see your identification, mister”(and I’d told Jerry to make sure everybody in the room heard him). He says “Sure.” He hands Jerry his card, his driver’s license. “Do you have a library card?” “No sir.” He said “Well I’m sorry but my instructions are that you’ve got to leave. You can come back tomorrow and apply for a library card but right now my instructions are to show you to the door.” Jerry takes him by the arm and leads him out of the library.

I saw the old gentleman eight years later and I screwed up my courage and I said, “Mike, I’ve got a story to tell you. I want you to understand what I did to you and why I did it”. His name was Colonel Michael Halloran. Loyd you’ll remember him. Three years before Mike had been the Commanding Officer at Ft. McClellan. And I knew he wasn’t going to give Jerry any trouble and so I picked on him. And I remember his comment, (and I hope you’ll forgive the verbiage) his comment was this: “Goddamn you, Doster, I have been thrown out of bars and taverns and cat houses and whore houses all over the world but this is the only time I was ever thrown out of a library.”

My ruse was successful. The threat of identification ran the klansmen out of the library. That was my purpose. They left the library but they were still watching us. And we knew it. I could feel it. I could feel it in my marrow and in my whatever. Then somebody called me and said, “They’re watching you from Woodmen of the World.” Catty-cornered across the street there was then an old building. It’s a parking lot now I guess, but in its upper floors was a Woodman of the World Office. The YMCA was in that building at the time or, if it wasn’t, it had been. I picked up the telephone and I called Jack Suggs. As you know Jack Suggs was not for integrating anything. He was against it but I had to have confidence in our police force and that it would not betray us. If I had to do that again I would make the same call. It may have been very dangerous and risky but Jack proved to be trustworthy.

I said “Jack they’re watching me from the Woodmen of the World.” Jack said “Hang up this phone I’ll call you back on a secure one.” Boom. He called me back in just a minute and said “Tell me about it” and I told him about it. He somehow cleaned out the Woodmen of the World. I think this was about six weeks after that awful Sunday of September 15, but it was several weeks. I stayed down there a long time. I didn’t earn 20 cents during that time I guess. But just a few days later I could see the pressure was off and you know what I did? I went back to the practice of law and I’ve been in it a long time.

I’m sorry I took so much time to tell that story. I find it distressingly easy to remember. At the same time I suggest that the Library Board, not I, did a workmanlike job in a time when the issue not popular and the pressure was great. Fortunately courage, perseverance and determination were not only required but readily available.

The email to which the above statement was attached (which I received just yesterday) included the following:

[A]bout all I have to say on the subject is in the attachment [see above statement] which I prepared for delivery during the 40th Anniversary of the “Incident at the Library.”

Well, I might add this. On Monday, September 16th the day after the Incident at the Library, some of us, with the approval of all interested persons, brought Mr. McClain with Rev. Smitherman into the Library with police protection. Once the concept was suggested there was no dissent from it. Had we not done that we might have precipitated a race riot in Anniston.

A very brilliant Episcopal priest gave a series of lectures here 10 years or more back. His subject was Jesus’ Disciples. When speaking of Judas he reminded us that he was the villain of the crucifixion of Jesus, abhorred and vilified by Christians everywhere. He is given almost as much credit for the death of Jesus as those who nailed him to the cross. But, that priest then posed this hypothesis: Suppose Judas had come to Jesus, even while on the cross itself, and said, “Lord, I have sinned. I have done you a terrible wrong and I am so terribly sorry. I do not deserve it, Lord, but please forgive me.” In that case the whole story would have been written differently. Judas would have thereby become a hero in the estimation of Christians from then on. Maybe you and maybe even I might not agree that he deserved such adulation but that is the way it would have been perceived.

With some humility may I suggest that the Library Board, the Human Rights Commission, Mayor Dear, and Commissioner Miller Sproull would have been similarly vilified had we not done on Monday, September 16, 1963 that which we did do. Maybe we do not deserve the credit for what we did but we clearly would have deserved the criticism had we not done it. Is the comparison with Judas apt?

Mr. Stewart, I have had the above on my mind for a long time but this is the first time I have committed it to paper.

A final word for this post. I am grateful to Charlie Doster for what he did back in the early 1960s, and for his allowing me to use his words in this space. RKS

Resolution for a Freedom Riders Park (draft)

Phil Noble shared with me this draft resolution he wrote at the invitation of folks who want to turn the area around the Freedom Rider marker on Highway 202 into a Civil Rights park:

Whereas the incident known as the Anniston Bus Burning was recounted internationally as a symbol of hatred and violence that added to the incorrect stereotype that all white Southerners were intolerant and racist, and

Whereas the citizens of Anniston responded to the violence declaring that violence is not the answer to racial problems, and

Whereas many Southern cities were engulfed in racial violence, Anniston chose to approach its racial problems through fair and honest dialog by way of a biracial Human Relations Council, and

Whereas President John F. Kennedy commended Anniston for its wise and effective plan for developing just, fair and peaceful solutions to racial problems, and

Whereas President Kennedy, in a public address, held up Anniston’s way of dealing with racial problems as a model for other cities in America, and

Whereas the Freedom Riders played an important part in the Civil Rights revolution in the 1960s, and the Bus Burning was visible to the world, and

Whereas the Anniston Bus Burning infused new resolve in Civil Rights workers and thus contributed to the success of the Civil Rights movement, and

Whereas the names of such cities as Birmingham and Selma are well known for racial violence, and Anniston is not widely recognized as a town that chose a reasonable and peaceful approach to its racial problems, and

Whereas the generations after the 1960s need to know not only the stories of racial violence, but the stories of the reasonable, common sense and intelligent approaches that brought justice, fairness and goodwill to Anniston and other communities,

Therefore be it resolved, since Anniston played a unique roll in the Civil Rights Revolution, it is wise and proper to create a Freedom Riders Park on Highway 202 which will not only recognize the Bus Burning event, but also the resulting progress in justice and fairness that brings peace and goodwill to communities.

J. Phillips Noble
July 11, 2009

Revisiting Willie Brewster's death

About a month ago my dad sent me an Anniston Star series of articles about the 1965 killing of Willie Brewster. He was gunned down by nightriders on Highway 202 just outside of Anniston.

On that same stretch of highway on Mothers Day 1961, a Greyhound bus headed to Birmingham with Freedom Riders on board was torched by a Klan friendly mob dressed in their Sunday best. About one year after that incident, and just a few years before Brewster was shot dead, I spent my kindergarten year living in a little house just off of the Old Birmingham Highway 202, probably within a mile of these heinous crimes. I commend the Star for revising the events of 1965, including the trial that led to the conviction of Hubert Damon Strange in the killing of Willie Brewster.

I'm headed down to Anniston in about a week. I plan to go back to the historical marker out on Highway 202 where the bus was burned so that I can get GPS coordinates to help others find it. Not sure if there's a marker where Mr. Brewster was killed. In any case, I recommend the Annistar Star series, and especially the article ("Guns, bombs and Kenneth Adams") about the notorious Klan leader who set the tone for the terror metted out in violent doses against African Americans like Willie Brewster. Whites who tried to improve race relations were not immune from threats of violence as well, as is noted in the Anniston Star article. I'm particularly impressed with the bravery shown by the former pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Anniston, Phil Noble. I've written about him before in a previous post, but was struck again by the risks he took when I read in the article cited above about Kenneth Adams' plans to bomb Noble's church.

I encourage you to read the article. Read about Willie Brewster and his family. 1965 may seem like a long time ago, but his family continues to deal with their loss.

Looking back: Anniston Star's endorsement and the comments it provoked

In preparing for a presentation about Alabama and the 2008 election I came across this Anniston Star endorsement of Barack Obama for President:

Barack Obama is a candidate with impeccable timing. Just as the nation prepared for the quadrennial exercise in cynicism and polarization, onto the stage strode a little-known freshman senator from Illinois whose biggest claim to fame was a speech at the 2004 Democratic convention.

Obama struck a deep chord with a broad swath of Americans. He oozes optimism, calm in the face of intense pressure and a sincere offer of hope to a populace hungry for something better than politics as usual.

After President Bush’s two terms of constitutional abuse, far-right economic policies that have wrecked the economy and broad ineptitude at home and abroad, the nation hungers for what Obama offers voters heading to the polls Tuesday: change.

For this reason and others, the Editorial Board of The Anniston Star recommends Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Thank You to Coach Schuessler Ware

From: Bob Stewart
Date: 2/28/09
Re: Job well done

Congratulations to you, Schuessler Ware, Coach of Anniston High School's boys basketball team. In winning the 2009 State Championship you and your team have done a wonderful thing for AHS and the town of Anniston. As a former resident of Anniston I can say I'm really proud.


[source: Anniston Star]


[source: Anniston Star]


[source: Anniston Star]

I don't recall ever meeting you the one year I attended Anniston High School (1973-74]. I was just a junior that year and certainly not involved in athletics. My recollection of that year was that it was the first year Anniston and Cobb High Schools were united as Anniston High School. The football team had a great season, which got the newly combined school off to a good start. And the basketball team you were on were "County Champions."

I scanned a photo of Coach Ware from the Hourglass yearbook. Here he is as a player on the 1973-74 basketball team for the AHS Bulldogs. I don't know why I never attended a game that year... Too bad. In any case, next time I've visiting my family in Anniston during basketball season I can't wait to take in a game and celebrate your state championship.


[source: AHS Hourglass yearbook, 1973-74]

Ex-Klansman: 'I'm sorry'

Former Klansman Elwin Wilson apologizes to the "whole world" for beating Rep. John Lewis long ago.

Gary Sprayberry's 2008 article on the Anniston "Library Incident"

Gary S. Sprayberry, “’One Does Not Integrate on Sunday’: The 1963 Desegregation of the Carnegie Library of Anniston, Alabama, and its Aftermath.” Alabama Review; Apr2008, Vol. 61 Issue 2, p105-138. Abstract: "The article offers information on creation of the Human Relations Council, a biracial group for racial justice as part of the origins of desegregation in Anniston, Alabama, from 1961-1963. It also looks at the role of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) for desegregating downtown business and its repercussions which included bomb blasts to assassinate civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Details related to social and governmental upswing in Anniston are also mentioned."

A contemporaneous article in the Birmingham Post-Herald about the "library incident":

2 Negro Ministers Beaten In Anniston

By JOE FOSTER (Post-Herald Correspondent)

ANNISTON, Sept. 15--Two Negro ministers were beaten by a mob of white men today as they 'walked toward the city library in an integration attempt known to the Anniston Human Relations Council, a bi-racial committee, and to city officials.

The Revs. N. Q. Reynolds, 32, pastor of the 17th Street Baptist Church, and William D. McClain, 25, pastor of the Haven Methodist Church, were attacked by 25 to 30 white men near the entrance of Carnegie Library in downtown Anniston.

They said a shot was fired from the mob and passed near their heads.

Later this afternoon, the City Commission issued a statement deploring the action on the part of the whites and offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the persons responsible.

The statement said, "We are sure that the citizens of this area are outraged as is the City Commission at the cowardly acts perpetrated upon two of our Negro ministers this afternoon.

"We are determined that law and order will prevail in this !community. We will absolutely not tolerate violence or lawlessness of any kind."

The statement further said, "The police will leave no stone unturned or no time unspent to apprehend and convict these guilty hoodlums."

The two ministers called a news conference tonight at Reynolds' home and while reporters were there, the Negroes were visited by Mayor Claude Dear. The Rev. J. Phillip Noble, chairman of the bi-racial committee, and Charles Doster, member of :he library's Board of Trustees.

Dear apologized for the action and McClain replied that he real-[zed "today's action was not representative of the majority of the responsible white citizens of Anniston."

Asked whose fault the beating was, Reynolds replied. "We had hoped there would have been more police protection."

Confronted By White

The two men arrived at the library, which is open on Sundays after 3 p.m. and they were con fronted by a lone white who grabbed one of the Negroes by the arm.

They shook loose and about 10 other whites came up, attacking the ministers with their fists. Both Negroes were knocked to the ground but they got to their feet and ran for their car.

As they ran, they were pelted with stones and soft drink bottle by the white mob which by the] had reached about 25.

Negroes Beaten

The crowd overtook the Negros at the car and began wrecking the vehicle and heating the minister again. They fled on foot and were picked up by a Negro driving by about a block away.

Police arrived moments after the incident and blocked off the street and cleared away the crowd.

Beyond the Burning Bus (by Phil Noble)

I just finished reading Beyond the Burning Bus, Phil Noble's 2003 book about the aftermath of the May 14, 1961 attacks on Freedom Riders aboard Greyhound and Trailways buses traveling through Anniston, Alabama (NewSouth Books).

Many accounts have explained how the violence in Alabama on that Mother's Day was perpetrated to intimidate blacks and others who supported the enforcement of Federal laws that gave blacks equal access to interstate transportation. Noble's book paints an altogether different picture.

I learned of Noble's book from Harvey Jackson's August 2003 review published in the Anniston Star. Harvey's review was the very first "hit" that came up when I'd Googled burning bus anniston.

Visits to Anniston to see my parents a couple times a year renew my interest in the events of the early 1960s. I was in Anniston just a couple weeks ago when I did that particular Google search. As soon as I found Jackson's review I looked up the book on Amazon and ordered a copy. By the time I got back to my home in Ohio the book was waiting for me. I was stunned to see the return address on the package: P. Noble, along with a home address. I realized that I had just experienced a "new media" moment, with Google helping me find content that then pointed me to a book that I then found via Amazon, that then helped me track down an actual person: Phil Noble. But first, some words about the book.

Beyond the Burning Bus is a riveting story, that is, if you are interested in such matters. As should be clear to any reader of this blog, I am a very, very interested reader in such matters. Rarely does a reader find a book one EXACTLY the topic s/he wants to learn more about EXACTLY at that moment. I read through the book -- which is not very long to begin with -- in a couple of days.

From the mid-1950s until 1971 Noble was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Anniston. His book recounts events and details from that period, discussing issues and events that I knew nothing about. He tells the story of how he was approached by two key black pastors in Anniston, hoping to develop a working relationship with a white minister for the good of the two communities, divided by traditions and world views that bubbled up so violently in Anniston that May 14, 1961 day.

In the end, Noble concludes that the severity of the May 14, 1961 attacks and the danger of more violent attacks against blacks in Anniston ultimately had the effect of pulling together whites and blacks for the good of the community -- both economically and socially. More on that later, as well as a follow up phone conversation with Noble.

Finding the Burning Bus marker on Hwy 202

My wife and I recently visited Anniston, Alabama, where I was born in 1957. We wanted to visit the historical marker on Hwy 202 where a mob made up of area residents attacked and burned a Greyhound bus with Freedom Riders on board. Worldwide distribution of the photograph of the incident, which occurred about five miles outside of Anniston, pushed the location along Hwy 202 into the international spotlight.


Freedom Riders with a burning bus at
Anniston, Alabama, May 14, 1961 (UPI)

My family had left the Anniston area in 1958 when my parents became Southern Baptist missionaries to Thailand. We returned to the area several times over the years, the first time in 1962 for our first furlough. We lived for what was my kindergarten year in the small town of Eulaton, within about a mile of the bus burning incident that took place about one year before my family's return to Alabama.

Most of my youth was spent in Thailand during the Vietnam War era, which has long had me thinking about how U.S. history shaped my worldview. Recent visits to the Anniston area to visit family have me to thinking about how these furlough experiences contributed to my personal zeitgeist.

In addition to 1962, we lived in Anniston for the 1968-69 (sixth grade) and 1973-74 (eleventh grade) academic years. I've been overlaying these furlough years with American history to start trying to understand how my understanding of key events in American history are also key events in my own life. Which is what led me to search out the marker along Hwy 202, commemorating the events of May 16, 1961.



To help locate the marker I had in hand Raymond Arsenault's 2006 book, Freedom Riders; 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. I had placed a slip of paper in the book to mark page 142, which had a detailed map of the burning bus location. With book in hand, and the general instruction that the bus was burned about six miles from Anniston, we headed west on Hwy 202. We drove and we drove, looking left and right for the marker, to no avail.

I pulled off the highway at a local establishment to get directions. A young white woman in her mid-20s said she didn't know the location. We pulled over to the edge of the parking lot to study Arsenault's map. Within about 30 seconds there was a tap on the car window. A young white man about the same age as the woman I'd spoken to asked if we were looking for the marker related to the Civil Right's incident. We said yes.

He said it was about a mile back toward Anniston, and that we'd see it on the right side of the highway just around a sweeping turn to the right. We thanked him and pulled back out on the highway. We drove about a mile, past the sweeping right turn, and still we couldn't find the marker.

I turned right at the next opportunity to get off the highway, pulling onto what I quickly realized was the "Old Birmingham Highway," which runs parallel to the new highway for stretches of a few hundred yards at a time. I understood that the incident had taken place along the old highway, so I felt that we might just be heading in the right direction. Heading back west, away from Anniston, I soon saw up ahead that we were running out of road on the old highway. Then I saw it. A marker sat just to the right of the guardrail, just 20-30 feet from the end of the old highway.


This picture is taken looking east, back
toward Anniston.

The marker began: "On May 14, 1961, a Greyhound bus left Atlanta, GA carrying among its passengers seven members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a.k.a. the 'Freedom Riders.'" It goes on to recount the story of the mob attacking and burning the bus on that very location.

So, we'd found it, and yes, it was about a mile from where I spent my kindergarten year starting in the summer of 1962. I'd never heard about the terrible incident as a child, and only more recently did I ask my parents whether they realized at the time we lived in Eulaton that only a year before that the bus burning had taken place. They said they weren't aware of it at the time.

My goal in this post is to make clear exactly how to find this marker, should you ever decide to look for it. These directions should be very clear: Start out at the eastern end of Hwy 202, at Quintard Avenue in Anniston. Drive west exactly five miles and turn left on to the Old Birmingham Hwy.


This picture shows the sign for the Old
Birmingham Hwy. In the far left of the
photo you can barely make out the marker,
which sits atop a small rise that separates
the old highway from the new one below.

As soon as you turn onto the old highway turn right, where you should immediately see the blockade marking the end of the old highway. On your right you'll see the marker, placed there in 2007, commemorating the events of May 14, 1961. And if you can't find it based on these directions, you can read the marker below:



I just came across the book, Beyond the Burning Bus, in a 2003 article in the Anniston Star. I've ordered a copy of the book. I'll let you know what I think about it when I've had a chance to read it.

FOOTNOTEs ADDED 5/19/09:

1. Here's an interesting educational resource, hosted on a Univ. Of Mississippi Web site.

2. Here are two screen shots from google maps, which may help to locate the markers.

barackobamahomeboy.com

Anniston for Barack Obama Alabama Barack Obama Alabama Barack Obama Come Support Barack Obama too!

Local gun sales mirror national trend

During my presentation today to the journalism faculty at Iowa State University a colleague suggested that I look at data related to gun sales in Alabama. I found this Sunday, November 09, 2008 article from the Press-Register in Alabama:

Local gun sales mirror national trend, by Jeff Dute, Outdoors Editor, al.com.

Possibility of new gun-control measures under Barack Obama's administration has many local hunters and shooters buying guns and stockpiling ammunition --

A couple of outdoors equipment retailers in Mobile and Baldwin counties say sales of assault guns and ammunition at their stores have increased dramatically in the last month with the ascension of Democrat Barack Obama to the presidency.

The main issue, it seems, is not concern about a Black uprising, but rather a concern about gun laws that the Obama Administration might try to enact in the coming months and years.

see related story:

Fears of Democrat crackdown lead to gun sales boom: "One Georgia gun shop advertised an 'Obama sale' on an outdoor sign, but the owner took it down after people complained that the shop appeared to be issuing a call to violence against the country's first black leader."

Crossing the Iowa border

On our way to Ames, Iowa today we spotted this on the back of a UPS truck:



Here's another reference to anti-Obama sentiment expressed beyond the borders of Alabama: "Mayor in Idaho apologizes for kids' 'assassinate Obama' chant"

I guess these illustrate that Alabama and its surrounding states aren't the only place where Obama may have trouble winning over contrarians.

Race and the (Alabama) American experience: a personal journey post-Nov. 4, 2008

1. For South, a Waning Hold on National Politics [New York Times, Nov. 10, 2008]

Less than a third of Southern whites voted for Mr. Obama, compared with 43 percent of whites nationally. By leaving the mainstream so decisively, the Deep South and Appalachia will no longer be able to dictate that winning Democrats have Southern accents or adhere to conservative policies on issues like welfare and tax policy.

Read "Letters to the Editor" regarding this article at:

nytimes.com/2008/11/17/opinion/l17south.html?_r=1

2. Alabama's Exit Polls [CNN]

3. Alabama Primary Results [New York Times]

Mr. Obama decisively won the Democratic primary in Alabama, where African-American voters made up about half of the turnout.

4. Obama Cleans Up with Alabama Newspaper Endorsements [leftinalabama.com]

5. Vote 2008: Alabama newspapers endorse Obama by 2-1 margin [wadeonbirmingham.com]

Of the eight nine 10 newspapers that have published endorsements in the presidential race, five six support Obama, two three support McCain, and one endorsed neither. Before the cries of “liberal media bias” ring out, keep in mind that most of these same papers endorsed Republican George W. Bush in the previous two elections.

6. Map of Newspaper Endorsements in the 2008 US Presidential Election

Endorsing Sen. Obama (endorsed Bush in 2004): 58 papers, 4.8M total circulation

Endorsing Sen. McCain (and endorsed Kerry in 2004): 11 papers, 0.5M total circulation

7. It's Hard Being Blue in Alabama [Nancy Blackmon, Andalusia Star-News]

These days I feel a little like Kermit, except the lyrics to my song are, “It’s not easy being blue.” I’m experiencing what it feels like to be a political color that is different from the majority of folks around me, and sometimes it is, as Kermit sang, not easy.

...After listening to all the words of the candidates — not just the sound bites played over and over in ads and newscasts — I decided which message fit with my own values, made me feel the most promise for the future. Having done that, nothing I hear from the red side is changing my mind. And I know nothing I say is going to change a committed red voter to blue.

So maybe at this point, letting it be and respecting each other’s views and choices is the best thing to do.

8. A.C.L.U. Sues Alabama on Ballot Access [New York Times, July 22, 2008]

Like virtually all states, Alabama restricts the rights of many felons to vote, but in Monday’s suit the group contends the state is going beyond even its own laws. People convicted of nonviolent offenses like income tax evasion or forgery are at risk of being turned away by voter registrars in Alabama, the A.C.L.U. says.

Alabama does not bar all felons from voting, only those convicted of crimes involving “moral turpitude.” In 2003, the civil liberties group says, the State Legislature clearly defined what those crimes are: murder, rape, sodomy, sexual abuse, incest, sexual torture and nine other crimes mainly involving pornography and abuses against children.

At issue in the lawsuit is not the list enacted in law but an expanded “moral turpitude” list developed by the state’s attorney general, Troy King, in 2005. That list includes about a dozen additional offenses, most of them nonviolent, and several including the sale of marijuana.