Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement

So after our last class, I sat down and talked with my mom about some of the old southern stereotypes and about segregation.  She was born and raised in Alabama during a specifically prevalent time for Birmingham. Birmingham is typically known, not so proudly, for a lot of the escalated civil rights events that occurred in the late 50s and 60s. 

My grandparents, on my mothers' side of the family, consisted of strong blue collar families.  My grandfather went against the norm and went to college at Birmingham-Southern College (not Alabama or Auburn- and furthermore a ritzy private school) and then went on to Vanderbilt to pursue his masters degree.  Later on in life, my grandfather went on to work for the city.  Unfortunately he was mistrusted because people saw his education at a "fancy private school" to be well above his status and he should know his place.

My grandfather worked under the infamous, Bull Connor (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/bull connor.htm), Birmingham's City Commissioner.  My grandfather worked for many of the major publicly operated buildings such as the zoo, public parks, and most importantly Legion Field. 

When the race riots occurred, Bull Connor ordered for the fire hoses and police dogs be used to settle rioters.  So many people were arrested that they ran out of room in all of the jails in Birmingham.  Mr. Connor wanted to put people in the middle of Legion Field and my grandfather refused and would not open the facility to such an event.  He told Mr. Connor that you will make the a place of martyrdom.  Bull Connor threatened to fire him and he said, "Well, I guess you'll just have to fire me."

Later on, my grandfather promoted the first black person to a supervisor position.  In his position he would be telling white people what to do.  There were often telephone threats to the house and my grandmother put my mom and her sister in the back closet when a brick was thrown through the window.   She called the police and wasn't sure if the police were going to come.  After that my grandparents decided to keep a gun in the house.   My grandfather told my grandmother that, "You'd never shoot anybody..." she said, "watch me." -- You don't test a good ole southern woman and her babies- she'll kill you.

The other thing that really stood out in my mother's mind was when President Kennedy was assassinated.  kennedy was strongly disliked in the south.  She can vividly remember kids cheering and teachers clapping because Kennedy was a strong civil rights activist and they were obviously not.  Those that came from a more "educated" background knew what kind of tragedy this really was.  My mothers teacher was quietly crying when she came back in the room.