Birmingham is distinctly part of the Deep South, but it is not an old Southern city. It was not established until 1871, and during the Civil War it was considered not worth worrying about, "a poor, insignificant southern village," wrote one Union general. Beginning in about 1880 and until the Great Depression, Yankee capital and labor from former plantations stoked immense growth in Birmingham, particularly in mining and metals. These industries spawned other enterprises, from banks to barbershops , largely controlled by wealthy industrialists from the North.
During the 1960s and '70s, Birmingham was identified with its police dogs and fire hoses used on Civil Rights demonstrators, and the horrific bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which killed four young girls. To come to grips with its past , the city opened the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in 1993. It features exhibits from the Civil Rights Movement and other human-rights struggles of today. The Institute is part of the six-block Birmingham Civil Rights District, which also includes the still active Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. One of the stained glass windows in the church was donated by the people of Wales as a memorial to the victims of the Civil Rights movement.
Also in the six-block area is the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, housed in the historic art deco Carver Theater. It tells the story of such musical greats as Sun Ra, Lionel Hampton and Nat "King" Cole. Memorabilia and memories from Alabama's sports greats , from Paul "Bear" Bryant to Jesse Owens to Willie Mays, are enshrined in the nearby Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. The downtown area also includes the vintage 1920s Alabama Theatre, one of the last working movie palaces in the nation
Rickwood Field
The oldest surviving baseball park in America is not in New York, Chicago or Boston , but here in Birmingham. Built in 1910, Rickwood Field hosted its home team and many traveling or barnstorming teams, with players like Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays and Satchel Paige. Ted Williams said that Rickwood was a great hitter's park, just because of the way the ball sounded when it was hit by the bat.
Despite its legendary history, Rickwood was falling apart in the late 1990s. The roof had caved in, the seats were gone, and the field was in terrible condition. That 's when around 100 volunteers from all walks of life joined together to bring the park back to life. Notable in this city that has seen a great deal of racial strife , whites and blacks worked together on the ballpark restoration, forming a group known as the Friends of Rickwood. The goal is to restore Rickwood to the look it had in its heyday, the 1940s.
Work is ongoing, and a primary goal is to save the ballpark's cracked concrete foundation. The Friends have repaired the concrete steps and replaced portions of the stadium's roof, and the community has restored the dugouts, replaced seats, and laid out a new field. Maintaining the park's historical integrity has involved such steps as replacing the original grandstand louvers, which allowed air to circulate through the grandstand while blocking the afternoon sun. The Friends also rebuilt the original, mechanical drop-in scoreboard, and used it to replace a perfectly good , but much too modern, electronic version.
The improvements to Rickwood have inspired a sprucing up of the surrounding neighborhood , Rising-West Princeton. Homes in the area are being restored, streets are being improved , and lighting is being increased.
)
)
)
)
)
