A thread of some of the unknown or unexpected stories of Black history in Alabama published in the @MGMAdvertiser this year.
Enslaved at 18. A congressman at 28. And a prisoner at 48.
Jeremiah Haralson lived a remarkable life. Then he vanished. https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/in-depth/news/2020/02/26/jeremiah-haralson-lost-congressman-alabama/2823015001/
Enslaved at 18. A congressman at 28. And a prisoner at 48.
Jeremiah Haralson lived a remarkable life. Then he vanished. https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/in-depth/news/2020/02/26/jeremiah-haralson-lost-congressman-alabama/2823015001/
. @imsafiyacharles wrote this beautiful meditation on Georgia Gilmore. It touches on many important subjects, but I was really struck by what women brought to the civil rights movement and what they took from it. https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2020/10/15/plenty-little-and-most-without-lot-lessons-georgia-gilmore/5922062002/
I teamed up with @natalie_allison for this story about southern communities confronting Confederate monuments, and the legal obstacles many face. https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/in-depth/news/2020/07/30/confederate-monuments-fall-local-communities-blocked-state-laws/5367000002/
As part of that series: J. Marion Sims, who performed gynecological experiments on enslaved women without their consent, has a statue in a very prominent place on the Alabama State Capitol steps. https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2020/07/30/j-marion-sims-performed-experiments-on-slaves-statue/5367070002/
For decades, Alabama textbooks obscured, omitted or lied about Black history. (One called slavery “the earliest form of social security.”) In the face of this propaganda, Black Alabamians turned their families & communities for the real stories. https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/education/2020/12/03/blacks-alabama-turned-each-other-history-when-textbooks-lied/3729292001/
A 2011 meeting between John Lewis, former Ala. Gov. John Patterson & the Freedom Riders was seen as a sign of progress. But those who attended remembered a much more ambivalent gathering, where the violence and tension of 50 years prior was not forgotten. https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2020/07/30/john-lewis-freedom-rides-challenges-reconciliation-alabama-gov-john-patterson/5471842002/
The @MGMAdvertiser historically shrugged off lynching and attacked Black Alabamians fighting for voting and civil rights. We have much to do to repair all that. https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2020/07/30/montgomery-advertiser-lost-cause-newspaper-perpetuated-lie/5367461002/ /Fin