Download or read book The Book of Birmingham written by Kit de Waal and published by Comma Press. This book was released on 2018-09-27 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few cities have undergone such a radical transformation over the last few decades as Birmingham. Culturally and architecturally, it has been in a state of perpetual flux and regeneration, with new communities moving in, then out, and iconic post-war landmarks making way for brighter-coloured, 21st century flourishes. Much like the city itself, the characters in the stories gathered here are often living through moments of profound change, closing in on a personal or societal turning point, that carries as much threat as it does promise. Set against key moments of history – from Malcolm X’s visit to Smethwick in 1965, to the Handsworth riots two decades later, from the demise of the city’s manufacturing in the 70s and 80s, to the on-going tensions between communities in recent years – these stories celebrate the cultural dynamism that makes this complex, often divided ‘second city’ far more than just the sum of its parts.
Download or read book But for Birmingham written by Glenn T. Eskew and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2000-11-09 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Birmingham served as the stage for some of the most dramatic and important moments in the history of the civil rights struggle. In this vivid narrative account, Glenn Eskew traces the evolution of nonviolent protest in the city, focusing particularly on the sometimes problematic intersection of the local and national movements. Eskew describes the changing face of Birmingham's civil rights campaign, from the politics of accommodation practiced by the city's black bourgeoisie in the 1950s to local pastor Fred L. Shuttlesworth's groundbreaking use of nonviolent direct action to challenge segregation during the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1963, the national movement, in the person of Martin Luther King Jr., turned to Birmingham. The national uproar that followed on Police Commissioner Bull Connor's use of dogs and fire hoses against the demonstrators provided the impetus behind passage of the watershed Civil Rights Act of 1964. Paradoxically, though, the larger victory won in the streets of Birmingham did little for many of the city's black citizens, argues Eskew. The cancellation of protest marches before any clear-cut gains had been made left Shuttlesworth feeling betrayed even as King claimed a personal victory. While African Americans were admitted to the leadership of the city, the way power was exercised--and for whom--remained fundamentally unchanged.
Download or read book Leaving Birmingham written by Paul Hemphill and published by University Alabama Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1963 Birmingham, Alabama, was the site of cataclysmic racial violence: Police commissioner "Bull" Connor attacked black demonstrators with dogs and water cannons, Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote his famous letter from the Birmingham jail, and four black children were killed in a church bombing. This incendiary period in Birmingham's history is the centerpiece of an intense and affecting memoir. A disaffected Birmingham native, Paul Hemphill decides to live in his hometown once again, to capture the events and essence of that summer and explore the depth of social change in Birmingham in the years since -- even as he tries to come to terms with his family, and with himself. -- back cover.
Download or read book A History of Birmingham written by Christopher Upton and published by Phillimore. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Birmingham was a village worth only one pound in the Domesday Survey, yet it rose to become the second city of the British Empire with a population that passed a million. Its growth began when Peter de Birmingham obtained a market charter in 1154 for his little settlement by an insignificant river, with all roads leading to its all-important market-place, the great triangular Bull Ring, with the parish church of St Martin's in the middle. In the succeeding centuries, Birmingham has been a product of market forces, as a market of agriculture, trade and metal work.By the 18th century, Birmingham overtook Coventry as the biggest town in Warwickshire and by 1800 it was 'the toy shop of Europe', having cornered the markets for gun-making, jewellery, buttons and buckles with a bewildering variety of specialist craftsmen and traders. The factory system had already begun and men like James Watt, Matthew Boulton, Joseph Priestley and William Murdock made Birmingham the powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution, selling their wares in vast quantities to the entire world. The middle of the 19th century saw Birmingham pioneering political reform, education and municipal government.In this first single-volume history of the city for half a century, Dr Upton looks at why Birmingham grew and what it has become. It has always been a place in which to experiment, from the steam engine to the factory in a garden; from the Bull Ring to Spaghetti Junction. To some, the story of Birmingham is one of great industries: Boulton and Watt, Dunlop, Cadbury's, G.K.N., Lloyd's Bank and Austin Rover. But there are many lesser known tales: of the Bull Ring Riots, the Onion Fair, the first floodlit football matches and the tripe sellers. It is a story of communities, too. The Quakers settles in the 17th century, the Irish and Italians in the 19th and, more recently, people from the Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent, China and Vietnam have all made Birmingham their home.As Birmingham makes it marks on the map of Europe again, one thing is certain... the story of the city that brought us Joseph and Neville Chamberlain, Thomas the Tank Engine, Fu Manchu and Mendelssohn's Elijah can hardly be dull. Chris Upton's lively account ensures that Birmingham's fascinating story loses nothing in telling.
Download or read book Our Crowd written by Stephen Birmingham and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2015-12-01 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The #1 New York Times bestseller that traces the rise of the Guggenheims, the Goldmans, and other families from immigrant poverty to social prominence. They immigrated to America from Germany in the nineteenth century with names like Loeb, Sachs, Seligman, Lehman, Guggenheim, and Goldman. From tenements on the Lower East Side to Park Avenue mansions, this handful of Jewish families turned small businesses into imposing enterprises and amassed spectacular fortunes. But despite possessing breathtaking wealth that rivaled the Astors and Rockefellers, they were barred by the gentile establishment from the lofty realm of “the 400,” a register of New York’s most elite, because of their religion and humble backgrounds. In response, they created their own elite “100,” a privileged society as opulent and exclusive as the one that had refused them entry. “Our Crowd” is the fascinating story of this rarefied society. Based on letters, documents, diary entries, and intimate personal remembrances of family lore by members of these most illustrious clans, it is an engrossing portrait of upper-class Jewish life over two centuries; a riveting story of the bankers, brokers, financiers, philanthropists, and business tycoons who started with nothing and turned their family names into American institutions.
Download or read book The Most Dangerous Book written by Kevin Birmingham and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-05-26 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recipient of the 2015 PEN New England Award for Nonfiction “The arrival of a significant young nonfiction writer . . . A measured yet bravura performance.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times James Joyce’s big blue book, Ulysses, ushered in the modernist era and changed the novel for all time. But the genius of Ulysses was also its danger: it omitted absolutely nothing. Joyce, along with some of the most important publishers and writers of his era, had to fight for years to win the freedom to publish it. The Most Dangerous Book tells the remarkable story surrounding Ulysses, from the first stirrings of Joyce’s inspiration in 1904 to the book’s landmark federal obscenity trial in 1933. Written for ardent Joyceans as well as novices who want to get to the heart of the greatest novel of the twentieth century, The Most Dangerous Book is a gripping examination of how the world came to say Yes to Ulysses.
Download or read book We ve Got a Job written by Cynthia Levinson and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2015-02-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inspiring story of the 1963 Birmingham Children's March as seen through the eyes of four young people at the center of the action. The 1963 Birmingham Children's March was a turning point in American civil rights history. Black Americans had had enough of segregation and police brutality, but with their lives and jobs at stake, most adults were hesitant to protest the city's racist culture. So the fight for civil rights lay in the hands of children like Audrey Hendricks, Wash Booker, James Stewart, and Arnetta Streeter. We've Got a Job tells the little-known story of the four thousand Black elementary, middle, and high school students who answered Dr. Martin Luther King's call to "fill the jails." Between May 2 and May 11, 1963, these young people voluntarily went to jail, drawing national attention to the cause, helping bring about the repeal of segregation laws, and inspiring thousands of other young people to demand their rights. Drawing on her extensive research and in-depth interviews with participants, award-winning author Cynthia Levinson recreates the events of the Birmingham Children's March from a new and very personal perspective. Archival photography and informational sidebars throughout. Back matter includes an afterword, author's note, timeline, map, and bibliography.
Download or read book Carry Me Home written by Diane McWhorter and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2001-06-29 with total page 704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now with a new afterword, the Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatic account of the civil rights era’s climactic battle in Birmingham as the movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., brought down the institutions of segregation. "The Year of Birmingham," 1963, was a cataclysmic turning point in America’s long civil rights struggle. Child demonstrators faced down police dogs and fire hoses in huge nonviolent marches against segregation. Ku Klux Klansmen retaliated by bombing the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing four young black girls. Diane McWhorter, daughter of a prominent Birmingham family, weaves together police and FBI records, archival documents, interviews with black activists and Klansmen, and personal memories into an extraordinary narrative of the personalities and events that brought about America’s second emancipation. In a new afterword—reporting last encounters with hero Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and describing the current drastic anti-immigration laws in Alabama—the author demonstrates that Alabama remains a civil rights crucible.
Download or read book The Gangs of Birmingham written by Philip Gooderson and published by Milo Books Ltd. This book was released on 2010 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early 1870s, the boomtown of Birmingham erupted in a series of vicious gang wars. Mobs of youths armed with stones, knives and belt buckles fought pitched battles in a struggle for territorial supremacy. Known as "sloggers", they drew their numbers from the workshops and factories that made guns, nails and jewellery, and lived cheek-by-jowl in overcrowded, insanitary slums. Author Philip Gooderson traces the history of these warring factions from their first appearance in the Cheapside area to the later rise of the "peaky blinders", new gangs named for their peaked caps and long fringes. He describes for the first time the brutal antics of once-infamous fighters such as the Simpson and Harper brothers and the police killer George "Cloggy" Williams, and explains the eventual demise of the gangs at the turn of the century. The Gangs of Birmingham brings to vivid life a forgotten chapter in the history of British gangland.
Download or read book Doc written by Frank Adams and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Autobiography of jazz elder statesman Frank “Doc” Adams, highlighting his role in Birmingham, Alabama’s, historic jazz scene and tracing his personal adventure that parallels, in many ways, the story and spirit of jazz itself. Doc tells the story of an accomplished jazz master, from his musical apprenticeship under John T. “Fess” Whatley and his time touring with Sun Ra and Duke Ellington to his own inspiring work as an educator and bandleader. Central to this narrative is the often-overlooked story of Birmingham’s unique jazz tradition and community. From the very beginnings of jazz, Birmingham was home to an active network of jazz practitioners and a remarkable system of jazz apprenticeship rooted in the city’s segregated schools. Birmingham musicians spread across the country to populate the sidelines of the nation’s bestknown bands. Local musicians, like Erskine Hawkins and members of his celebrated orchestra, returned home heroes. Frank “Doc” Adams explores, through first-hand experience, the history of this community, introducing readers to a large and colorful cast of characters—including “Fess” Whatley, the legendary “maker of musicians” who trained legions of Birmingham players and made a significant mark on the larger history of jazz. Adams’s interactions with the young Sun Ra, meanwhile, reveal life-changing lessons from one of American music’s most innovative personalities. Along the way, Adams reflects on his notable family, including his father, Oscar, editor of the Birmingham Reporter and an outspoken civic leader in the African American community, and Adams’s brother, Oscar Jr., who would become Alabama’s first black supreme court justice. Adams’s story offers a valuable window into the world of Birmingham’s black middle class in the days before the civil rights movement and integration. Throughout, Adams demonstrates the ways in which jazz professionalism became a source of pride within this community, and he offers his thoughts on the continued relevance of jazz education in the twenty-first century.
Download or read book When the Children Marched written by Robert H. Mayer and published by Enslow Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2008 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Discusses the Birmingham civil rights movement, the great leaders of the movement, and the role of the children who helped fight for equal rights and to end segregation in Birmingham"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book A Season Beyond A Kiss written by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss and published by Harper. This book was released on 2000-03-08 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her groundbreaking romantic masterwork The Flame and the Flower, Kathleen E. Woodiwiss first introduced readers, to a remarkable love story. She captivated her devoted audience again with the long-awaited sequel,The Elusive Flame. Now the magnificent story comes full circle with... A Season Beyond A Kiss Her marriage to dashing American shipping magnate Jeff Birmingham signals the beginning of a wonderful new life for Raelynn Barrett. In the loving shelter of her husband's embrace, the pain of loss is diminished, as is her anger over her family's tragic and undeserved disgrace. But try as she might, Raelynn cannot close her ears to the cruel accusations and whispered rumors about her new spouse that buzz around her head like bees. And she cannot deny what her own eyes see, though the images before her seem to brand her darling Jeff as the worst sort of criminal, forcing her to flee his desire and his love. Yet Jeff knows he is innocent--though he is unaware of the conspiracy that has shrouded his marriage in secrets and now imperils it with lies. And he will oppose the treachery with every fiber of his being in order to preserve his threatened happiness--to win back the trust of the woman he cherishes...and secure his place forever in his beloved Raelynn's heart.
Download or read book The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 written by Christopher Paul Curtis and published by Yearling. This book was released on 2013-08-06 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Celebrate the 25th anniversary of this Newbery and Coretta Scott King Honoree about a hilarious family on a road-trip at one of the most important times in America's history. This special edition makes a perfect gift and includes bonus content! Enter the hilarious world of ten-year-old Kenny and his family, the Weird Watsons of Flint, Michigan. There's Momma, Dad, little sister Joetta, and brother Byron, who's thirteen and an "official juvenile delinquent." When Byron gets to be too much trouble, they head South to Birmingham to visit Grandma, the one person who can shape him up. And they'll be in Birmingham during one of the darkest moments in America's history. "Every so often a book becomes a modern classic almost as soon as it arrives on bookshelves. That happened in the mid-'90s when Christopher Paul Curtis released his first book, The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963." --NPR "One of the best novels EVER." --Jacqueline Woodson, Newbery Honor and National Book Award–winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming
Download or read book 100 Things to Do in Birmingham Before You Die written by Verna Gates and published by Reedy Press LLC. This book was released on 2017-08-15 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was called the Magic City – a bright, shiny new boomtown following the misery of the Civil War. Birmingham was teething on steel as a brash Wild West town with gambling, shootouts and famous madams. When the steel died down, banking and medical industries settled it into a sophisticated city with a famed culinary scene, a broad entertainment district, and striking natural beauty. The colorful past remains in a juke joint, quirky museums and a mining trail turning into a greenway. The city changed the country with its notorious struggle, preserved in churches, parks and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. The city is experiencing a new boom in the restoration of its historic downtown, craft beer scene, up and coming new chefs, and an explosion of music venues. The Magic is back. 100 Things to Do in Birmingham Before You Die is your guide to discovering that magic!
Download or read book Birmingham 1963 written by Carole Boston Weatherford and published by Astra Publishing House. This book was released on 2023-01-17 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A poetic tribute to the victims of the racially motivated church bombing that served as a seminal event in the struggle for civil rights. In 1963, the eyes of the world were on Birmingham, Alabama, a flashpoint for the civil rights movement. Birmingham was one of the most segregated cities in the United States. Civil rights demonstrators were met with police dogs and water cannons. On Sunday, September 15, 1963, members of the Ku Klux Klan planted sticks of dynamite at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which served as a meeting place for civil rights organizers. The explosion killed four little girls. Their murders shocked the nation and turned the tide in the struggle for equality. A Jane Addams Children's Honor Book, here is a book that captures the heartbreak of that day, as seen through the eyes of a fictional witness. Archival photographs with poignant text written in free verse offer a powerful tribute to the young victims.
Download or read book Gospel of Freedom written by Jonathan Rieder and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-04-08 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first ever trade history of a landmark of American letters--Martin Luther King Jr's legendary Letter from Birmingham Jail.
Download or read book Bending Toward Justice written by Doug Jones and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2019-03-05 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the decades-long fight to bring justice to the victims of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, culminating in Sen. Doug Jones' prosecution of the last living bombers. On September 15, 1963, the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed. The blast killed four young girls and injured twenty-two others. The FBI suspected four particularly radical Ku Klux Klan members. Yet due to reluctant witnesses, a lack of physical evidence, and pervasive racial prejudice the case was closed without any indictments. But as Martin Luther King, Jr. famously expressed it, "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Years later, Alabama Attorney General William Baxley reopened the case, ultimately convicting one of the bombers in 1977. Another suspect passed away in 1994, and US Attorney Doug Jones tried and convicted the final two in 2001 and 2002, representing the correction of an outrageous miscarriage of justice nearly forty years in the making. Jones himself went on to win election as Alabama’s first Democratic Senator since 1992 in a dramatic race against Republican challenger Roy Moore. Bending Toward Justice is a dramatic and compulsively readable account of a key moment in our long national struggle for equality, related by an author who played a major role in these events. A distinguished work of legal and personal history, the book is destined to take its place as a canonical civil rights history.
