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.

No American city symbolizes the black struggle for civil rights more than Birmingham, Alabama. In this critical analysis of why Birmingham became such a focal point, Bobby M. Wilson argues that AlabamaOs path to industrialism differed significantly from that in the North and Midwest. True to its antebellum roots, no other industrial city in the United States would depend so much upon the exploitation of black labor so early in its development as Birmingham. A persuasive exploration of the links between AlabamaOs slaveholding order and the subsequent industrialization of the state, WilsonOs study demonstrates that arguments based on classical economics fail to take into account the ways in which racial issues influenced the rise of industrial capitalism.

A beautiful commemorative edition of Dr. Martin Luther King's essay "Letter from Birmingham Jail," part of Dr. King's archives published exclusively by HarperCollins. With an afterword by Reginald Dwayne Betts On April 16, 1923, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., responded to an open letter written and published by eight white clergyman admonishing the civil rights demonstrations happening in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. King drafted his seminal response on scraps of paper smuggled into jail. King criticizes his detractors for caring more about order than justice, defends nonviolent protests, and argues for the moral responsibility to obey just laws while disobeying unjust ones. "Letter from Birmingham Jail" proclaims a message - confronting any injustice is an acceptable and righteous reason for civil disobedience. This beautifully designed edition presents Dr. King's speech in its entirety, paying tribute to this extraordinary leader and his immeasurable contribution, and inspiring a new generation of activists dedicated to carrying on the fight for justice and equality.

Folksy and fresh, endearing and affecting, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is a now-classic novel about two women: Evelyn, who’s in the sad slump of middle age, and gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode, who’s telling her life story. Her tale includes two more women—the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth—who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, offering good coffee, southern barbecue, and all kinds of love and laughter—even an occasional murder. And as the past unfolds, the present will never be quite the same again. Praise for Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe “A real novel and a good one [from] the busy brain of a born storyteller.”—The New York Times “Happily for us, Fannie Flagg has preserved [the Threadgoodes] in a richly comic, poignant narrative that records the exuberance of their lives, the sadness of their departure.”—Harper Lee “This whole literary enterprise shines with honesty, gallantry, and love of perfect details that might otherwise be forgotten.”—Los Angeles Times “Funny and macabre.”—The Washington Post “Courageous and wise.”—Houston Chronicle

The COVID-19 pandemic is transforming the global economy and significantly shifting workforce demand, requiring quick, adaptive responses. The pandemic has revealed the vulnerabilities of many organizations and regional economies, and it has accelerated trends that could lead to significant improvements in productivity, performance, and resilience, which will enable organizations and regions to thrive in the next normal. To explore how communities around the United States are addressing workforce issues laid bare by the COVID-19 pandemic and how they are taking advantage of local opportunities to expand their science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) workforces to position them for success going forward, the Board of Higher Education and Workforce of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a series of workshops to identify immediate and near-term regional STEMM workforce needs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The workshop planning committee identified five U.S. cities and their associated metropolitan areas - Birmingham, Alabama; Boston, Massachusetts; Richmond, Virginia; Riverside, California; and Wichita, Kansas - to host workshops highlighting promising practices that communities can use to respond urgently and appropriately to their STEMM workforce needs. A sixth workshop discussed how the lessons learned during the five region-focused workshops could be applied in other communities to meet STEMM workforce needs. This proceedings of a virtual workshop series summarizes the presentations and discussions from the six public workshops that made up the virtual workshop series and highlights the key points raised during the presentations, moderated panel discussions and deliberations, and open discussions among the workshop participants.

The fading advertisement on the walls of Birmingham paint an illuminating picture of the men and women who built an industrial boomtown in the first half of the twentieth century. Experience the disappearing art and see what these commercial creations looked like with fresh paint. Discover the stories behind the wares they hawked, the buildings they adorned and the streets they overlooked. Which soft drink helped you "get wise"? Where could you store a piano in the 1920's, and what gum should you chew for indigestion? Advertising expert, artist and writer Charles Buchanan unravels the mysteries behind Birmingham's ghost signs to reveal glimpses of the past now hidden in plain sight. -- back cover.

A late arrival on the Southern landscape, the city of Birmingham was not incorporated until after the Civil War. In fact, from 1820 to 1871, what is now Birmingham was known as the hamlet of Elyton, a small crossroads set in the rolling foothills of the Appalachian Mountains where several Pony Express and stage routes crossed paths. When two railroads eventually intersected at this point—where, significantly, all the ingredients necessary to make iron existed in close proximity—the region’s growth exploded. Birmingham’s history is not a story of the grace and vanished grandeur of an antebellum past, but rather, a dynamic story of modern American industrialization.Sites covered include: Hollywood, Alabama State Fairgrounds, Vulcan Park, Mountain Brook Village, The Old Mill, Avondale Park, Highland Park, Woodlawn High, Quinlan Castle, Five Points South, Bottega Favorita, Old Jefferson County Courthouse, Capitol Park, Tutwiler Hotel, Twentieth Street, Louise Wooster Brothel, Alabama Theatre, Kress Department Store, Joy Young Restaurant, Terminal Station, Molton Hotel, Lovemans, Massey Building, Bright Star, Temple of Sibyl, Sloss Furnaces, Red Mountain and Legion Field.