Alabama's Civil Rights Trail: An Illustrated Guide to the Cradle of Freedom
By Frye Gaillard;
Foreword by Juan Williams
Reviewed by Don Noble
In his 2004 history of the civil rights movement in Alabama, Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement That Changed America, Frye Gaillard told the story of the struggle for racial equality in 409 pages, rather thoroughly. When he was asked to create a kind of illustrated tourist’s guide to the events of the ’50s and ’60s, he could have simply produced a book of photographs, illustrations, and maps of the major sites of the major events. Indeed, this book is rich in road maps and city maps and photos, but Gaillard has elected to tell the stories, briefly, of what actually happened at the many stops on the civil rights trail. He has also included a handful of mini-biographies of participants, mainly heroes, sometimes well- known, famous players in the action, like the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, but sometimes not so well known, like Dr. Charles Gomillion of Tuskegee.
In order for there to be civil rights tourism today, in order for there to even BE such a book as this, there have had to be some major shifts in society’s thinking about these events. In his history, Galliard labels Alabama “the cradle of freedom,” not “the last bastion of racism and resistance.” The story over the years has changed from a story of shame to one of courage and triumph. The focus has shifted from the villains, the White Citizens Council, the KKK, Bull Conner, Al Lingo, and Sheriff Jim Clark to the heroes, the brave freedom riders and demonstrators who laid their lives on the line at venue after venue.
It is likewise with the places themselves. These sites are not to be visited like death camps in Poland with the lesson being “never forget the terrible things that happened here.” Rather, a place like Kelly Ingram Park, for a long time regarded as the site of shame, of dogs and fire hoses, is now a place to gain inspiration, to quietly contemplate the courage and determination that was demonstrated there. Likewise, the Edmund Pettus Bridge and the Montgomery bus station are becoming secular sacred places, to be celebrated, not avoided.
Gaillard’s coverage is thorough: Birmingham’s children’s crusade and Montgomery’s bus boycott and freedom riders, Tuscaloosa’s showdown in the schoolhouse door and Selma’s Great March all get their due. These events are rather familiar to many, however. I found even more engaging the stories from the littler places, mainly in the Black Belt.
In those towns, especially after dark, there were no reporters, television cameras, or even stray witnesses. Those were dangerous places indeed, and Gaillard tells the story of the murder of Viola Liuzzo on Highway 80, chased down and shot. Even though there was an FBI informer in the killers’ car, the case ended in a mistrial with a hung jury. In Lowndes County, Jonathan Daniels, a gentle, twenty-six-year-old Episcopal priest, was killed on the porch of a country store, and the killer was acquitted by an all-white jury. Jimmy Lee Jackson was killed in Marion in Perry County, Alabama, shot in the stomach by a policeman while attempting to shield his eighty-two-year-old grandfather.
It was in fact the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson that generated the Selma to Montgomery march in the young man’s honor.
Gaillard moves all around the state, from major spots to minor ones. Mobile, it seems, had less racial violence than one might think, Spring Hill College having integrated peacefully and first in the state—thus the shock and horror when Michael Donald was lynched in 1981.
The story of Tuskegee, excepting, perhaps, the celebrated Tuskegee airmen, Booker T. Washington, and George Washington Carver, has always been less well known, but some amends are made here.
This volume does not include information about hotels, restaurants, etc. There are other guides for that. Gaillard describes many historical markers, important “movement” churches, civil rights museums, and interpretive centers around the state, and there are more than one had thought.
Whether one is literally touring around Alabama or sitting reading, this book will give a thumbnail history. Then read Cradle of Freedom. July 2010
Don Noble is host of the Alabama Public Television literary interview show Bookmark. His latest book is A State of Laughter: Comic Fiction from Alabama. This review was originally broadcast on Alabama Public Radio.
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$14.95, Paper
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