Travelling Home...History That Must NOT be Forgotten

To preface this long blog...my trip was not all morbid ;) 

A couple of weeks ago I went back to my hometown in Alabama to a friend's baby shower and to visit family. When I worked at the movie theater in 2011, we allowed a group of producers to publicize and show a documentary about a "fiery speechwriter." His name was Asa Carter. He is the man that actually wrote the racist and now infamous speech credited to Alabama's former governor George Wallace that Wallace spoke to at his inaugural address, “segregation now, segregation forever" among many others. 


Others usually best remember that Wallace attempted to keep President Kennedy from promoting desegregation at the University of Alabama. Just a few days ago was the 50th anniversary!! 


On June 11, 1963 three perfectly qualified African Americans (Vivian Jones, Dave McGlathery, and James Hood) defied segregated Alabama, the University of Alabama, and Alabama's Governor, Wallace by attempting to register with the aide of a federal judge, JFK, & the National Guard which forbade Governor Wallace from interfering any further and made him move aside so they could go in and register.
In this recent article: 
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/george-wallace-daughter-lives-shadow-article-1.1369463

Wallace's daughter discusses her father on the 50th anniversary of the "schoolhouse door" incident and how she has always had to deal with the negative connotation her father's name had and still has impacting her life and people's perceptions of her, even though her father recanted his segregationist stance later in life to be re-elected by black voters in Alabama. 




The speech writer of Wallace's, Asa Carter, interestingly actually lived and is buried in Dearmanville, AL...very close to my parents' home in Oxford, AL. We went to visit the grave during our short visit. I have always been fascinated by graves. But this one was particularly interesting to me due to my research interests in African American history and getting to view the exclusive documentary about his life two years ago. 



 http://reconstructionofasacarter.com/about

"Carter" had multiple identities. (September 4, 1925- June 7, 1979) Carter was a violent KKK leader, segregationist speech writer, and later was even a famed western novelist. There is a film most have attempted to debunk "The Education of Little Tree" about one of Carter's identities (him as a an orphan, raised by Cherokee grandparents--neither of which were true). 





For more information about Asa Carter please visit:           http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/wallace/peopleevents/pande01.html
There was so much racism in and around my hometown. I am still shocked and abhor the fact that less than 40 years ago people could be hung, beaten, chased and attacked by dogs, shot with water hoses on full blast, and many other scandalous and disgusting forms of hate crimes were committed against them, simply due to the color of their skin. On May 14, 1961  the Freedom Riders were coming through Anniston, AL to protest Jim Crow laws in Alabama that kept buses and other forms of transportation segregated, denying blacks Civil Rights. 



One of the buses was fire-bombed outside of Anniston that Mother's Day Sunday: "As the bus burned, the mob held the doors shut, intent on burning the riders to death. An exploding fuel tank caused the mob to retreat, allowing the riders to escape the bus. The Riders were viciously beaten as they tried to flee, and only warning shots fired into the air by highway patrolmen prevented the riders from being lynched on the spot.Located along Alabama Highway 202 W about five miles (8 km) west of downtown, the site today is home to a historic marker"

But, during the campaign for President Obama's re-election in 2012, the sign that marked the actual spot of the bus' bombing/ burning outside of Anniston was burned. 


The backside of the sign that detailed the events of the bus bombing. Source: WBRC video

http://anniston.myfoxal.com/news/news/122422-sign-burned-freedom-riders-park



This is all that was left of the original sign. Source: WBRC video

PLEASE DO NOT FORGET HISTORY! Travel around your hometowns. Now I live in a city with a giant statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest surrounded by "gallant" confederate flags and a city hall with plaques all about his raid during the Civil War. Learn and be passionate about history: local, personal, and national... no matter what side you are on! 

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