MJP Journal 2013

The JournalT he Newspaper of the 30th Multicultural Journalism Program workshop at The University of Alabama

Birmingham in black and whiteSegregation on the field

Page 6

In this edition of MJP Journal:

Legacy of “Bull” Connor Page 9

Birmingham’s Charlemagne Record Exchange Page 10

Steel City Pops gives back Page 12

Photo by Kalin TateRickwood Field is the oldest ballpark in the United States, and is where the Birmingham Black Barons played as part of the Negro Baseball League. Once every season, the Birmingham Barons play a throwback game at Rickwood Field as a tribute to baseball history.

The Journal

The JournalThe Newspaper of the 29th Multicultural Journalism Program workshop at The University of Alabama

By Ariel Cochran

Sitting in a natural-light classroom filled with high school students, Marie King, Family Resource Center Coor-dinator at the YWCA, teaches youth about corporate busi-nesses and engagement. Stu-dents are eager and unafraid to raise questions or shout out answers.

King’s group, Creating Re-sponsible Educated Working Teens (CREW), gives teenag-ers in Woodlawn soft work skills and introduces them to enrichment opportunities. The group works in the community Monday through Wednesday by cutting grass around the neighborhood, working at the Woodlawn Library and cooking lunch for the entire CREW.

The group does not solely fo-cus on landscaping and volun-teering. King takes the program a step further with enrichment opportunities each Thursday.

CREW recently went to see the race exhibit at the McWane Center. June 20, they will visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and will be able to see the archives, which many visi-tors don’t have the opportunity to see.

Students will also get to tour the 16th Street Baptist Church. King explained that her vision

was to introduce her group to things they would not have been exposed to.

“Every school does not have equal resources and I am somebody that grew up in Ensley, but attended an all-white high school. So, I have been places and seen things,” she said.

King attended the Univer-sity of Alabama in Birming-ham but graduated from Beulah Heights University with a degree in urban devel-opment. She also earned a degree in leadership develop-ment at Luther Rice University.

King uses her teenage memo-ries to help her relate to her class. She knows how to keep minds stimulated and focused on projects and leadership les-sons because she was once a distracted teenager who hated school. She wants CREW to be an open and trusting environ-ment. Test scores or grades are not part of the application process.

This year CREW received 50 applications, but only had 20 open spots. King looks for nothing in particular in ap-plicants and interviews aren’t interrogations that involve resume reading, but are thorough, comfortable conver-sation.

“I just want to know if they

are good kids and actually want to work,” King said.

After the application process, students conduct ice-breaking activities as they build the vital family relationship they share. One activity includes students holding a brick in their hand, representing baggage. Students then share their baggage with the entire group.

“Even the boys were openly crying.” King said.

King said that the Woodlawn area loves the teenage assis-tance.

“People are starting to invest more in Woodlawn. The area is really improving,” said Veronica Wiggins from Cornerstone School, a private school in Woodlawn. Community mem-bers are happy to see youth get off the streets and steer away from gang violence and drugs,

King said. Though students do not

openly express the impact of their volunteer work on their lives, King does notice the changes in their personali-ties and how they carry them-selves.

“Leadership and work should go hand in hand,” she said, “I want to instill respect and leadership in this group.”

These “unstable creatures,” King’s term for teenagers, are a bright stepping stone for Woodlawn’s future. Although this group is making an impact on the community, they cannot change Woodlawn for the bet-ter on their own.

“We can’t do this by our-selves,” King said.

“I can’t do this by myself. We need more organizations for the youth and the community.”

2

Tangible hope for a better tomorrowA look at Woodlawn’s C.R.E.W.

Photo by Ariel CochranMarie King talks with a student at the YWCA in Woodlawn.


By Shawna Bray

Shortly after arriving at school on May 2, 1963, Raymond Goolsby, a junior at Huffman High School in Birmingham, snuck out and hurried to be a part of something much bigger than he was.

He became part of the first group of children to pour out of 16th Street Baptist Church and into the streets to fight for civil rights in what would later be known as the Children’s Cru-sade.

“As a kid growing up I saw the things that I couldn’t attend or go to and I knew something, I knew it wasn’t right. I knew something wasn’t right,” Goolsby said.

Prior to that, he made his way to school and pondered why he was not treated the same as the white kids. Even at a young age, Goolsby knew he was not treated equally. The Civil Rights Move-ment and meeting The Rev. Dr. Martin Lutrher King, Jr. magni-fied his feelings and he knew he wanted to get involved.

“Well, I was kind of concerned because I wasn’t really all togeth-er,” Goolsby said. “But I met Dr. King, he came and stood right beside me just before we went out, and after he got through I had no doubt in my mind I was doing the right thing.”

The march, which started at the 16th Street Baptist Church, was planned to stretch 10 miles.

However, the first group barely made it across the street to Kelly Ingram Park — a whites only park at the time — before being attacked by fire hoses, dogs and police officers.

At the time, parents were scared to march because they would be fired from their jobs immediately. As a result, chil-dren stepped in to help their parents by marching.

Despite the childrens’ good intentions, some parents of the march-ers had mixed opinions about their children participating in

something so dangerous. “[My parents] didn’t say one

way or the other, but I think I surprised them by going,” Goolsby said. “I called my mother [and] she said, ‘I know where you are. I saw you on TV.’ She knew where I was and she

didn’t oppose to it per se.”

Goolsby’s role in the protest was to be a decoy so the other groups could make it downtown. But he was stopped by police and then jailed for five days. After his release, the senior class that year was denied their prom. At

an age when kids should be in-nocent and carefree, Goolsby and thousands of others like him silenced their fear to prove seg-regation would not be tolerated.

“When you see children marching … see that it would have not been successful had it not been the children’s march,” Goolsby said.

“When Bull Connor turned fire hoses and dogs on children, that got people’s attention, more than anything that had occurred before,” said Doug Jones, an at-torney who prosecuted two of the church bombers.

“The kids were taken to the street in a nonviolent way and Bull Connor put fire hoses and dogs on them to keep a segre-gated way of life,” he said. “It just was out of control.”

Just after that, U.S. President John Kennedy appeared on TV and made it clear that civil rights was a priority.

“I knew it was special, es-pecially as we went to jail and heard about the other thousands that were behind us,” Goolsby said. “And I knew from the movement meetings that we would attend, and the bombing that happened in Birmingham unsolved, that this was some-thing of great magnitude, you know, and that made us just that much more determined.”

The Children’s Crusade was one event that produced other 3

Children’s Crusade marchers look back

Photos by Shawna BrayA marker in front of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church remembers the Children’s Crusade. Below, a church door.

SEE CRUSADE PAGE 16


By Paris Coleman

On Sunday, Sept. 15, 1963, at 10:22 a.m. Sarah Collins Ru-dolph walked to the downstairs level of the 16th Street Baptist Church to gather her Bible and wait with the other girls, until they would be called to congre-gate.

She watched her sister bend towards one of the other girl’s sash and begin to tie it, un-aware that she will never again praise her God, or speak to her older sister.

The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church shook the Black community and helped to focus America’s eye on the civil rights movement in Birming-ham.

In the bombing, four young girls and two teenage boys were murdered by the blast, and 22 others were injured. Sarah, the fifth girl downstairs, survived the bombing.

However, she never regained sight in one of her eyes.

Even with partial sight, she would never see her sash-tying sister alive again. But soon, the nation would be watching Bir-mingham’s every action closely.

The African-American com-munity did not feel the same way. After the havoc at the 16th Street Baptist Church, most blacks were even more afraid to

live and be active in the area. But this wasn’t a gradually

growing fear anymore; it was a well of hysteria that sprang from the discrimination of rac-ism.

Tommie Rodgers, a volunteer at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, described her experi-ences as a child in Birmingham during these acts of violence.

“We were in church when we heard about the bomb-ing,” Rodgers said. “We were so scared. After that, we didn’t walk anywhere as much as we

did, but when we did walk, it was under grown up supervi-sion.”

Rodgers also said that she and the children around her were afraid to go to church and school. She remembered the Ku Klux Klan “riding up and down” her church’s street while wearing their white robes.

Before the church was bombed in September, there were multiple threats in the months before, according to Reverend John Cross, an activist that worked alongside

Reverend Shuttlesworth during this time.

Cross said that the Birming-ham police often intruded the church, claiming that there were bomb threats. He also said that the police pleaded with him to evacuate the church and end the sessions that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. held, so that the police could search the building for the bombs.

When the police searched the building, nothing was found.

“It happened just before it was time to preach,” Cross said. “I don’t know whether it was just one of those situations to harass us and make us a little jittery, or what it was.”

On the day of the incident, another bomb threat was made. Carolyn McKinstry received an anonymous phone call where someone said, “Two minutes.”

She says she had no idea that there were bomb threats earlier that year and that she didn’t even think about what it could mean.

She continued her weekly routine and, after what seemed like seconds, Carolyn heard what sounded like thunder. Then, glass and other objects began flying everywhere, and people started screaming for everyone to get down.

4

Time stands still:The day that made Bombingham

Photo by Shawna Bray16th Street Baptist church was a pivotal meeting point in the Civil Rights Movement before it was bombed. It also played a large role in the Children’s Crusade, as the starting point of the march. SEE BOMBING PAGE 16


5

One of the most taught pieces of literature comes from a letter written in a Birmingham jail cell. As the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. sought a way to rally the supporters of the Civil Rights Movement, he used scraps of paper to write the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

“The document was well-written and pub-lished internationally, and it’s very significant and helped the cause,” said Stacy Morgan, an American studies professor at the University of Alabama.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. held a demon-stration to support the Civil Rights Movement. Many local officials were outraged by these acts of protest. They arrested him and other activists for parading without a permit. Since King was known as being in charge for these demonstra-tions, he was put into solitary confinement. This was King’s 13th arrest.

While in his jail cell, he had no contacts, outside information or anything that involved communication with other blacks. Eight clergy-men described King’s demonstrations as unwise and untimely. However, they were non-violent and enticed more blacks to help the cause. As a result, King wrote a letter that was directed to these clergymen and their opinions. He advised them on the progress that had to take place to create change.

“It’s very unique to imagine him to deliver-ing these powerful words in such a dull space,” Morgan said.

In this letter, King wrote, “Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be

coworkers with God, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.” This letter not only touched the clergymen, but also young students, like Matthew Brown.

“Its influence has reached beyond the Civil Rights Movement to become a powerful religious and political argument for social justice and is required reading for history, philosophy, religion, political science, writing and rhetoric courses in colleges around the country,” Brown said.

Doug Jones, the lawyer who sought and ob-tained justice for the victims of the 16th Baptist Church bombing, said that the letter is an in-credible piece of literature. It explained the cause of the demonstrations, influenced a generation and responded to clergymen who criticized those non-violent acts

BirminghamBy C.J. Riggs

Letter from

Jailthe

Photo by Bettmann/CORBISThe Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Birmingham jail, 1967.

“I am in Birming-ham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far cor-ners of the Greco-Ro-man world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Mace-donian call for aid.”

– The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a letter to “fellow clergy-men” written while in the Birmingham Jail.


Alabama native Willie Tate won’t forget watching baseball great Jackie Robinson play in Orlando, Fla. in an exhibition game.

Far from a normal baseball game mea-sured by 2013 standards, in the early 1900s riots and racial chants were commonplace at a baseball game. Although there were some breakthroughs for these players, reality was the roadblock in this long, dark tunnel.

Blacks were still treated with little to no respect by the white community.

“Blacks couldn’t play in the big leagues without a fight,” said Tate about the hard-ships of being a Negro League baseball player. “When Jackie Robinson started playing for the Dodgers, it brought hope to the Negro league ball players.”

It would be later, when players like Satchel Paige and Jackie Robinson made the impossible, possible. They would break the color line in Ma-jor League Baseball.

Negro League Baseball teams provided hope during the Civil Righs Movements, and the Bir-mingam Black Barons were no exception.

As an all African-American team they earned respect from some in the community.

The Birmingham Black Barons played at Rickwood Field, the old-est baseball field in the US, sharing it with the Birmingham Barons, an all-white Minor League Baseball

team. Arguably the best

pitcher of all time, Black Baron’s player Leroy “Satchel” Paige was widely known throughout the U.S. and was drafted to the major league Cleve-land Indians on July 9, 1948 to join Jackie Robinson as one of the only black Major League Baseball players at the time.

Jim Robinson, a Negro League baseball player in the 1950s, described his experi-ence playing for the Kansas City Mon-archs.

“There were many hardships for us, not just us but all Negro League teams,” Robinson said. “It was hard to find a hotel

sometimes because they wouldn’t let us stay because we were black.”

Robinson was well known as the captain of the Kansas City Monarchs, and he was a starting infielder for the team.

“I had dreams of playing in the Major Leagues,” Robinson said. “I was just happy to play baseball because I had played

my entire life.” Eugene Gruggs, also a Negro League

Baseball Player in the 1950s, described some of the hardships he faced. As a start-ing pitcher for the Detroit Stars and the Kansas City Monarchs, he faced the same hardships as Robinson.

Playing in the Major Leagues was a dream of Gruggs , a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Gruggs said he is one of few pitchers that played in the Negro Leagues that are still alive.

“It was hard finding places to eat and stay,” said Gruggs. “Our Puerto Rican team-mate would have to go in and purchase our food because they wouldn’t serve us.”

At the time baseball was not a safe sport for African-Americans to play in the major leagues.

The Birmingham Black Barons stopped playing in 1963 when the Civil Rights Movement reached its peak. But the Birmingham Barons, a minor league team, had begun to play again as an integrated

6

Birmingham Black Barons:Breaking barriers

Photos and story By Kalin Tate

A peek inside Rickwood Field’s concession stand area shows the quaint, small ballpark feel of the old-fashioned place. Here fans can buy refreshments and view the starting lineup. Below, a sign shows ticket prices.

SEE BARONS PAGE 17


Walk, look, take in, move on. Time and time again, this is the typical “exhibit” rou-tine. Walk in, scan the room, find some-thing cool, take in that, and then move on.

Entering into a Civil Rights photo ex-hibit in The Birmingham News building, a visitor might expect nothing different. Yet one look around and history hops out of each frame. “I’m Going All The Way” is an exhibit of photographs made by Birmingham News photographers in 1963, many never pub-lished. The exhibit is hosted by al.com/The Birmingham News 50 years after King penned his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” and showcased a collection of photos docu-menting that year in Birmingham.

In one frame, three African-American teens are at a diner, smiling from ear to ear and enjoying each other’s presence. Typical photo, but upon further inspection, some-thing very vital about the photo jumps out.

In the background of the picture, sits two Caucasian waiters. With furrowed brows and angered faces, the waiters refuse to serve the African-American teens. This photo is a reflection of what Frank Couch’s

exhibit is all about. Born and raised in Birmingham, Ala.,

Couch is a multimedia journalist for Ala-bama Media Group and a photojournalist for The Birmingham News. His passion for photography began at a very young age with sibling rivalry.

As a Boy Scout, he frequently went camping with his father and older brother. While camping, his father would always encourage the two to take pictures, which became a competition to see who could take the best pictures. His older brother would always win, but this kick-started his love for photography.

Couch said he “enjoys the pleasure pictures bring people.” He believes a photographer is a “fly on the wall” ready to capture every vital moment. His most recent project is the Civil Rights Exhibit for the Birmingham News.

He said that this exhibit is impor-tant because it is a great portrayal of his city’s history. He said that the people in Birmingham need to know their past in order to fully grow and move forth for the future.

One of the best parts of putting together the exhibit was going back into the ar-chives knowing that the truth is better than anything that could possibly be made up, Couch said.

The photos in this exhibit were never published during the Civil Rights era. They were captured because the pho-tographers knew it was important, but felt it wasn’t important enough to talk about. Through this exhibit, Couch said that “publishing the unpublished” is very important for society. He also said that the photographers during that time pe-riod had the “nothing happened” mindset, which is why many of the photos were left on the cutting floor.

“People must know where they came from,” he explained.

7

Finally developed: Frank Couch revealed By Falyn Page

FRANK COUCH

Left: “I’m Going All The Way” is an exhibit of photographs made by Birmingham News photog-raphers in 1963, many were never published. The event, hosted by al.com/The Birmingham News 50 years after King penned his “Letter from Birming-ham Jail,” showcased a collection of photos documenting that year in Birmingham.


8

Three decades after the Civil Rights movement, when most Alabamians were content with letting sleeping dogs lie, U.S. Attorney Doug Jones felt that there was still unfinished business.

Thirty four years after the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, which killed four young girls, two of the four men re-sponsible were still walking free. The other two were dead. The injustice haunted Jones. As a friend of Chris and Maxine McNair, the parents of 11- year-old bombing victim

Denise, he felt compelled to bring them closure.

“It was my responsibility,” he said. “I felt a strong sense of community, and knowing the McNair family personally, I knew that I had to do this.”

In 1997, the year Barrack Obama was serving his first term in the Illinois Sen-ate, Jones was prosecuting the final two bombers.

“I was almost certain that I would win,” he said.

But a small part of him wondered if, like Atticus Finch, he was fighting a battle he was doomed to lose.

“You never know what your outcome is going to be,” Jones said. “You never know what your jury is thinking until you re-ceive your verdict.”

After spending hours in the courtroom

as a law student and later as a lawyer, Jones knew this first-hand. Jones skipped classes in law school to attend the trial of Robert Chambliss, the first of the four bombers to be convicted. Jones said watching then-Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley nail down the conviction, was an inspiration that stuck with him for the next 20 years.

The process of convicting the final two bombers, Thomas E. Blanton Jr. and Bobby Frank Cherry, took five years. The case was circumstantial, weakened by the deaths of witnesses, and the passage of 34 years.

Jones said he sweated the jury’s delibera-tion. When the verdict came in — guilty— with a life sentence in prison for each of the four lives lost, it underscored the point Jones made in his emotional closing argu-ment:

“It’s never too late for justice.”

ServingJustice

By Angela Flowers

My Life as a BCRI Tour Guide: By Nayirah MuhommadIt’s amazing how nervous one can get in

eight minutes. The only thing that sepa-rates you from a group is a projector. You hear faint voices singing “Bring Me A Little Water, Sylvie”.

While they are being enlightened, sweat begins to fill your palms and thoughts of messing up cloud your head. You begin to practice your introduction and how to speak properly.

Finally, as the movie ends and the projector screen rises, all of your fears are gone. The emotions culminate from be-ing a tour guide at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (BCRI).

Last year, I was given the opportunity to become a part of the Legacy Youth Leader-ship Program ( LYLP), a program at BCRI that gives teenagers in grades 9-12 the op-portunity to give tours at the institute. For as long as I can remember, I have visited BCRI.

During my sophomore year, my dad told

me about the program, but I was unsure about joining. Little did I know, my dad had already signed me up for LYLP. I didn’t realize until two days before the deadline, when he told me that I needed to write an essay for the application. Initially, I didn’t want to be in LYLP. I was afraid to com-mit to another extracurricular activity. At the time, I was involved with the school musical that spring. After the orientation, however, I had fallen in love with the idea of being a tour guide.

One of last summer’s highlights was go-ing on an all-expense paid trip to Washing-ton, D.C. All twelve of the LYLP students spent a week at George Washington Uni-versity’s Georgetown campus. We attended sessions at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

LYLP students were part of the 150 stu-dents who came from around the country. Of the many guest speakers in attendance, two of my favorite speakers were a Holo-

caust survivor and a teacher who helped begin the Arab Spring of Tunisia in 2010. My favorite memory was going to see the Washington Nationals and the New York Mets play. After the game, I met the Na-tionals’ star player, Bryce Harper.

When I tell people about the many adventures of being a tour guide, they’re stunned at the stories I tell. Being a young African-American female, I have the job of being a role model to my peers.

I can prove to them that history can actually be a fun subject to teach and there are many productive activities that we, as teenagers, can do. Being a tour guide, I’ve gained more respect from my elders.

People always ask me why I still give tours if I’m not being paid. If you truly love something, the reward is being able to share your gift with others.

Being able to inform the public about civil rights brings me joy and peace in thinking that history won’t repeat itself.


9

Close your eyes. Imagine a little girl. This little girl is trapped in a small room surrounded by other people who, like her, have been arrested. She is likely terrified. And she is only in there because she stood up for what she believed in.

Now imagine the man who put the little girl in that room. And he put her there only because he stood up for what he believed in.

Most people consider long-time Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene “Bull” Connor as evil, or at least unquestion-ably wrong. “The villain,” says Laura Anderson, archivist at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

“He is the excuse for lots of other people’s bigotry. He is just the ringleader.”

But others believe the most pivotal events of the Civil Rights Movement would not have transpired without him. His legacy may be for using intimidation tactics against non-violent activists, but his inadvertent contributions to end segregation cannot be overlooked.

“Dr. Martin Luther King and others have said Bull Connor may have been the best friend the Civil Rights Movement ever had,” said former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones. “Because of Bull Connor, people took notice.”

Jones was the prosecutor who reopened the case against two of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombers decades after the crime. He argues that Connor’s more extreme measures were pivotal to the Movement’s progress.

“If Bull Connor hadn’t acted the way he had, we don’t know if Birmingham would have had the same success.”

Connor was an influential member of his community who had, through Alabama politics, gained a great deal of power and was not shy about wielding it. Bull Connor (1897-1973) served as Commissioner of Public Safety in Birmingham from 1937-1952 and 1957-1963 and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention for the state of Alabama. A Ku Klux Klan member in his early 20s, Connor gained notoriety as a successful sports broadcaster in the 1920s and ‘30s. Connor’s popularity culmi-nated in a representative seat in the Alabama House, and he led

the famous 1948 Democratic National Convention southern states walkout that nearly cost Harry Truman his re-election.

During Birmingham protests in 1963, Bull Connor’s measures to defend segregation were notably violent. When the Freedom Riders stopped in Birmingham, Connor allowed a mob of the KKK to beat the riders with relative impunity for 15 minutes. And when asked why officers did not report to the scene, Con-nor said because it was Mother’s Day, officers were spending time with their moms. Perhaps most memorable, because of its horrific nature, were his actions in response to the Children’s Crusade — unleashing police dogs on nonviolent protesters, many of them children, and blasting them with fire hoses. These graphic events gave photographers and journalists an important tool to convey the gravity of what was happening in a way that stirred others to

The running The Legacy of Eugene “Bull” Connor

By Sam Ostrow

of the Bull:

Photo by Sam OstrowA statue inside Birmingham’s Kelly Ingram Park depicts the police brutality rampant during Eugene “Bull” Connor’s time as Birming-ham Commissioner of Public Safety.

BULL CONTINUED ON PAGE 16


01

The light brown awning beckons you in. Walls are filled with posters and concert flyers. Faded red velvet stairs lead you.

Upstairs it’s warm, friendly, and unpretentious. A string of flags hangs from the ceiling in the center of the store. Shelves of records and music memo-rabilia hug the walls. Near the entrance, an old-timey Coke machine spits out glass bottles. A couch with a blanket thrown over it gives Charlemagne Re-cord Exchange (CRE) a homey feel.

Each box of records is orga-nized by genre; customers will look up and stoop down in or-der to dig through all of them. Crates of dollar records abound on the floor. 45’s can be found in old fruit crates. A perma-nent garage sale, rummaging through CRE is essential to the full experience.

CRE opened in 1977 with Marian McKay, her brother Mike McKay, and Gary Bour-geois, who now owns Renais-sance Records nearby. McKay has been interested in music since a young age.

“Dad was into Big Band and

dance music, and then, you know, just growing up with the Beatles,” she said. “Then I moved to Mississippi and I heard ‘Ode to Billie Joe’ and I was just like, I have to have a guitar, and got a guitar, and so started playing music, I was about 10.”

McKay is a jazz vocalist and can be seen and heard around town when she performs with her band. While CRE has a small, carefully curated selec-tion of new releases – the latest from Daft Punk and Vampire Weekend, for example – cus-tomers come for the records.

“The sound quality, the for-

mat, the art form, it seems that albums are more collectable whereas the CD doesn’t really bring you anything aestheti-cally pleasing.” Among McKay’s most treasured records are autographed Sam Cooke and Bo Diddley records.

The records come from cus-tomers selling or trading them. The limited retail space forces McKay to only take in rarer records, which makes for an eclectic and diverse inventory. She periodically donates items that have been in the store for a while. While CRE has been in Five Points South for more than 35 years, the neighborhood has changed. A fire damaged the Studio Arts Building in 1986.

The Waffle House used to be a motorcycle/biker bar.

“I used to think, ‘I’m going to cross the street and walk on the other side’ when I approached the bar… It was a little scary.” Charlemagne also underwent renovations in the 1980’s and people thought the store was closed.

Now, physical sales of the music have picked up, despite the rise of MP3 downloads. Sales of vinyl records have gone up, and there has been a grow-ing interest in this medium, especially among younger consumers.

Releases, often in limited edition, are exclusively made for Record Store Day, an an-nual celebration of independent record stores in April.

“Every year, it’s been growing, we doubled what we did last year,” says McKay. According to employee Jubal Dalzell, the Bob Dylan 7” box set and the reissue of the White Stripes’ El-ephant were both popular items that day. Dalzell has been a loyal customer at CRE for more than a decade before coming in

Birmingham’s Record Exchange

CharlemagnePhotos and story by Charlotte Burnod

CRE, see next page


11

When being expelled just three days after starting college, why not give up? Autherine Lucy, the first African American at the University of Alabama (UA), was determined to give society a reason why.

This year UA celebrates the 50th anni-versary of integration of the school in 1963 – known in history books as The Stand in The Schoolhouse Door. Vivian Malone and James Hood successfully enrolled with the 8,257 other students attending the university in 1963.

But the student outside of the dash be-tween 1963-2013 is Lucy, who was accepted in 1952 but not admitted into UA until 1956. Even though she only attended UA for three days before her expulsion, her acceptance is not included in the 50-year time span cele-brated this year. George Terrell Garrett, 85, a resident of Tuscaloosa, Alabama remembers when the university was first integrated.

“It was almost causing riots,” he said. “The reaction was very bad and unpleasant.”

Lucy’s experience was anything but ordi-nary with her three-day stay at the Univer-sity of Alabama. More than 2,000 people gathered — UA students, the surrounding community, and members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) — to protest her enrollment.

By the end of her third day, UA officials suggest-

ed transportation by car to ensure her safety. When walking to the car, she was showered with rotten eggs, insults and threats. It was then that the University’s Board of Trustees voted to expel Lucy to make sure the disrup-tive behavior on campus would stop.

“The National Guard made a televised announcement and asked residents to stay away from UA to protect students entering the school,” Garrett said. “Clearly, the warn-ing was not taken by some.”

Lucy and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People issued a complaint against the university for helping organize the mob that kept Lucy from at-tending class. The complaint was withdrawn, but Lucy’s expulsion was still in tact.

Lucy later returned to campus as Au-therine Lucy Foster and graduated in 1992 with a master’s degree in education. Though 50 years is being celebrated, it was Foster’s enrollment on Feb. 1, 1956 that jumpstarted the integration movement for the university. This event would lead to more enrollments and official integration seven years later.

Lucy paved the pathway for Malone and Hood in 1956.

Today, among the 33,602 enrolled, 12 percent are African American, or 4,032 students.

Jim Oakley, a faculty member at The Uni-versity of Alabama, was a student during the time of integration of the school.

“The school is a lot better,” Oakley said. “A lot more diverse. It’s overall a better place.”

Outside of the dash: Autherine Lucy Foster sometimes gets lost in the shadow of the schoolhouse doors Through the doors

one day, when CRE needed help. “I’ve been trapped here ever since,” joked Dalzell.

Alabama has a rich musical his-tory and has produced artists such as Percy Sledge, Nat King Cole, Sun Ra and more recently Alabama Shakes. McKay has noticed that tourists come in asking for music from Alabama to bring back home. Closer to home, the Grenadines and singer-songwriter Gabriel Tajeu are just a few players in Birmingham’s musical scene.

“I was playing [Tajeu] and I sold three records in a day,” says McKay. “He brought us ten [copies] two weeks ago, and we sold five of them already,” chimed in Dalzell.

Birmingham is making a name for itself as a music destination, especially with a growing presence of music venues such as WorkPlay and the Bottletree.

“You meet a lot of interesting people. People who are different,” said Sunny Oden, another employee. “It’s comforting to know that everyone is a little weird, even those who try hard not to show it.”

McKay is thankful for the support from the community. “We couldn’t do it without our customers.”

1963-2013 By: Taylor Garrett

CRE, continued


It is summertime in Alabama, and the sticky, humid heat is engulfing. The absent breeze leaves the trees standing motionless. As the sun’s rays beat down, they absorb every bit of energy in the air.

Luckily, Steel City Pops has the solu-tion to rejuvenate Birmingham.

Open since May 2012, Steel City Pops has already made a lasting impression on Birmingham. Inspired by a similar shop in Nashville called Las Paletas, the Watkins family wanted to show Birmingham the value of real Popsicles. They put together a business plan and have worked ever since to get their shop up and running. Their name, Steel City, represents Birmingham’s signifi-cance in the industrial age.

The owner, Jim Watkins, works hard to come up with new Popsicle flavors for the frozen pops, which are $2.75 each. The store categorizes flavors into two groups — fruity and creamy. On the fruity side some flavors are raspberry lemon to cucumber lime to guava. Creamy Popsicle flavors range from caramel to strawberry cream to avocado. Steel City Pops aims to bring original flavors to their customers. Their most popular flavors are strawberry, blood orange, coffee, chocolate and buttermilk.

“The creative process is actually the most fun part of the job and so it is always easy to come up with new ideas. Sometimes the hardest part is finding the correct texture and taste that we desire,” Watkins said.

In the small but welcoming shop in Homewood, visitors can watch the frozen treats being made with large molds from overseas.

“We mix up the ingredients, then we put it in some machines that we have gotten from overseas that freeze them very quick-ly,” Watkins said. “Then, we remove them from molds and package them by hand.”

The process of mixing up the ingredients includes crushing real fruit and blending it together. Their featured raspberry lemon is filled with raspberry seeds from the origi-nal fruit pieces, which gives the Popsicles a refreshingly real taste.

Matt Collins, a student at the University of Alabama, described his first experience at Steel City Pops as “delicious,” and espe-cially enjoyed the raspberry flavor.

It tasted very good, and the atmosphere was great,” Collins said.

Steel City Pops currently has two loca-tions, Homewood and The Summit. Their pops can also be found at The Pantry in Crestline Village. The business is now pre-paring for their new location in Tuscaloosa, which will be coming soon to the Strip.

“These are stores that we own and we are making everything here and taking it there so we feel pretty good about [our move to Tuscaloosa],” Collins said.

The owners of Steel City Pops also want to give back. They work with a charity called NeverThirst, which has the goal to provide clean water to people in India and Africa by installing wells. They aid this goal by giving 100% of all their bottled water

profits to the charity. After just a year of business Steel City Pops has already donated enough proceeds to complete one well, and another one is currently being installed.

“Our next well project will be a very involved production well in Gulu, Uganda [to] provide clean drinking water, toilet facilities and irrigation for their agricul-tural needs,” Collins said. “I always knew from before the company began that we would do something significant to give back,” Watkins said. “I know the folks in-volved with Neverthirst and have complete trust in the way they run their charity.”

21

SteelCityPops

Photos and story by Shawna Bray


After the doors were opened Story and photo By James Haynes

Passing through tall Bermuda grass growing around a building at Stillman Col-lege in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, a vistor might notice that it needs to be mowed soon.

A short drive away at the University of Alabama, the pristinely-cut, freshly-cut grass grows, and sticks to the tennis shoes of visitors to that campus.

Stillman College and UA both have dis-tinct, yet intertwined, histories. Fifty years ago, Governor George Wallace famously blocked the Foster Auditorium doors at Alabama. Meanwhile at Stillman, where the doors had always been open, the civil rights movement was gaining increasing momentum among the students at the all-black liberal arts college. Well, almost all-black.

Sara Smith, a white college student, chose to attend Stillman College as part of a broader interest in anthropology and race relations study. On the advice, and with the help of, Chaplain James Joseph at her California college, Smith arrived in Tusca-loosa for the spring semester at Stillman in 1965.

“I was trying to be part of something,” she said.

In her semester spent at Stillman, Smith said she saw a high level of mutual support in the student body, and also spoke to this community at other histori-cally black colleges and universities (HC-

BUs), such as Tuskegee University. Eddie Thomas has been in Tuscaloosa much longer than a college semester. The 1962 Stillman graduate who earned his doctor-ate at UA has worked in education for most of his life and is now vice president for external affairs at the college.

Thomas said Stillman has a “sense of belonging.” He said that when Vivian Malone, along with James Hood, became the first black student to enroll at Alabama, she sometimes left the stressful environ-ment and came on Stillman’s campus to seek a safe haven.

“When the pressure got on Vivian, we would bring her on campus, a peaceful climate,” Thomas said. Malone found more than just a safe haven at Stillman, as it turned out: she later married Mack Arthur Jones, a Stillman graduate.

Stillman wasn’t sealed off from the civil rights movement, though. One Stillman student, Nellie Hester, had a Rosa Parks

experience on one of the Stillman college buses around 1963. When she sat in the white-only section protesting segregation, Thomas said, “that brought some students into the movement. Smith also got in-volved in the local civil rights movement; she recounted participating in a demon-stration in Selma with about 60 other white marchers the Saturday before “Bloody Sunday,” recalling jeering white protestors who couldn’t tolerate them, and who even spit and threw garbage on them for taking a stand.

“[As] a marcher, I looked out into a wall of angry people,” she said.

Behind the mocking white crowd, a large black group began singing spirituals in support of Smith and the white marchers.

“It made the words of the freedom songs come to life,” Smith said. “The march was scary for me, and a few people did get hurt, but I also found that day as one of the turn-ing points in my life, for knowing that I want to stand up for truth and justice, and to not walk away from things because of being afraid.”

Now, 50 years later, a majority of African-American students choose to attend predominately white institutions (PWIs. Both Thomas and Smith agree that HBCUs, however, are not obsolete.

“There is absolutely a role for HCBUs,” Smith said. “There’s a sense of community, it’s less isolating…[It’s] completely different at other schools…I can see it.”

By Kelly Royster

From divided to united, the musical selection of the early 1960s was segregated based upon race. African-American musi-cians of the 1960s faced hardships of being

disrespected, neglected, and misunderstood. With the motivation to move forward

from artists starting with Stevie Wonder all the way to The Temptations, support came from Motown Records, founded by Barry Gordy Jr. Motown records supported

the dreams of both the individuals and groups of black musicians.

For more on this story, listen to the full audio project at http://uamjw2013.word-press.com/2013/06/22/the-movement-to-wards-multicultural-music/.

Musics moves to multiculturalism: The sounds of Civil Rights

31


By Cypress Champion

Sunday mornings in the South were the most segregated hours in the week. September 15, 1963 changed things worldwide and at the 16th Street Bap-tist Church, a prominent black church in Birmingham.

The deaths of Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair impacted the lives of community and their surroundings. In all there were four deaths and 22 injuries.

The then and now of the bomb-ing did not stop the church worshipers at all. The bombing helped pull and draw all of the nation’s attention to the struggle of the Civil Rights Movement.

Doug Jones is a Birmingham lawyer who assisted in the prosecution of the bombing trial itself.

He said that the church was a focal point for Civil Rights activities. School aged children were organized for marches and became a symbol of the efforts of the protest of the demonstra-tions. The children soon became targets of the Klan because they were the main focal point of the movement.

Jones said that the bombing of the church was very powerful, in fact so powerful that it blew through 18 inches of concrete. He said he believes that a strong element of justice and injustice was served.

The church is still open and the bathroom where the girls were killed is now a kitchen. Greg Townsend was just three years old when the bombing occurred.

He remembers being one of the few families with a television, causing others families to come and gather to follow the news.

He remembers looking back and seeing the water hoses, big tanks, dog attacks and angry faces.

Townsend is a member of the church, and a deacon with more than 22 years of service.

He said that he is very honored that the struggles and sacrifices that the Af-rican Americans went through brought him where he is today.

“Looking back 50 years from now, the bombing not only shook the build-ing but the foundation of the com-munity as well,” Townsend said. “A lot of people and families left and haven’t came back since ’63.”

The church gets busloads of wor-shipers every Sunday. Before the bombing, a majority of members were African American. While the majority is still African American, white mem-bers have also joined.

Tours are available Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Call 205-251-9402 to schedule an appointment.

Deadly Sunday Birmingham Bombing changed lives

By Ashley James

The Freedom Riders came into existence due to the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) who planned a Journey of Reconciliation. This ex-pressed segregated seats of interstate passengers were unconstitutional. The plan fell apart and was shut down. After President John F. Kennedy was elected for office, CORE proposed a new Journey of Reconcili-ation called the Freedom Ride.”The purpose was the same: a group of both blacks and whites would board buses preparing to travel to the South. This time, the whites would be seated in the back and the blacks in the front. The Freedom Ride left from Washington DC on May 4, 1961 and were supposed to arrive in New Orleans on May 17. On Mother’s Day, the Riders separated into two groups to travel through Ala-bama. The bus that went through Anniston was met by a mob and later firebombed. The second bus was met by a mob in Birmingham, and the rid-ers were severely beaten. Bull Connor, Birmingham’s Public Safety Com-missioner, said that no officers were present be-cause of the holiday. It was later discovered that the FBI knew what would happen that day and that the police stayed away on purpose. Gov. John Patter-son was unapologetic. “When you go somewhere looking for trouble, you usually find it . . . . You just can’t guarantee the safety of a fool and that’s what these folks are, just fools,” he said. The citizens who participated in the ride inspired civil rights acts all throughout the South. It not only called attention to the public on the complica-tions of segregation on interstate buses, but to the

Riding for

14

freedom


51

Director’sNote

They call Birmingham The Magic City because of its rapid early growth when it was

founded. It has certainly always been magic for me.As my home city, Birmingham – at an early age – instilled in me a love for diversity. It

was in my pilot-program elementary school, EPIC, that I learned about multicultural-ism. White, black, Asian, Hispanic, rich, poor, deaf, blind and differently abled – we were a melting pot of students from various parts of the city. I didn’t realize it at the time, but those early experiences set the trajectory of my life.

This is my 5th year directing the Multicultural Journalism Workshop, held on the University of Alabama campus and run by the Department of Journalism. This year 16 students were selected from across the country to come visit Alabama for 10 days and get a crash course in print, multimedia and online reporting, as well as shooting photography and video.

Each year the Multicultural Journalism Workshop travels to a different part of Alabama and produces a newspaper and website. This year Birmingham was chosen, as that city marks the 50th anniversary of events that catapulted the Civil Rights Movement into the national spotlight. In Tuscaloosa the week before the MJW students arrived, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of integra-tion of our university.

Co-director Tara Bullock and I couldn’t have asked for a more inquisitive and naturally curious bunch of students this year. We told them that many students go into journalism because they love to write, but the best reporters also like to listen, a skill this group mastered.

This is a special year for the Multicultural Journalism Program. Not only do we celebrate 30 years as a program and one of the oldest workshops of its kind in the country, but this is also the first year we had a child of a former MJW participant in the program.

Our founders – Marie Parsons, Marian Huttenstine and Ed Mullins – created a legacy. It is on their shoulders that these students stand – a proud group of MJW alumni worldwide, involved in me-dia and other careers, giving back to young people as they move forward in their own careers.This program has grown as fast as The Magic City, and its influence will continue to grow, thanks to its supporters.

Meredith Cummings June, 2013

Cummings

Bullock

BullockCheck out more content on our website at http://uamjw2013.wordpress.com/

The Class of 2013 – Multicultural Journalism Workshop at the site of the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door


activities within the Civil Rights Move-ment. The children’s endless bravery helped people realize how far the country had strayed from justice.

“Well I think [the Children’s Crusade] had a direct impact [on the movement]. Direct,” Goolsby said.

Through such a painful story, lies a happy ending.

“When you see today people around the world who march for freedom… and they are singing freedom songs — ‘We Shall

Overcome’ — that comes right back to Bir-mingham, there is no question,” Jones said, “that heroics and courage of the children who faced down Bull Connor can never be underestimated.”

“I still think we have a long way to go … It’s still a struggle, but we’ve made great strides,” Goolsby said. “I’ve come to realize that there are white people just as supportive of us being integrated. Back in the day all we said was we don’t want any-body to give us nothing, something given to you is not worth having. You need to be given the opportunity, that’s all,” Goolsby

said. “That’s why I got three sons and I tell them study hard, get your lessons, and when you’ve got the credentials you can go anywhere, you know you have opportunity to go anywhere you want to go.”

The Civil Rights Movement will always be part of Goolsby’s story, and all he has to do is take a look around to be reminded how far Birmingham has come.

“I live right across from the park… and I can stand at my window and see all this history all over here 50 years later,” Gools-by said, “but I think that we made tremen-dous progress, tremendous.”

CRUSADE FROM PAGE 3

BOMBING FROM PAGE 3

The church had been bombed.The sound echoed throughout the sur-

rounding area. It was only after the survivors were

rescued and smoke had cleared that they realized the damage. At the front of the church, one window was completely shat-

tered, whereas on the west facing side, the mosaic of Jesus was almost untouched.

Rodgers recalled her reaction to seeing the church after it was bombed, saying that she “felt that they were tearin’ up God’s church,” and that “God was displeased.”

She said this because the only part of the stained glass that was blasted away was Jesus’ face. It was completely missing from

the picture.The day that created “Bombingham,” will

echo throughout history, just as the de-struction of the 16th Street Baptist Church echoed throughout Birmingham. And though Jesus’ face is back where it be-longs, the memory of how it was originally removed will be a stain that can be covered up, but never washed away.

action. The Children’s Crusade cast the city into the global spotlight, where the im-ages of fire hoses and dogs outraged people around the world. This attention reinvigo-rated the civil rights movement after it had faltered after Martin Luther King, Jr. and his colleagues failed in their efforts to enforce desegregation in Albany, Ga.

“That was really the tipping point in a tipping year,” Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Civil Rights historian Taylor Branch told the PBS program “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly.” Thanks to the pub-licity of Birmingham’s summer of 1963, Connor became the face of bigotry in the segregated South, and was an easy figure to hate — and to rally against. By providing a

common enemy for activists, he galvanized their fight for Civil Rights.

“He was a complete bigot,” said Veronica Wiggins, director of operations at Corner-stone Christian School in Birmingham. “One of the worst people this city had pro-duced. We have pictures of him hanging in the church that burned down next door, Woodlawn United Methodist Church, and those need to be taken down. Now.”

The attributes that made Connor so hated, may have also been those which were most helpful in furthering Civil Rights efforts.

“I think that Bull Connor was not a very bright man, and had no clue what he was doing and [going] up against,” Jones said. “He was acting out of emotion and bigotry, and it played right into the hands of Dr.

King and Reverend Shuttlesworth and oth-ers.”

Most people agree Bull Connor may have not been the best person, but he was a necessary evil. Without him, the Civil Rights movement may not have succeeded. In defense of the institution he ardently believed in, he contributed to its undoing. After his actions in response to the Free-dom Riders and the Children’s Crusade, he was ousted by the city government from his position as Commissioner of Public Safety, through a ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court. Anderson said the com-plicity of the community is what kept Con-nor in office.

“This man had such tight control on Birmingham that they had to change the government just to get rid of him.”

BULL FROM PAGE 9

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team after a three-year suspension giving blacks and other minorities a chance to play professional baseball. The tension in the baseball stadium in minor and major leagues still existed, but more people adjusted to a diverse atmosphere.

The Barons moved from Rickwood Field to Hoover, Ala. in 1987 to play at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. The Barons gained attention in 1994 when Chicago Bulls NBA legend Michael Jordan was signed to the team. Jordan brought over 900,000 fans nationwide to the Hoover field in one season. He was interviewed by international journal-ists and changed the way fans looked at

the Barons. The Barons moved back to Birmingham in 2013 to play in the new baseball park, Regions Field. On April

10, 2013, fans gathered to watch the team play on opening day at the new field. During each Barons season, the Barons play a “throwback” game at Rickwood Field in vintage uniforms to pay tribute to baseball history in all professional baseball leagues. Al-though events such as the throwback game recognize the players, some feel that more needs to be done to ac-knowledge their contributions.

“I feel that Alabama should have a Negro League Baseball Museum,” said Kenon Brown, assistant profes-sor for public relations at the Uni-versity of Alabama. “Even if we can’t

have something physical, the players need more recognition.”

BARONS FROM PAGE 6

The Birmingham Black Barons painted pennants are on display inside Rickwood Field.

By Joni Williams

It is 1963 Tuscaloosa, and a crowd gath-ers at Foster Auditorium. Two young Afri-can Americans walk to the entrance of the building, but they are blocked. A man, said by a nearby reporter to be George Wallace, is standing in the doorway, refusing them entrance.

The two students fighting their way to the door are James Hood and Vivian Malone Jones, both residents of Alabama. Hood and Jones were both furthering their education at the University of Alabama af-ter the federal district court ordered UA to accept them. Jones had previously attended the Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University in Huntsville, while Hood at-tended Clark University in Atlanta.

On June 11, 1963, after a call from General Henry Graham, the two students walked through the doors of the Foster Auditorium, creating a pathway for many other young African Americans to fol-low. The students paved the way for the integration of the UA. Students like Thad-

deus Fitzpatrick, an African-American UA graduate, are thankful for their predeces-sors.

“Vivian Malone and James Hood’s cour-age under the ratio of Alabama can be seen in the same regard as that of Rosa Parks,” Fitzpatrick said. “Without them, we’d still be fighting for the same right to go to school as white people.”

Jones was the first African American to graduate from the University of Alabama in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts in business management. Hood later returned to UA in 1995 to obtain his doctorate and gradu-ated in 1997 with a Ph.D. By this time, George Wallace’s heart had softened to Af-rican Americans, and he had even planned on presenting Hood’s diploma to him, but couldn’t due to illness

After college, both Hood and Jones both went on to work in civil rights. Jones worked in the civil rights division in the U.S. Department of Justice, serving as a research analyst. Hood was a civil rights activist and also served as chairman of public safety services in Mobile.

On Nov. 3, 2011, The University of Ala-bama held the dedication of Malone-Hood Plaza. Guests of honor were Autherine Lucy, the first African American to enroll in the University of Alabama in 1956, the now late James Hood, and the children of the late Vivian Malone Jones. Jones’ chil-dren thanked the University for the cer-emony and dedication, Lucy was thankful for the clock dedicated to her, and Hood left the crowd with a Tim Duncan quote: “Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best.”

Before the closing of the dedication pro-gram, Coresa Hogan gave a tear-jerking, heartfelt thank you to the guests of honor.

” I am here today because you were here yesterday.”

Fitzpatrick’s Bachelor of Arts degree, earned 50 years after the stand at the school house door, was made possible by Jones and Hood.

“Given that it’s the anniversary, and that I just graduated, I am especially grateful,” he said.

Students break barrier, pave way for today’s UA students

17


Contributors

81

Angela Flowers, a 16-year-old resident of Ozark,

Ala., attends Carroll High School. Angela has been interested in journalism every since she saw her

biggest mentor, Demetria McClenton, on her home-town news station. In the fall, Angela will work as a co-anchor for her school broadcast station, Eagle News. After completing

high school, Angela plans to attend Johnson C. Smith University and double ma-jor in broadcast journalism

and telecommunications and minor in theatre.

Ashley James is a rising sophomore at Gadsden City High School. She is the JV

cheer captain and plays varsity soccer. She is a member or the Foreign Language Club, Key Club, and First Priority. She is a proud

Christian and participates in her praise dance ministry at her church, Greater Ebenezer. She enjoys photography and

editing videos and plans to attend Alabama University to pursue her dreams.

C.J. Riggs is a senior at Hill-crest High School in Tusca-

loosa, Ala. He is a member of the National Honor Society.

While joining the Journalism Club and Drama Club, he

earned a spot in the Interna-tional Thespian Society. He won Best Anchor Award on

PATS-TV, Best Male Actor in a Monologue, and Outstand-

ing Junior of the Year. At Hillcrest, he is known as the main news/sports/entertain-ment anchor. C.J. aspires to

be a professional actor.

Raquelle Royster is a 16-year-old rising senior at Henrico High School and Highland Springs Technical Center for Radio Broadcasting and Journalism. She was born in New Jersey and raised in Richmond, Va. Kelly plays volleyball for the varsity and AAU travel team and serves as junior class vice-president. She hopes to pursue a career in advertising. Kelly plans to dig deeper into not only marketing, but into journalism as a whole. Kelly hopes MJW will help her strive to become a better journalist and not only learn how to write, but listen.

Sam Ostrow is a senior at Memphis University School in Mem-phis, Tenn. He is a member of National Honor Society, Mu Alpha

Theta Honor Society and Quill and Scroll Society. He won the Jefferson Award for Community Service and Leadership and is

captain of the varsity foil fencing team, who the state championship four years in a row. He is the viewpoints editor for his school newspaper, The Owl’s Hoot, and is Co-Editor-in-Chief

for his school’s literary magazine, The MUSE. He hopes to work in government and become a senator.

Charlotte Burnod is a senior at the Awty International School in Houston, Texas. She is the Editor in Chief of

the Rampage, the student newspaper, as well as a DJ of a weekly music shift at KTRU Rice Radio. In addition, she

works part-time at Cactus Music, an independent record store, which is where she spends

most of her paychecks. A proud Houstonian, Charlotte is also French and Taiwanese

through her parents. She hopes to major in journalism, education, sociology, urban studies… or something else

altogether. Who knows what the future will bring?

Falyn Page is a senior at Episcopal High School in Bellaire, Texas. She is an aspiring broadcast journalist and hopes to one day become a well-known, respected news anchor. She is very active at school and in her church community. She is the captain of the var-sity cheerleading team, a member of step team, an acolyte leader, a Senior Homilist, a lector guild, a member of Diversity In Action and a communications leader for the Students of Service Club. Falyn is also one of the head anchors for her schools new broadcast TV station, KEHS TV. She also is the head anchor at her church’s teen broadcasting station, Outbreak TV. Falyn is passionate about this field and prays for God’s blessings to continue to rain down on her throughout her future career.

Ariel Cochran is a 17-year-old student at Lee High School in Huntsville, Ala. She

loves to write, draw and travel. She enjoys learning about other cultures and dreams of traveling east. A left-handed Sagittar-ius, Ariel likes to learn about people and their stories. Her life goal is to end skin tone prejudice in the black community.


19

Cypress Champion is a 14-year-old resident of Lebanon, Tenn. She’s a rising sophomore at

Lebanon High School. Cypress plans to continue studying her interest in journalism and build-ing her experience and knowledge. Her dream

is to become a broadcast journalist.

Nayirah Muhammad is a senior at John Carroll Catholic High School in

Birmingham, Ala. She plans to work in sports journalism or

museum studies. MJW has been a life-changing experience and is help-

ing her to figure out what her future holds.

James Haynes is a rising senior at Excalibur Christian School

in Madison, Ala. A home schooled student, James is re-

porter and editor for his school paper, the Excalibur Times. He has also contributed pieces to his local paper, the Cullman

Times and runs and maintains a baseball card-centric blog. When not writing, he enjoys

spending time with his family of nine, reading good books,and following college and pro sports (except cup stacking).

This is the most he's ever writ-ten about himself in the third

person.

Joni Williams is an aspiring journalist from Marietta, Georgia. She is a rising junior at Sprayberry High School

Ever since elementary school she has had a very avid interest in writing and news broadcasting. Other than being interested in writing and journalism, Joni also

enjoys singing and has played saxophone for six years.

As a proud sports fanatic, Kalin Tate has the aspirations to become a professional sports reporter. She is a rising senior at the Shaw Mass Communications Academy in Columbus, Georgia. Kalin is a member of the National Spanish Honor Society, the Tri-M Music Honor Society and is the senior class secretary. She has attended journalism camps at CNN and the University of Georgia. Two of her best accom-plishments are attending this camp and receiving the highest leadership award from the Steve and Marjorie Harvey Foundation. In the fall of 2014 Kalin hopes to attend the University of Georgia, University of Alabama, or Georgia State University to major in broadcast journalism. Always on top of every sports headline and major championship games, Kalin is determined to become the Oprah Winfrey of sports television.

Paris Coleman is a young Mobilian who loves to act, sing, model, and do anything entertaining. He is a rising senior in Murphy High School’s Honors Program. He is the president of the Flava ENT Inc.

and Theta Crew dance team and is a member of the Elite Chapter of the Mobile Kappa Leadership Development League, Team Focus, Bel Air Mall’s Teen Board, Crittenton Youth Services Inc.’s am-

bassador program and Mobile Writer’s Guild. He is also a member of Murphy High School’s Renais-

sance Club, Mentors Association, Musical Theater, Advanced Chorus and Advanced Drama. He has

recently been recognized as a state finalist for Walter Trumbauer’s Theater Festival and a news anchorman for the Mobile County Public School

System. His favorite areas of journalism are broad-cast and creative writing. He plans to double major

in broadcast journalism and clinical psychology at either Auburn University or the University of Alabama for undergrad and attend the Harvard

Kennedy School for journalism.

Taylor Garrett is a recent graduate of Hillcrest High School. She has lived in Tuscaloosa, Ala. for seven years and plans to attend Shelton State Community College. Taylor hopes to continue col-lege in California after her time at Shelton. She wants to pursue a career in broadcast journalism as a film editor. She recently completed internship in Las Vegas, Nev. with Evenflow Enter-tainment. She helped select clips for a comedy reality show. She is honored to be apart of MJW and hope to get a great experience from this program.

Shawna Bray recently graduated from Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora, Ill. She was part of the first newspaper class at

her school to transition to an online paper. In the fall, she will be attending the University of Alabama on a Presidential Scholar-ship. She plans to major in print journalism or public relations

with a minor in music. Shawna has had a passion for music and writing for as long as she can remember. Words, in many forms,

have always spoken to her. Although Shawna is not quite sure where she fits into journalism, she hopes to combine her love of writing and music to give to others what words have given

her—purpose. After graduation, she dreams of living in NYC or Chicago and having a wonderful family to share her life with.

Roll Tide!

The Multicultural Journalism Program would not be possible without the following financial supporters

And thank you to the following for their time and support

The MJP Journal is produced by the Multicultural Journalism Workshop participants. The workshop is offered each summer to a select group of outstanding high school students with an interest in media in a multicultural society. This program is a service provided by the Department of Journalism at University of Alabama in cooperation with the Alabama Scholastic Press Association.

jn.ua.eduaspa.ua.edu02

thank you

al.comThe Crimson White

Dr. Loy Singleton, Dean, CISDr. Jennifer Greer, Chair, Department of Journalism

Paul Wright and the Office of Student MediaMarie Parsons, ASPA Director Emeritus

Diane Shaddix and the C&IS Graduate ProgramDepartment of Communication Studies

Department of Telecommunication and FilmDepartment of Advertising and Public Relations

Taylor ArmerGreg Goldstein

Krista James

The Birmingham NewsBirmingham MagazineThe Mobile Press RegisterThe Huntsville TimesThe Tuscaloosa News Dr. George DanielsCrechale StevensCecilia HammondBrooke CarboKatie AcklinTara BullockPamela BanksBrett HudsonEugene Berry

Thank you to contributors of the Multicultural Journalism Program endowment:The Estate of John Brooken Gaines

and Marci and Louis Henna Jr.

Alabama Broadcasters AssociationBoone Newspapers, Inc.

UA Center for Community Based PartnershipsUA College of Communication and Information Sciences

Alabama Press AssociationDow Jones News FundUA Department of JournalismSelma Times-JournalMercedes-Benz Endowment


Date post:	12-Mar-2016
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MJP Journal 2013

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