Haleyville native Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. played a crucial role in shaping civil-rights law in America. Johnson’s legal decisions desegregated schools in Alabama and buses in Montgomery, eliminated the [more]

Benjamin Turner was an entrepreneur, business executive, civic leader, and legislator. Born into slavery, Turner became the first African American Representative from Alabama elected to the U.S. Congress. He founded [more]

General Joseph Wheeler served as the commander of cavalry for the Confederate Army of Tennessee during the Civil War, then went on to a career as a member of Congress [more]

James Alexander Bryan, better known as Brother Bryan, was a well-loved pastor of Third Presbyterian Church in Birmingham. He was an outspoken supporter of racial reconciliation. He is best remembered [more]

David Moniac was born near Pinchona Creek in present-day Montgomery County. He was of mixed Creek Indian and white ancestry and a grand-nephew of Creek leader Alexander McGillivray. He was [more]

The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was the first house of worship for African Americans in Birmingham. Throughout the 1960s, the church was a center of black activism and a staging [more]

Birmingham native Virginia Foster Durr was a constant presence in progressive Alabama politics and the movement for civil rights in the second half of the twentieth century. In the early [more]

Alabama born and educated, Hazel Brannon Smith owned and edited four Mississippi weekly newspapers during the 1950s and 60s. She spoke out against racial violence and intimidation and in support [more]

The Alabama Department of Archives and History was founded in 1901, becoming the nation’s first publicly funded, independent state archives agency. The Archives identifies, preserves, and makes accessible records and [more]

The World war II era Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American pilots in U.S. military service. Because Tuskegee was the only training facility for black pilots in the United [more]