When I was Board Chair of Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (now BBA), in 2005, we hired an economic development consultant.
He flew to town the night before our first meeting and stayed at the Tutwiler Hotel. While sitting at the bar that evening he engaged in conversation with one of our locals. Continue reading The Birmingham story we never expected to tell
Today’s guest columnist is Charles Morgan III.
The day after the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, on September 15th, 1963 – my father, Charles Morgan Jr., gave a speech to the Young Men’s Business Club in Birmingham, Ala. Continue reading My family was forced to leave Birmingham
Today’s guest columnists are Michael Wilson & Charity Jackson.
Charter school application denied.
Appeal to the state commission denied.
A new application, this time written directly to the state commission, denied again.
Appeal the denial, finally victorious. Continue reading It shouldn’t be this difficult to help harassed and bullied students
A friend from Mountain Brook recently sent me an article about Southlake, Texas that turned my stomach.
Southlake is a city that appears to have a lot in common with Mountain Brook. Continue reading Fingers crossed for Mountain Brook
Today’s guest columnist is Catherine Coleman Flowers.
I was born in Birmingham and lived briefly in the city as it went through changes associated with the modern-day civil rights movement.
Eventually, my family moved to Lowndes County, which is where my father was born. Continue reading We can do something about raw sewage and hookworm problem in Alabama
Today’s guest columnist is Eli Cohen.
When I first saw that Amazon’s biggest unionization effort to date was taking place here in Birmingham, I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
I grew up in Birmingham. Even as a child, I was politically involved, travelling to Montgomery to visit lawmakers at the capital, and later to learn the dark sides of our history at the Equal Justice Initiative. Continue reading Stunning that Amazon’s groundbreaking union vote is in Birmingham
Today’s guest columnist is Lisa McNair.
My earliest memory is that white men who didn’t like her just because of the color of her skin, killed my sister.
My older sister, Denise McNair was the youngest of the four little girls killed by a bomb placed at 16th Street Baptist Church on September 15, 1963. Continue reading Hopeful even though my sister was killed by white men
Today’s guest columnist is internationally recognized photographer Michel Arnaud.
This may come as a surprise but, Birmingham was an obvious choice when I selected it as one of the coolest cities in America for my latest title, Cool Is Everywhere (Abrams, 2020) especially since my last book was Detroit: The Dream Is Now (Abrams, 2016). Continue reading Birmingham selected one of the coolest cities in America
Today’s guest columnist is Jennifer L. Greer.
“Dynamite Hill,” I told my husband when he asked me where I was going on a recent Saturday morning as I readied for a walking tour in Birmingham, AL.
He raised an eyebrow. “Near Legion Field” he asked. I nodded. Continue reading Invisible line down Birmingham street was potentially deadly
Today’s guest columnist is Frank McPhillips.
When a deadly pandemic collides with exponential growth, the result is frightening. We have reached that point in Alabama, and we must speed up the distribution of vaccines.
During October, roughly 30,000 Alabamians contracted COVID-19. By November, the number rose to 42,500 in one month. In December, the number of cases more than doubled to 111,000. And, January’s cases are rising even faster than December’s. Continue reading Alabama vaccine distribution worst in the nation