Today’s guest columnist is Wood Hughes.
In the early 1890s, a newly married young South Carolina man was looking for a better life than the worn fields and swamps then owned by his family.
He decided to move his Charleston bride to the booming town of Atlanta where he got on with the Atlanta Police Department. Continue reading Atlanta man has crazy bold Elon Musk idea for Birmingham
On December 4, 2014, I did something I had never done before and have never had to do again.
On that day, as publisher of ComebackTown, I published a column which I naively titled, “UAB lucky to have Ray Watts as President.”
Two days earlier Dr. Watts had announced the cancellation of UAB Blazer football.
The response was immediate, ugly, and personal. Continue reading UAB President Watts had a rough 2014—what’s happened since?
Today’s guest columnist is Chervis Isom.
As a young boy I always enjoyed my visits to the Johnson barbershop on 12th Avenue North in the Norwood neighborhood of Birmingham.
I liked the place because it was a man’s world where men talked about men stuff—sports and politics—and there were no women around to hold them accountable. Continue reading A Birmingham barbershop–Where men spew hate
My wife and I got on the shuttle bus leaving Protective Stadium following a UAB football game.
We walked to the back, sat down, and watched as people boarded.
A young couple, likely UAB students, sat down in front of us. The male was African American and his girlfriend was white. He put his arm around her and she laid her head on his shoulder.
And then do you know what happened? Continue reading Sick and tired of Birmingham being stereotyped as racist
Birmingham and Atlanta were about the same size in 1950.
Atlanta’s population is now five times greater than Birmingham’s.
What happened? Continue reading Oops! Atlanta may be following lead of Homewood and Mountain Brook
Today’s guest columnist is Charisse Stokes.
Since childhood, I’ve been surrounded by few females and minorities in my academic and work environments, unfortunately, that’s typical in the technology field.
Being ‘the only’ black female in the room has encouraged me to expose more women and minorities to tech and innovation fields. Continue reading Opportunity for young Alabama minorities to succeed
Today’s guest columnist is Memphis Vaughan.
Recently ComebackTown published a column on the possibilities of a bullet train from Birmingham to Atlanta.
The response on social media was wildly positive.
Hundreds of commenters wanted to know why high speed rail and other visionary projects are dead on arrival in Alabama. Continue reading Imagine our future if Alabama leaders had vision
I had an interesting conversation with a life-long friend.
I was fretting about Birmingham’s inability to keep pace with other regions.
He said I was totally missing what is about to happen. Continue reading Now is Birmingham’s time
Today’s guest columnist is Terry Barr.
Recently a friend sent me a copy of Blake Ells’ history of Birmingham music, Magic City Rock: Spaces and Faces of Birmingham’s Scene.
It’s a cool read, especially if, like me, you haven’t lived in Birmingham for decades and, at best, have only heard rumors of the continuing Rock and Pop and DIY music scene. Continue reading My heart aches for Birmingham’s old music scene
Today’s guest columnist is Jay Glass.
When you read about lynchings and the KKK in Alabama, you expect to be reading about incidents that happened 100 years ago. But this chain of events happened between 1979 and 1987–just 34 years ago.
Certain acts can have important unintended consequences.
An example of such a profound delayed effect with far-reaching social ramifications would have its origin in downtown Birmingham on the afternoon of November 29th, 1979 in front of Newberry’s in the 200 block of 20th Street North. Continue reading 1979 Birmingham murder leads to lynching and end of Alabama KKK