Speakers Bureau
The AHA Speakers Bureau features Alabama historians who volunteer their time to present programs to libraries, museums, clubs, civic groups, genealogical societies and any group with an interest in Alabama history. The cost per program is $50.00. This helps offset our speakers' travel expenses.
To book a program:
1. Contact the speaker directly to confirm their availability.
2. Complete the Speakers Bureau Program Form.
Haley Aaron
Haley Aaron is the Registrar at the Alabama Department of Archives and History, where she manages donations to the department’s archival and museum collections. She holds a BA in journalism and history from Samford University, an MA in history from Georgia State University, and an MLIS from the University of Alabama. Her research has been featured on C-SPAN, Alabama Heritage magazine, and A Girl Can Do: Recognizing and Representing Girlhood.
Contact: haley.aaron@archives.alabama.gov
Spaces of Self: Diaries and Scrapbooks of Young Alabamians
During the early 20th century, young men and women were encouraged to record their daily lives in scrapbooks and diaries. These sources provided a space for young Alabamians to reflect on their experiences, refine their sense of self, and envision a vibrant future. This talk explores the development of childhood in Alabama, and analyzes how themes of learning, belonging, and becoming are reflected in these unique primary sources.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person or virtually.
Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A laptop, screen, and digital projector are required.
Alabama Nightingales: WWI Nurses at Home and Abroad
For Alabama’s first generation of professional nurses, WWI provided not only an opportunity to serve their country, but also to define the future of their profession. For nurses who served at home and abroad, WWI served as a proving ground, giving them a chance to test their skills in a challenging environment. This presentation highlights the accomplishments of Alabama nurses who served at base hospitals in Italy and France, was well as those who provided essential medical care in the United States during the influenza pandemic.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person or virtually.
Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A laptop, screen, and digital projector are required.
Jim Baggett
Jim Baggett is a writer and historian. From 1997 until his retirement in 2023, he served as Head of the Department of Archives and Manuscripts at the Birmingham Public Library and Archivist for the City of Birmingham. He has served as president of the Society of Alabama Archivists and president of the Alabama Historical Association. Jim has lectured throughout the U.S. and in Europe and has been featured on Alabama Public Television, Alabama Public Radio, National Public Radio, and C-SPAN. He has authored two books on Alabama history, edited three others, and has written dozens of articles. He also writes the “Reading Birmingham” book column for the online news site BirminghamWatch. Jim lives with his wife and daughter in Birmingham and Mentone, Alabama.
Contact: BirminghamBaggett@gmail.com
205-226-3631
The Black and White Families of Faunsdale Plantation
Using letters, diaries, harvest records, and church registers this talk explores what we know, and what we can know, about the lives of free white people and enslaved African Americans on one southwest Alabama plantation.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person
Setup: This talk can be given as a PowerPoint presentation or can be presented without PowerPoint. For PowerPoint, a laptop, screen, and digital projector are required (presenter can provide laptop).
John Wilkes Booth in Alabama
More than four years before murdering Abraham Lincoln, the actor John Wilkes Booth performed in Montgomery, Alabama and took part in the city’s debates on secession. This talk explores Booth’s impact on Alabama during his life and after his death.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person
Setup: This talk can be given as a PowerPoint presentation or can be presented without PowerPoint. For PowerPoint, a laptop, screen, and digital projector are required (presenter can provide laptop).
Discovering 19th-Century Life in Alabama Letters and Diaries
From matters of love, death and politics to the price of shoes, nineteenth century Alabamians recorded their experiences in letters and diaries. This talk explores life in the 1800s through the personal writings of one Alabama family.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person.
Setup: This talk can be given as a PowerPoint presentation or can be presented without
PowerPoint. For PowerPoint, a laptop, screen, and digital projector are required
(presenter can provide laptop).
Old School Scrapbooking
From Victorian era school girls to a county coroner with an interest in grisly murders, Alabamians often saved mementos in scrapbooks. This talk explores scrapbook keeping and the keepsakes--visiting cards, photographs, letters, poems, theater programs, paper dolls, newspaper clippings--that people treasured and saved.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person.
Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A laptop, screen, and digital projector are required (presenter can provide laptop).
Remembering the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing
On September 15, 1963 a bomb placed by Klansmen killed four girls and wounded more than 20 others at Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Using FBI interviews with members of the congregation, this talk recreates the events of that morning.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person.
Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A laptop, screen, and digital projector are required (presenter can provide laptop).
Louise Wooster, Alabama’s Magdalen
Born in in Tuscaloosa and raised in Mobile, Louise Wooster operated brothels in 19th century Montgomery and Birmingham. A successful business person, author, and philanthropist, Wooster became a folk hero who claimed a presidential assassin among her lovers.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person.
Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A laptop, screen, and digital projector are required (presenter can provide laptop).
How Birmingham Armed to Defend Segregation
Images from Birmingham's 1963 civil rights demonstrations--police dogs, fire hoses, armored cars--have become symbols of oppression and redemption seen around the world. This talk explores the objects behind these images, and how Birmingham officials launched a three-year project to create a K-9 corps and arm for the civil rights demonstrations they knew would come.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person.
Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A laptop, screen, and digital projector are required (presenter can provide laptop).
Lisa Bratton
Dr. Lisa Bratton is an Associate Professor of History at Tuskegee University. She received her B.B.A. from Howard University, her M.B.A. from Atlanta University and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in African American Studies from Temple University. Her primary research interest is Historic Brattonsville, the South Carolina plantation on which her ancestors, Green and Malinda Bratton, were enslaved. Although enslaved for much of their lives, they went on to become the first Freedmen to purchase land in York County. She is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships—most recently the Clemson University Teacher Scholars Fellowship and the HistoryMakers Fellowship in Pedagogy Teaching and Pedagogy. Dr. Bratton is an avid traveler who has visited all 50 states and such interesting places as Pyongyang, North Korea, Cuba, and Swaziland.
Contact: lbratton@tuskegee.edu
The Tuskegee Airmen—In Their Own Words
From 2000 to 2005, Dr. Bratton served as a historian for the National Park Service’s Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project. She traveled the country interviewing over 250 Airmen including pilots, support personnel, instructors, civilians, wives and others. Her talks can be on nearly any aspect of their experience (history, racial incidents, little known facts…) and will include content from the vast collection of a total of 850 interviews.
Presentation: This talk is available virtually or in-person.
Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A laptop, screen, and digital projector are required.
Mike Bunn
Mike Bunn serves as Director of Historic Blakeley State Park in Spanish Fort, Alabama. He is author or co-author of several books, including Fort Stoddert: American Sentinel on the Mobile River, 1799-1814; Fourteenth Colony: The Forgotten Story of the Gulf South During America’s Revolutionary Era and The Assault on Fort Blakeley: “The Thunder and Lightning of Battle.” Mike is chair of the Baldwin County Historic Development Commission, treasurer of the Friends of Old Mobile, a member of the board of the Alabama Historical Association, and editor of Muscogiana, the journal of the Muscogee County (GA) Genealogical Society.
Contact: director@blakeleypark.com
The Campaign for Mobile: Alabama’s Largest Civil War Operation
Involving more than 50,000 troops and nearly 40 warships, the combined-forces operation aimed at capturing Mobile was the largest campaign of the Civil War to occur in Alabama. Federal forces ultimately captured Mobile, the last major city to remain in Confederate hands, on April 12, 1865—some eight months after the Battle of Mobile Bay—after conducting sieges of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakeley and confronting the numerous other obstacles to approach to the city placed by its Confederate defenders. Involving some of the last pitched fighting on land and water of the war, and including the participation of one of the largest contingents of African-American soldiers to fight in any Civil War battle, the Campaign for Mobile is a landmark event in Alabama’s wartime story.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person.
Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A laptop, screen, and digital projector are required.
Alex Colvin
Dr. Alex Colvin is the public programs curator at the Alabama Department of Archives and History. She earned her PhD in History from Auburn University in 2019. Her work on biculturalism among the Creek people won the Distinguished Dissertation Award from Auburn and the Jacqulyn Dowd Hall Prize from the Southern Association of Women’s Historians. As the public programs curator, Alex helped coordinate commemorative efforts for Alabama’s Bicentennial in 2019 and the Centennial of the 19th Amendment in 2020. She has assisted in the research and writing for the ADAH’s temporary exhibits and publications. She travels around the state to talk on Creek history and other Alabama topics.
Contact: Alex.Colvin@archives.alabama.gov
334-663-4689
One Large Connected Family: Understanding Early Creek Life
The foundation of Creek government and society was the bond of kinship. The complex system of relationships varied between tribes, but the Creek traced their lineage, birthright, and social classification through the mothers line. This talk will look at how the Creek lived in the eighteenth century, focusing on how they organized their families and towns. It will also cover the early relationship between the Creek Nation and the United States.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person.
Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A laptop, screen, and digital projector are required.
“Desirous of establishing permanent peace:” Alexander McGillivray, George Washington, and the Treaty of New York
Following the American Revolution, Alexander McGillivray became a diplomat and negotiator for Creek towns. After initially working with the Spanish in Mobile and Pensacola, McGillivray turned to the burgeoning federal government of the United States to establish peace and trade. The resulting Treaty of 1790 was a significant and controversial document for both the United States and Creek, forever changing their diplomatic relationship with one another.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person.
Setup: This talk can be given as a PowerPoint presentation or can be presented without PowerPoint. For PowerPoint, a laptop, screen, and digital projector are required.
What is Rightfully Ours: Creek Families in Alabama
This presentation will focus on the Creek community that formed in the Mobile-Tensaw Region. It examines the continuation of Creek traditions, particularly matrilineal inheritance, as their property and community became legally incorporated into the state of Alabama in 1819. Using court and legal records, Colvin will tell the stories of the Creeks as they utilize wills, the Orphans Court, and the Alabama Supreme Court to uphold traditional customs even as aspects of their everyday lives changed.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person.
Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A laptop, screen, and digital projector are required.
Justice Not Favor: Understanding Women’s Suffrage in Alabama
This presentation covers the complex story of how Alabama women fought for (and in some cases against) obtaining the right to vote. In a battle that spanned almost a century, these women used various tactics—from petitions to marches to baseball games—to gain momentum for their cause. In voting-rights movements that were largely unpopular throughout the state, this story illustrates the perseverance of these women as they sought justice and equality for all Alabamians.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person.
Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A laptop, screen, and digital projector are required.
Beth Hunter
Beth Hunter is a historian and quilter. She currently teaches history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. As a college student, she became interested in the events between World War I and II, specifically the topics of the Great Depression and New Deal. As a result, she enrolled in various domestic classes to immerse herself as a woman living in this time period. Out of this experience grew a deep love of quilting. Her quilts have been displayed locally and in Birmingham's sister city, Hitachi, Japan. She is currently writing a book on quilts in Alabama, showcasing quilts from each county.
Beth's historical research as a sole proprietor includes projects with the W. W. Norton & Company, History Channel Club, Regions Bank, Monday Morning Quarterback Club, Jefferson County Historical Commission, and the Emmy-nominated documentary Unrivaled: Sewanee 1899.
Contact: beth@bethhunter.com
Alabama Quilts and Their Stories
Alabama is filled with beautiful quilts, old and new, each with their own story. Using quilts as a medium, Beth will discuss the people and places that make up the fabric of the state.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person
Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation -- a laptop, screen, and digital projector are required (presenter can provide laptop).
The Enduring Legacy of Subsistence Homesteads in Alabama and Tennessee
As the hardest hit area in the country, southern states received many forms of government funding after the Great Depression. In a New Deal program, provisions were made for government homesteads in Alabama. This talk addresses some of the radical ideas, including houses made of mud.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person
Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation -- a laptop, screen, and digital projector are required (presenter can provide laptop).
From Dapper to Flapper: How the Great War Changed Women’s Fashion
Women's fashion prior to World War I was thoroughly different from that a decade later. Beth's presentation addresses how the formal, fitted lines and high collars gave way to boxy, short dresses.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person
Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation -- a laptop, screen, and digital projector are required (presenter can provide laptop).
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Mark A. Johnson
Mark A. Johnson, PhD, is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. In 2016, he earned his PhD from the University of Alabama. In 2017, he published An Irresistible History of Alabama Barbecue. Currently, he’s completing a cultural history of bacon in the United States.
Mark is a participant in the AHA Young Scholars Program which brings young historians into the Speaker's Bureau to share their research with the public.
Contact: mark-johnson01@utc.edu
“Freedom Which Knew No Restraint”: The Madison County Anti-Barbecue Campaign in Jacksonian America
In 1820s Madison County, Alabama, two factions (the Royal Party and the Castor Oil Party) battled over the future of barbecue and politics in the county and the state but also the enduring legacy of the American Revolution. In the newspapers, a writer known only as Barbacuensis waged a campaign to eliminate the campaign barbecue because of the egregious consumption of pork and whiskey.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person
Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation -- a laptop, screen, and digital projector are required (presenter can provide laptop).
Hog Heaven: A Brief History of Alabama Barbecue
In the nineteenth century, barbecue played a prominent role in the campaign rallies of the state’s aspiring politicians. By the end of the century, barbecue joints started popping up near Birmingham’s steel mills. In the 1950s, pitmasters set up shop in roadside shacks to feed weary travelers venturing out on the nation’s new highways and interstates. In the 1960s, barbecue fed the Civil Rights Movement. Most recently, Alabama barbecue has adapted to foodie interest in heritage breeds and sustainability.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person
Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation -- a laptop, screen, and digital projector are required (presenter can provide laptop).
Kayla M. Jordan
Kayla Jordan is a PhD student in History at the University of Alabama. Her research focuses on 19 th and 20 th century southern ghostlore and its connections to social, cultural, and ideological trends within and surrounding the region. This work often focuses on aspects of identity formation and social control, Civil War memory, and various cultural rituals of mourning and understandings of death/dying. Ms. Jordan earned both her B.A. (2020) and M.A. (2022) in History from Mississippi State University, and she has worked for nearly a decade in museums and archives in Alabama as a docent, intern, and volunteer archivist and conservator.
Kayla is a participant in the AHA Young Scholars Program which brings young historians into the Speaker's Bureau to share their research with the public.
Contact: kmjordan6@crimson.ua.edu
Control of the Dead and the Dead with Control: The Social Uses of Spirits in Southern Ghostlore
This talk examines the uses of various southern ghost stories from the early to mid-twentieth century as means of social control through their specific portrayals of death and dying, historical memory, and emotion. As they reflected societies norms about death and dying, they subsequently helped not only continue many historical fallacies but also influenced the actions of the living by giving them ghostly depictions of the consequences of failing to meet societal
expectations.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person and virtually.
Setup: This talk is not given as a PowerPoint presentation.
More than Ectoplasm: A Study of Civil War Memory and Southern Ghostlore
Many ghost stories in the South are centered around the American Civil War. However, what has been presented in these tales as historical fact is often misleading due to numerous social and cultural factors including historical romanticization and the Lost Cause. This talk will view these particular ghost stories in comparison to historical sources and analyze the impact that they have had on public perception of the conflict and its aftermath.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person and virtually.
Setup: This talk is not given as a PowerPoint presentation.
Marty Olliff
Dr. Marty Olliff is Professor of History and Director of the Wiregrass Archives at Troy University Dothan Campus. Olliff is the editor of The Great War in the Heart of Dixie: Alabama during World War 1 (University of Alabama Press, 2008) and author of Getting Out of the Mud: Alabama's Good Road Movement and Highway Administration, 1898-1928 (University of Alabama Press, 2017). He has also authored a number of articles in The Alabama Review and other journals. Olliff has served as the president of the Alabama Historical Association, the Alabama Association of Historians, and the Society of Alabama Archivists.
Contact: molliff@troy.edu
334-983-6556 x21327
The Girl the Wildcats Left Behind: Irene Pierce and Tallassee’s Doughboys of World War I
In May 1918, a group of young men from Tallassee, Elmore County, Alabama, were drafted into the AEF for service in France. They left behind their neighbor, a 17-year-old mill worker named Irene Pierce who did homefront service on Red Cross projects and also as a volunteer pen pal. She kept some of her correspondence and a scrapbook of photographs that offer a glimpse into the world of young soldiers and their homefront friends during World War 1. Olliff’s presentation tells some of the stories in her collection in the context of Tallassee and military life a century ago.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person or virtually.
In-person Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A laptop, screen, and digital projector are required (presenter can provide laptop and projector).
Alabama's First Good Roads Governor: Emmet O'Neal
O'Neal, son of Redeemer governor Edward O'Neal, served as governor from 1911 to 1915. With the hated railroads tied up in litigation over state regulations and the prohibition issue temporarily quelled, O'Neal had little to leave as a legacy so he promoted a minor part of his 1906 campaign for Lt. Governor and his 1910 campaign for Governor – good roads. He wanted two things: well surfaced farm-to-market roads funded by counties and a system of highways that "start somewhere and end somewhere" funded by state matching grants. He oversaw the first State Highway Commission, the first state matching grant program, creation of the Good Roads Day state holiday, "Federal Project No. 1" (a fifty-mile post road improvement project funded by federal money), and he drew national attention to Alabama as a lifetime vice president of the National Highways Association. In 1914, Southern Good Roads magazine called him "Alabama's First Good Roads Governor," a title he had truly earned.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person or virtually.
In-person Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A laptop, screen, and digital projector are required (presenter can provide laptop and projector).
The Montgomery Cooperative Canning Club: Canning the War Garden Produce and the Kaiser, too
Alabama women joined homefront efforts in World War 1 to support US doughboys and to ameliorate war-time problems at home. Many joined with the Red Cross to supply aid to the front lines, others near military bases joined the War Camp Community Service, and still others joined the Women's Committee of the Council of National Defense. Elite white club women of Montgomery saw the quickly-rising cost of food and created the Montgomery Cooperative Canning Club to fight it. They raised funds, built a canning factory in downtown Montgomery (then moved it in 1918), scheduled workers, and canned over 14,000 cans of produce from the local War Gardens. This idea spread to Tuscaloosa and Norwich, CT, from their efforts.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person or virtually.
In-person Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A laptop, screen, and digital projector are required (presenter can provide laptop and projector).
Howard Robinson
Dr. Howard Robinson is the Associate Library Director for Archives and Cultural Heritage Services at Alabama State University (ASU). At ASU Robinson also serves as a historian with the National Center for the Study of Civil Rights and African American Culture. Prior to his work with the University Archives, Dr. Robinson spent seventeen years as the ASU Archivist, where he helped establish the school’s archives as an important repository for materials related to the modern civil rights movement, with a focus on the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the 1961 Freedom Rides, student protest of the 1960s, as well as the voting rights campaign of the 1960s. He attended Alabama State University where he earned B.A. in 1986, and a M.A. degree in 1993. Before leaving Montgomery, Robinson worked at WSFA Television and with the Alabama Department of Archives and History. In 1999, Robinson earned a Ph.D. degree in American History from the University of Akron.
Contact: Hrobinson1985@gmail.com
334-294-8559
The Long Civil Rights Movement
Dr. Robinson looks at the “Long” Civil Rights Movement and places the movement of the 1950s
and 1960s into a historical context. Robinson also has factored into his analysis recent protests
around Black Lives Matter, and compares and contrasts student demands over time.
Student Activism
Dr. Robinson looks at Black student activism with a particular emphasis on the Student Non-
Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). At the same time, he also treats student activism prior
to the 1960s, focuses on student collaborations with adult direct-action organizations,
interactions across student organizational lines, and the evolution of the student movement over time.
Juneteenth: America’s Second Independence Day
Dr. Robinson looks at the people, places, and events that mark the origins and development of
Juneteenth as a local coastal Texas celebration. Robinson then traces the efforts that transformed the Galveston, Texas celebration into Juneteenth becoming a national holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States of America.
Black Community Development
Dr. Robinson uses the origins and evolution of the Black community in Montgomery, Alabama to
highlight patterns of post-Civil War Black community development region wide.
Ben H. Severance
A former lieutenant in the US Army, Severance is a Professor of History at Auburn University Montgomery, a position he has held since joining the faculty there in 2005. He received his Ph.D. in 2002 from the University of Tennessee (Knoxville). His principal areas of research and teaching include the American Civil War, Nineteenth Century America, and U.S. Military History. Among his publications are three books: Tennessee’s Radical Army: The State Guard and Its Role in Reconstruction, 1867-1869 (University of Tennessee Press, 2005), Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Alabama during the Civil War (University of Arkansas Press, 2012), and A War State All Over: Alabama Politics and the Confederate Cause (University of Alabama Press, 2020).
Contact: bseveran@aum.edu
To Fight and Die for Dixie: Alabama’s Manpower Contribution to the Confederate War Effort, 1861-1865
This talk addresses the disparate scholarly debate over how many Alabamian actually served in the Confederate army during the Civil War and how many subsequently died in that conflict. Getting the numbers rights not only clarifies the state’s massive contribution to America’s greatest struggle, but permits a re-examination of the longstanding, yet misleading, notion about “a rich man’s war, but a poor man’s fight.”
Presentation: This talk is available in-person.
In-person Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A screen and
digital projector are required.
Lee’s Alabama Boys at the Battle of Chancellorsville, May 1863
This talk delves into the central role played by Alabamians in helping the Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee achieve its greatest military victory of the Civil War. At every stage of the multi-day battle, Alabamians were present at the crucial moments. This battle was arguably the state’s finest moment as a member of the short-lived Confederacy.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person.
In-person Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A screen and
digital projector are required.
Voting on the War: The State Elections in Alabama, August-November 1863
This talk examines the significance of elections conducted during the ordeal of a total war. In August of 1863, Alabama held statewide elections for every political office—gubernatorial, congressional, legislature—and later in November held an election for the Confederate senate. Coming at the midpoint of the Civil War, these elections were a crucial measure of the people’s view of that conflict. The main question on every voters’ mind was whether the Cause was worth continued sacrifice. The results constitute an important answer—yes.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person.
In-person Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A screen and
digital projector are required.
The Know-Nothing We Know Nothing About: The Curious Congressional Career of William Russell Smith
This talk discusses the political career of one of Alabama’s lesser known congressmen, William R. Smith of Tuscaloosa. Between 1851 and 1857, he served three terms in the U.S. House, displaying a strange, independent streak. He was at various times a Whig, a Democrat, and a Know-Nothing. It is this last political appellation that he is best known for (at least prior to the secession crisis of 1861, when he espoused unionism). In the mid-1850s, thousands of Alabamian flocked around the banner of the short-lived American Party, colloquially called the Know-Nothings. Hoping to steer everyone away from the divisive issue of slavery, the Know-Nothings argued that the real threat to the country came from dangerous foreign influences, namely the large number of Catholic immigrants (esp. the Irish) who had been coming to America since the 1840s. Smith became one of this new party’s most vocal and successful members, and though his efforts ultimately failed his concerns about outside threats remain a constant in American politics.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person.
In-person Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A screen and
digital projector are required.
Bob Stewart
A native of Tuscaloosa, Bob Stewart served as Executive Director of the Alabama Humanities Foundation (now Alabama Humanities Alliance) from 1987 until retirement in 2012. Among the AHF’s many accomplishments under his leadership, Bob is especially proud of his collaboration with scholars, archivists, editors, and technical specialists at Auburn University to develop the online Encyclopedia of Alabama. He previously held professional positions at the Birmingham Museum of Art, Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board, and Huntsville Museum of Art, and his resume includes numerous awards, publications, exhibitions, and grants. He holds a BA in English from Amherst College, an MA in American Studies from Boston University, and an MBA from Emory University. Since 2016 he and his wife, Lida—whose family history is the subject of his talk—have lived in Nashville.
Contact: Rcs1565@yahoo.com
205-999-3200
White and Black and Rode All Over: Revelations and Rewards from a Journey Into Family History
Curiosity about an inherited antebellum photographic portrait led to a revealing exploration of an American family history, from seafaring Rhode Island, to slaveholding Louisiana, and finally to the Magic City of Birmingham. Along the way research uncovered connections to a unique furniture form, a restored Southern landmark, a tragic episode from the Civil Rights era in Birmingham, and interracial family ties. It also raised important questions yet to be resolved: Was the family engaged in the slave trade? Did some ancestors hold abolitionist opinions even while holding enslaved people? How should the story be told? This presentation will touch on these discoveries and questions, which demonstrate that family history research can be a rewarding extension to the genealogical work of compiling one’s family tree.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person.
In-person Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A screen and
digital projector are required.
Ruth Truss
Dr. Ruth Truss is professor of history and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Montevallo and has served as President of the Alabama Historical Association. She is the author of several journal articles and book chapters on the Alabama National Guard and the co-editor with Dr. Sarah Wiggins of The Journal of Sarah Haynsworth Gayle, 1827-1835.
Contact: trussr@montevallo.edu
205-665-6507
The Journal of Sarah Haynsworth Gayle
Using the lengthy journal of an early nineteenth-century woman in Alabama, this talk discusses some of the highlights of Sarah Gayle’s interests as revealed in her journal (literature, family life, slavery, culture) as well as the process of editing an almost 200-year-old document.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person or virtually.
In-person Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A laptop, screen, and
digital projector are required.
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Alabama’s 167th Infantry Regiment, 1916-1919
This presentation looks at the Alabama National Guard during the World War I era and can focus on either the ANG during the Mexican Border Service period (1916-1917) or the World War I period (1917-1919) for the Guard’s participation in guard duty around the state or for the 167th’s time overseas.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person or virtually.
In-person Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A laptop, screen, and digital projector are required.
Dorothy Walker
Dorothy Walker serves as the first full time Site Director of the Freedom Rides Museum, a historic site of the Alabama Historical Commission (AHC). She has nearly 25 years of experience working in historic preservation and cultural resource advocacy, planning, outreach, research, budget and project management. She has a BA from Jacksonville State University and a MA in Historic Preservation from Savannah College of Art and Design. Under her tenure as director, the museum is installing a new, interactive permanent exhibit and restored a vintage Greyhound Bus similar to those the Freedom Riders rode in 1961. The restored bus now serves as a mobile extension of the museum. Her other areas of preservation interest include the state’s Historic Black Colleges and University (HBCU) campuses, Rosenwald and Equalization Schools and Civil Rights sites across the state.
Contact: dorothy.walker@ahc.alabama.gov
334-230-2676
Putting the Movement on the Move: The 1961 Freedom Rides
Eleven years before Mrs. Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her seat to white passengers on a Montgomery city bus, Ms. Irene Morgan refused to give her seat to white passengers on a Greyhound Bus in Virginia. Ms. Morgan’s courageous action and brutal arrest led to a landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court declaring it unconstitutional for Greyhound and Trailways buses to segregate passengers. However, these buses, planes and trains, especially in the Deep South continued to operate as segregated. This presentation examines the Freedom Rides, a campaign involving 436 Black and white men, women and youth from 35 states who traveled into the Deep South during the summer of 1961 risking their lives and their freedom to try to bring about an end to these segregated practices. Some were violently attacked and nearly killed while more than 300 were arrested and incarcerated in Mississippi’s infamous Parchman Penitentiary. This presentation will examine the stories and heroism of the Freedom Riders while also detailing the failures of leadership at the local, state and federal level.
Presentation: This talk is available in-person or virtually.
In-person Setup: This talk is given as a PowerPoint presentation. A screen and digital projector are required.