Beer Saturdays

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AD DEADLINE: AUGUST 17 CALL (205) 933-0460 x113 OR E -MAIL [email protected] FOR RATES Contents The Birmingham Public Library exhibits the rarely seen photographs of an unusual Alabama family. (See page 4.) ;=55-: ,:1>16/ Feature . 4 the Alabama Department of The long lost photography by the Education has intervened to repair Shackelford family. what cannot be fixed. ;-);761;0-:- Feature . 6 Beer Hopping . 10 Failing Grades: Birmingham City Big bottles bring better beer to 4M\][OQ^MaW]XMIKMWNUQVL Schools have failed to educate an Birmingham. entire generation of children, so now Cover: "Cordelia and Claudette" by Birmingham artist Christy Daniel Executive Editor Alison Nichols REGULAR FEATURES Associate Editor David Pelfrey Food & Drink Calendar 11 Concert Calendar . 18 Staff Writer Ed Reynolds Events Calendar . 12 Live Music/Clubs . 19 Contributing Writers From Transmissions to Total Car Care. Bart Grooms The Set List . 17 Strange Tales . 22 Danner Kline J.R. Taylor Driving this summer? Be prepared and we can help. Calendar Editor Extend the life of your car with professionals who can help Jane Longshore with everything from routine engine maintenance, oil changes, Editorial Assistant and brakes, to transmissions. Locally owned and operated Lindsey McLain and building trust with each and every customer. Art Director Cris Strickland Number 450 Interns Black & White (ISSN 1064-0134) is published every other Thursday, 26 issues a year, by Black Bourke’s & White, Inc. Business Offices: 2210 2nd Avenue North, Floor 2, Birmingham, Alabama, 35203. Catherine Farist (205) 933-0460. E-mail: [email protected]. Postmaster: Please send change of Alexandra Garvey address to Black & White, 2210 2nd Avenue North, Floor 2, Birmingham, AL, 35203. Contents Southside Aamco © 2012 by Black & White, Inc. Reproduction in whole or in part without express written ——— approval of the Publisher is prohibited. The publication is free, limit two per reader. Removal 2610 6th Avenue South of more than two papers, per person, from any distribution point constitutes theft. Violators Executive Staff: are subject to prosecution under city ordinances. Publisher All letters sent to Black & White will be treated as intended for publication unless Charles S. Geiss 322-2483 otherwise noted by author. Letters may be edited for space and content. Annual subscriptions (26 issues) are available for $50 for first class delivery. Send checks attention to “Subscriptions” General Manager at the address above. Publishing history: Black & White’s first monthly issue was published on Kerry Echols April 30, 1992; the first bi-weekly issue was published on October 2, 1997. 3 black & white • www.bwcitypaper.com • August 9, 2012 FEATURE Out of Time A photo exhibit details the unusual history of a black family in early 20th-century rural Alabama. By Ed Reynolds hrough September 14, the down- were prevalent in society. As noted in T town Birmingham Public Library the exhibit: “The Shackelford photo- is currently showcasing Both Sides of graphs offer a dynamic and rarely the Lens: Photographs by the seen depiction of the African- Shackelford Family, Fayette County, American experience in rural Alabama (1900-1935). Featured on Alabama and show black people liv- the library’s fourth floor gallery are ing full and vibrant lives in the face 40 prints selected from 850 photos in of the racial and socioeconomic the library’s Shackelford archives. oppression of the Jim Crow era.” Also on hand—and well worth taking Birmingham native Andrew time to peruse—are two thick note- Nelson, currently at the University of books that include dozens of Maryland, College Park, is largely archived Shackelford images not on responsible for the show. “This is the display in the gallery. picture that started the journey that Mitch Shackelford was born dur- ended up being this exhibition,” ing the Civil War. Adopted by a white Nelson explains, gesturing towards a family that he reportedly stayed in photo of a nine-piece brass band that touch with for many years, included three of Mitch Shackelford’s Shackelford left home at age 21, children. “A little over a year ago I eventually going to work for started work on my Ph.D. disserta- Southern Railroad. He and his wife tion and I had a conversation with a Geneva moved to Covin, Alabama, in man named Joey Brackner, who is rural Fayette County, where they built the director of the Alabama Center a home that housed a couple of gen- for Traditional Culture. Joey knew I erations of Shackelfords. The resi- was looking for pictures of old musi- dence became a boarding house and cians. He told me about a collection overnight rest stop for white and that he had bought at the Bessemer black travelers. Flea market over 20 years ago and The Shackelfords were an oddity donated to the Birmingham Public in the South in the early 20th centu- Library.” Nelson’s dissertation will be ry: an affluent black family with vot- published as a book. A significant the wooden structure having been began to deteriorate. ing rights that owned vast quantities portion details the history of the built in 1900. He found a photograph The Shackelford family devel- of land. Mitch and Geneva’s children brass band pictured in the collection. of the house in the library in Fayette oped their photos in an attic dark- found wealth by owning and operat- The only thing known about the County as well as a map of the road room. Great-grandson Marvin ing syrup mills and sawmills as well pictures was that they were taken in where the house once stood. Shackelford, of Alabaster, recalls play- as by farming and continuing to pur- Fayette County sometime early in the Eventually, he met Mitch and Geneva ing there as a child. “We did not real- chase land. As an entrepreneurial 20th century. Nelson became fascinat- Shackelford’s great granddaughter, ly know what it was all about,” he sideline, they maintained a commer- ed with the images and began notic- Annie Shackelford, who lives in the says. “We weren’t allowed up there. cial photography business, primarily ing the same house in many of the area. A friendship was forged. The My boy cousins and my brothers and making portraits. Clients included shots—the Shackelford home. He Shackelford photo collection provid- I would sneak up there and kind of black and white area residents. was determined to discover who had ed Annie with her first look at her snoop around a little bit. And I Portraits were taken by two genera- taken the photos. He went in search great-grandparents. Annie remember those glass plates [nega- tions of Shackelfords in an era when of the house, recognizing that his Shackelford’s parents lived in the tives] and everything, just like it was stereotypical, racist images of blacks chances of finding it were slim due to house until the early 1960s, before it yesterday. But we didn’t have a clue what it was, really!” Marvin explains that his grandfa- ther was always helping the children with their cameras. “He would always be the one that would give us point- ers when we had our little Polaroid- type cameras,” he recalls. “Like if we were facing the sun or whatever with the lens, he’d say, ‘No, no, no. You need to get the sun at your back,’ and that kind of thing.” The photographs the Shackelfords made of neighbors wearing their Sunday finest contra- dicted the often demeaning stereotypical images of black Americans in the first half of the 20th century. “What a profound service it is that the Shackelfords provided the people in their community and beyond, to be able to represent themselves,” Andrew Nelson explains, calling the family “renaissance men.” The brass band photo that first attracted Nelson to the collection indeed speaks volumes about the Shackelfords and other black residents socializing with whites in Fayette County in the early 1900s. The sign on the bass drum in the picture reads: “Big concert tonight at the Covin School-House given by the brass band beginning at 7:30. Seats for our white friends. Admission only 10 cents.” & Geneva and Mitch Shackelford with unidentified child 4 August 9, 2012 • www.bwcitypaper.com • black & white This brass band, of which three Shackelford children were members, poses in front of the Shackelford house. 5 black & white • www.bwcitypaper.com • August 9, 2012 FEATURE resembling hope for the future. over the years, the majority of which Just how deeply embarrassed for reflected almost comically wasteful Failing Grades: all concerned parties we should be is, and incorrect spending by “educa- by now, impossible to gauge. It’s as tors” who couldn’t grasp how line- though some observers think the dire item bid lists work, or couldn’t be The Decline and circumstances only recently came bothered to observe them. about; just days ago the Birmingham More significantly, at luncheons News editorial staff intoned, “Every with Birmingham principals and week, it seems, some new, disappoint- teachers, at workshops, at vendor Fall of Birmingham ing and discouraging revelation sur- conventions, at seminars, and at simi- faces about Birmingham City Schools.” lar functions, I rarely encountered Well, yes, for roughly the past anyone who might qualify for any- several hundred weeks, come to thing beyond an entry-level position City Schools think of it.

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