Martin Luther King Jr. speaking with reporters at the Montgomery County courthouse on March 17, 1965 after a meeting with local officials in Montgomery, Alabama. Ralph Abernathy is to the left of King, and Fred Gray and James Forman are to the right. The meeting followed a march held to protest the violent dispersal of a group of SNCC demonstrators on March 16. (Spider Martin, Alabama Department of Archives & History)
An array of photos covering the Civil Rights movement in Alabama by famed Birmingham News photographer Spider Martin will be on display for the next few weeks at Birmingham City Hall.
City of Birmingham Public Information Officer Marie Sutton said, “We are so excited to be able to display these images from Spider Martin, who was a photographer of the Birmingham News and a Fairfield native.”
“Two Minute Warning: A Look at the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March by Legendary Photographer Spider Martin.”
The display is called “Two Minute Warning,” named for the famous picture Martin captured on March 7, 1965, at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.
“He was there the moment it happened,” Sutton said. “His famous photo, the ‘Two Minute Warning,’ captures the tension between the police and the marchers before they collided.”
It is one of several photographs by Martin on display on the second floor of Birmingham City Hall. He is known for his work documenting the American Civil Rights Movement.
This display comes as the nation commemorates 60 years since Bloody Sunday, one of many moments captured in time through photographs in Spider Martin’s body of work. That work includes the faceoff in the two minutes of warning from the Alabama state troopers to marchers to turn around, and the images of the brutal attack that happened afterwards.
Visitors to Birmingham City Hall can see the “Two Minute Warning” display through the end of March from 8 a.m.to 5 p.m. when City Hall is open.
NEW YORK (AP) — Roberta Flack, the Grammy-winning singer and pianist whose intimate vocal and musical style made her one of the top recordings artists of the 1970s and an influential performer long after, died Monday. She was 88.
Little known before her early 30s, Flack became an overnight star after Clint Eastwood used “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” as the soundtrack for one of cinema’s more memorable and explicit love scenes, between the actor and Donna Mills in his 1971 film “Play Misty for Me.” The hushed, hymn-like ballad, with Flack’s graceful soprano afloat on a bed of soft strings and piano, topped the Billboard pop chart in 1972 and received a Grammy for record of the year.
“The record label wanted to have it re-recorded with a faster tempo, but he said he wanted it exactly as it was,” Flack told The Associated Press in 2018. “With the song as a theme song for his movie, it gained a lot of popularity and then took off.”
In 1973, she matched both achievements with “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” becoming the first artist to win consecutive Grammys for best record.
Scholarship At Age 15
A classically trained pianist so gifted she received a full scholarship at age 15 to Howard, the historically Black university, Flack was discovered in the late 1960s by jazz musician Les McCann, who later wrote that “her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I’ve ever known.” Flack was versatile enough to summon the up-tempo gospel passion of Aretha Franklin, but she favored a more measured and reflective approach, as if curating a song word by word.
For Flack’s many admirers, she was a sophisticated and bold new presence in the music world and in the social and civil rights movements of the time, her friends including the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Angela Davis, whom Flack visited in prison while Davis faced charges — for which she was acquitted — for murder and kidnapping. Flack sang at the funeral of Jackie Robinson, major league baseball’s first Black player, and was among the many guest performers on the feminist children’s entertainment project created by Marlo Thomas, “Free to Be … You and Me.”
Flack’s other hits from the 1970s included the cozy “Feel Like Makin’ Love” and two duets with her close friend and former Howard classmate Donny Hathaway, “Where Is the Love” and ”The Closer I Get to You” — a partnership that ended in tragedy. In 1979, she and Hathaway were working on an album of duets when he suffered a breakdown during recording and later that night fell to his death from his hotel room in Manhattan.
“I love that connection to other artists because we understand music, we live music, it’s our language,” Flack told songwriteruniverse.com in 2020. “Through music we understand what we are thinking and feeling. No matter what challenge life presents, I am at home with my piano, on a stage, with my band, in the studio, listening to music. I can find my way when I hear music.”
In 2022, Beyoncé placed Flack, Franklin and Diana Ross among others in a special pantheon of heroines name-checked in the Grammy-nominated “Queens Remix” of “Break My Soul.”
Flack was briefly married to Stephen Novosel, an interracial relationship that led to tension with each of their families, and earlier had a son, the singer and keyboardist Bernard Wright. For years, she lived in Manhattan’s Dakota apartment building, on the same floor as John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who became a close friend and provided liner notes for a Flack album of Beatles covers, “Let It Be Roberta.” She also devoted extensive time to the Roberta Flack School of Music, based in New York and attended mostly by students between ages 6 to 14.
“I Wanted To Be Successful”
Roberta Cleopatra Flack, the daughter of musicians, was born in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and raised in Arlington, Virginia. After graduating from Howard, she taught music in D.C.-area junior high schools for several years in her 20s, while performing after hours in clubs.
She sometimes backed other singers, but her own shows at Washington’s renowned Mr. Henry’s attracted such celebrity patrons as Burt Bacharach, Ramsey Lewis and Johnny Mathis. The club’s owner, Henry Yaffe, converted an apartment directly above into a private studio, the Roberta Flack Room.
“I wanted to be successful, a serious all-round musician,” she told The Telegraph in 2015. “I listened to a lot of Aretha, the Drifters, trying to do some of that myself, playing, teaching.”
Flack was signed to Atlantic Records and her debut album, “First Take,” a blend of gospel, soul, flamenco and jazz, came out in 1969. One track was a love song by the English folk artist Ewan MacColl: “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” written in 1957 for his future wife, singer Peggy Seeger. Flack not only knew of the ballad, but used it while working with a glee club during her years as an educator.
“I was teaching at Banneker Junior High in Washington, D.C. It was part of the city where kids weren’t that privileged, but they were privileged enough to have music education. I really wanted them to read music. First, I’d get their attention. (Flack starts singing a Supremes hit) ‘Stop, in the name of love.’ Then I could teach them!” she told the Tampa Bay Times in 2012.
“You have to do all sorts of things when you’re dealing with kids in the inner-city,” she said. “I knew they’d like the part where (‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’) goes ‘The first time ever I kissed your mouth.’ Ooh, ‘Kissed your mouth!’ Once the kids got past the giggles, we were good.”
Randall Woodfin on Saturday officially launched his campaign for a third term as Birmingham Mayor. (Amarr Croskey, For The Birmingham Times)
By Barnett Wright | The Birmingham Times
Almost six months to the day of Birmingham’s next mayoral election, incumbent Randall Woodfin on Saturday, February 22, officially launched his reelection campaign for a third term in office.
Woodfin, accompanied by family, staff, volunteers, elected officials, and neighborhood leaders, packed Iron City Birmingham with hundreds of enthusiastic supporters who came with signs, applause, and chants, and danced to music from a live DJ to rally behind the mayor’s campaign.
In seeking a third term, Woodfin is attempting to accomplish something that hasn’t happened in Birmingham since 1987 when Richard Arrington won his third term after being elected as the city’s first African American mayor in 1979.
Bernard Kincaid ran unsuccessfully for a third term as mayor in 2007; he was defeated by Larry Langford. William Bell ran unsuccessfully for a third term as mayor in 2017; he was defeated by Woodfin. So far, Woodfin faces challenges from State Rep. Juandalynn Givan and community activist Kamau Afrika, both of whom have announced plans to run for mayor.
At the Saturday event, Woodfin pledged that this year’s August 26 election would be a continuation of the progress that began when he was first seated in 2017.
“We can either keep pushing forward—fighting for good jobs, safe neighborhoods, and real opportunities for every family—or let outside forces and old ways of thinking hold us back,” he said. “This campaign is about one thing: building a city that works for all of our residents. That means fixing up our neighborhoods, making real investments in public safety, and ensuring that every single child in Birmingham has a pathway to success.”
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin: “This campaign is about one thing: building a city that works for all of our residents.” (Amarr Croskey, For The Birmingham Times.)
Woodfin also touched on a subject that will be central to his campaign and is certain to be amplified by his challengers throughout the spring and summer: public safety.
Last year, there were 152 homicides in Birmingham, the highest in almost a century, but there has been a reduction in all other crimes—including robbery, assaults, burglary, and auto theft—during Woodfin’s time in office, he said.
The mayor added that the city has invested about $16 million in police recruitment and retention and $8 million in youth mental health, conflict resolution, and financial literacy so that when children grow up “they can make better choices,” he said.
“I’ve got a secret to tell y’all,” Woodfin told supporters. “I’ve got a confession. I’m not Batman. Fighting crime takes more than one person. I am in a room full of foot soldiers that are committed to making sure we continue to fight, address this issue, and make this community safe.”
The mayor was flanked by two elected officials who have been longtime supporters: State Sen. Merika Coleman and Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Tyson.
“[We’ve had] 8,000 jobs created under the Woodfin administration,” said Coleman. “That’s 8,000 families that have some stability, 8,000 people that now can feel like they have a path to prosperity. … [And] the Birmingham Promise [Tuition Assistance program for Birmingham City Schools students, which was implemented] under the Woodfin administration, has allowed 1,600 students to go to college tuition-free.”
Tyson said, “It’s our time to do what we need to do to help our future, to help our children. The only way we can do that is by getting out to vote. That means you got to go get your neighbor, your church member, your nephew, even the people you don’t like at work.”
Tyson said Woodfin has had seven years to address problems that were created over decades and added, “He’s not a magician.”
“We’ve got to stay focused, y’all. We’re already in challenging times. Mayor Randall Woodfin has shown y’all that he can make something out of nothing. … I want to be honest with you. You would be a damn fool not to vote this man back in office,” Tyson said.
Brenda Hong, founder Brenda's Brown Bosom Buddies and Eric Hall, co-founder Black Lives Matter Birmingham Chapter, co-hosted Saturday's Black Pride Ride in the Ensley Community. (Reginald Allen, For The Birmingham Times)
Judge Carole C. Smitherman (center) surrounded by family, from left, son Rodger II; daughters Tonya and Crystal; husband Rodger; daughter Mary and grandson Noah Smitherman. (Amarr Croskey , For The Birmingham Times)
By Sym Posey | The Birmingham Times
Jefferson County on Friday presented Judge Carole Smitherman with a proclamation recognizing her lifetime of service to the County and dedicated a plaque highlighting her 50 years of legal work in the Birmingham metro area.
Smitherman retired last month after a distinguished career that included being the first Black woman hired as a deputy district attorney in Jefferson County and becoming Birmingham’s first Black woman municipal and circuit court judge. She was also the first female African American President of the Birmingham City Council and first female mayor of the City of Birmingham.
“I never did it for the recognition,” Smitherman told the Birmingham Times after the ceremony in the downtown Courthouse. “I did it [because] of my love for the people. I honestly believe God put me on this path to open up doors for other women and this shows me that we got them open. “
The afternoon gathering drew nearly a dozen leaders from across the state including Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Sarah Stewart; Jefferson County Commission President Jimmie Stephens; Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr; Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin; Jefferson County Presiding Judge Elisabeth French; Jefferson County Judges Frederic Bolling; Annetta Verin; Brendette Brown Green; Jefferson County Commissioner Mike Bolin and members of the Smitherman family including husband Rodger; an Alabama state senator and daughter Crystal, a Birmingham City Councilor.
Birmingham City Councilor Crystal Smitherman, (at mic) delivers remarks as her mother, Retired Judge Carole Smitherman (seated) is honored by Jefferson County Commissioner Mike Bolin (seated center), Judge Frederic Bolling and nearly a dozen others. (Amarr Croskey, For The Birmingham Times)
“[This] was such an amazing occasion,” said Crystal Smitherman. “To do this for such a woman who has touched so many lives not only in the city and county, but the state of Alabama, is just another testament to her character. She was one of the first of many Black female leaders and she literally shattered the glass ceiling so that so many of us could come forth. She always said her greatest accomplishment has been being a mother, and so I thank her for always putting us first.”
As for what’s next, Judge Smitherman, “I’ll still be practicing law. I’m going to write a book about all of this … I’m going to work in my community because that’s important because I have some years to go.”
Carole Smitherman first stepped into the Jefferson County Courthouse in 1976 when she was hired as a legal clerk in the Circuit Civil Clerk’s Office. In 1979, she began her legal career as a Deputy District Attorney becoming the first Black woman to serve in this capacity in the history of Jefferson County, and remained with the DA’s office until 1987.
In 1991, Republican Governor Guy Hunt appointed Smitherman to the Tenth Judicial Circuit Court Criminal Division Court where she served until 1992 and was the first Black woman to serve as a Circuit Court Judge in Alabama.
In 1997, she began teaching Constitutional Law at Miles Law School and continued for almost 30 years. In 2001, she was elected to the Birmingham City Council for District 6 where she served until 2013, and as President of the Birmingham City Council from November 2005 to November 2009.
In 2012, Smitherman won successful election as a Circuit Judge to the Tenth Judicial Circuit Court, she was re-elected in 2018, and has served continuously, with distinction, until her recent retirement from the bench in January 2025.
The Office of the City Attorney for the City of Birmingham has filed a lawsuit against Dominion Mountainside, LLC. (File)
birminghamal.gov
The Office of the City Attorney for the City of Birmingham has filed a lawsuit against Dominion Mountainside, LLC, the owner of Mountainside Apartments at 101 Penthouse Drive, Birmingham, Alabama 35205. The city asks the court to have the property declared a public nuisance. The 196-unit property has been the site of several incidents including murder, gun-related violence, assaults, and drug-related activity.
“The Office of the City Attorney’s Drug Nuisance Abatement Team is committed to disrupting illegal activity that takes root when property owners fail to keep their property free of blight and crime,” City Attorney Nicole King said. “DNAT has developed a track record of holding property owners accountable to generate a safer environment for residents, both on those properties and in surrounding neighborhoods.”
The lawsuit filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court states the city has notified the property owner multiple times of ongoing criminal activity at the property. The lawsuit says the owner “has failed to either prevent, deter or disperse the violence occurring” at the property.
In the court filing, the city details a fatal shooting that occurred on July 26, 2024. During the search of an apartment unit in the aftermath of the incident, police found amounts of fentanyl, methamphetamine, mushrooms, drug paraphernalia, multiple firearms and nearly $20,000 in cash. The incident is one of more than 200 calls BPD has received related to criminal activity at the property.
The lawsuit asks the court to require the property owner to take multiple steps to improve security at the apartments. If the owner fails to take appropriate action, the city asks the court to fine the owner and require the property to be sold.
In the spring of 2020, City Attorney King created DNAT, which, through the courts, holds landowners accountable for keeping their properties clean and free of crime and blight. The team has successfully prevailed in multiple lawsuits and worked with property owners to generate a safer environment for the residents, both on those properties and in surrounding neighborhoods. The city’s DNAT strategy has served as a model for other municipalities.
To report a nuisance property, contact the Office of the City Attorney at problemproperty@birminghamal.gov or 205.254.6450, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Jerry Butler performs “Only the Strong Will Survive” at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in New York on March 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow, File)
By Hillel Italie | Associated Press
CHICAGO — Jerry Butler, a premier soul singer of the 1960s and after whose rich, intimate baritone graced such hits as “For Your Precious Love,” “Only the Strong Survive” and “Make It Easy On Yourself,” has died at age 85.
Butler’s niece, Yolanda Goff, told The Associated Press that Butler died Thursday of Parkinson’s disease at his home in Chicago. A longtime Chicago resident, Butler was a former Cook County board commissioner who would still perform on weekends and identify himself as Jerry “Ice Man” Butler, a show business nickname given for his understated style.
Butler, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and a three-time Grammy Award nominee, was a voice for two major soul music hubs: Chicago and Philadelphia. Along with childhood friend Curtis Mayfield, he helped found the Chicago-based Impressions and sang lead on the breakthrough hit “For Your Precious Love,” a deeply emotional, gospel-influenced ballad that made Butler a star before the age of 20. A decade later, in the late ‘60s, he joined the Philadelphia-based production team of Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, who worked with him on “Only the Strong Survive,” “Hey Western Union Man” and other hits. His albums “Ice on Ice” and “The Ice Man Cometh” are regarded as early models for the danceable, string-powered productions that became the classic “Sound of Philadelphia.”
Butler also was an inspired songwriter who collaborated with Otis Redding on “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” a signature ballad for Redding; and with Gamble and Huff on “Only the Strong Survive,” later covered by Elvis Presley among others. His other credits included “For Your Precious Love,” “Never Give You Up” (with Gamble and Huff) and “He Will Break Your Heart,” which Butler helped write after he began thinking about the boyfriends of the groupies he met on the road.
“You go into a town; you’re only going to be there for one night; you want some company; you find a girl; you blow her mind,” Butler told Rolling Stone in 1969. “Now you know that girl hasn’t been sitting in town waiting for you to come in. She probably has another fellow and the other fellow’s probably in love with her; they’re probably planning to go through the whole thing, right? But you never take that into consideration on that particular night.”
The son of Mississippi sharecroppers, Butler and his family north to Chicago when he was 3, part of the era’s “Great Migration” of Black people out of the South. He loved all kinds of music as a child and was a good enough singer that a friend suggested he come to a local place of worship, the Traveling Souls Spiritualist Church, presided over by the Rev. A.B. Mayfield. Her grandson, Curtis Mayfield, soon became a longtime collaborator. (Mayfield died in 1999.)
“For Your Precious Love”
In 1958, Mayfield and Butler along with Sam Gooden and brothers Arthur and Richard Brooks recorded “For Your Precious Love” for Vee-Jay Records. The group called itself the Impressions, but Vee-Jay, anxious to promote an individual star, advertised the song as by Jerry Butler and the Impressions, leading to estrangement between Butler and the other performers and to an unexpected solo career.
“Fame didn’t change me as much as it changed the people around me,” Butler wrote in his memoir “Only the Strong Survive,” published in 2000.
One of his early solo performances was a 1961 cover of “Moon River,” the theme to “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Butler was the first performer to hit the charts with what became a pop standard, but “Moon River” would be associated with Andy Williams after the singer was chosen to perform it at the Academy Awards, a snub Butler long resented. His other solo hits, some recorded with Mayfield, included “He Will Break Your Heart”, “Find Another Girl” and “I’m A-Telling You.”
“Only The Strong Survive”
By 1967, his formal style seemed out of fashion, but Butler was impressed by the new music coming out of Philadelphia and received permission from his record label (Mercury) to work with Gamble and Huff. The chemistry, Butler recalled, was so “fierce” they wrote hits such as “Only the Strong Survive” in less than an hour.
“Things just seem to fall into place,” Butler told Ebony magazine in 1969. “We lock ourselves in a room, create stories about lovers, compose the music, then write the lyrics to match the music.”
By the 1980s, Butler’s career had faded and he was becoming increasingly interested in politics. Encouraged by the 1983 election of Harold Washington, Chicago’s first Black mayor, he ran successfully for the Cook County Board in 1985 and was re-elected repeatedly, even after supporting a controversial sales tax increase in 2009. He retired from the board in 2018.
Butler was married for 60 years to Annette Smith, who died in 2019, and with her had twin sons. Many of his generational peers had struggled financially and he worked to help them, while also supporting various family members. He chaired the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, which offers a wide range of assistance to musicians, and pushed the industry to provide medical and retirement benefits. Butler considered himself lucky, even if he did pass on the chance to own a part of Gamble and Huff’s Philadelphia International recording company.
“You know, I have lived well. My wife probably would say I could’ve lived better,” Butler told the Chicago Reader in 2011. “Did I make 40, 50 million dollars? No. Did I keep one or two? Yes. The old guys on the street used to say, ‘It’s not how much you make. It’s how much you keep.’”
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The Memphis music studio where some of America’s most recognizable songs were recorded decades ago is now a museum. But next door, trumpets blare, drums boom, and singers craft the soulful sounds of Stax Records’ biggest hits.
At Stax Music Academy, young musicians rehearse the unmistakable intro to “Theme from Shaft,” the Isaac Hayes tour de force that won an Oscar in 1972 and tantalizes listeners with its pulsating bass line, crisp hi-hat and funky guitar. There’s an air of professionalism among the students as their teacher hands out sheets of music and words of wisdom.
“Here we go. Read the ink that’s on the paper. From the top, one, two, ready and …,” says Sam Franklin IV, the academy’s music director. When they finish, Franklin says, “Hey y’all, that was good.”
Under the guidance of Franklin and other instructors, the students are practicing for three concerts in Memphis, Tennessee, on March 28 to celebrate Black History Month and the academy’s 25th anniversary. Created in 2000, the academy is an after-school program for teens that teaches them to sing, dance and play instruments. Some pay nothing to attend.
The academy has graduated more than 4,000 students since it started in the working-class neighborhood of Soulsville, where Stax Records produced soul and R&B classics in the 1960s and 1970s. Since 2008, every high school senior has been accepted to a college or university, many on full scholarships. The academy has performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the Kennedy Center in Washington, and in Europe and Australia.
Students take pride and joy in continuing the legacy of the influential record company, where Otis Redding cut “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay,” Sam and Dave worked on “Soul Man,” and The Staple Singers made “Respect Yourself.” Other mainstays of the Stax catalog include Booker T. and the MGs, Rufus and Carla Thomas, Wilson Pickett and Johnnie Taylor.
Before it went bankrupt in 1975, Stax Records helped develop the raw, emotional Memphis Sound, driven by tight horn and rhythm sections, and strong-voiced singers. Some Stax songs were energetic and raucous, others smooth and sexy. Stax Records no longer churns out chart-topping music, although it still has a program for songwriters. The building has been converted into the Stax Museum of American Soul Music.
The Stax Music Academy group practicing on a rainy January evening includes both Black and white players. Before the work begins, some students joke around and dance in the hallway outside the rehearsal room, which boasts a high ceiling and a whiteboard with musical notes written on it. In a separate room, vocalists clap for each other as they take turns singing for their instructors.
“Different Level Of Friendship
“It’s so fun,” said Tatiyana Clark, a 17-year-old singer who joined the academy in 2023. “I’ve been in places where we would have the same interest in music, but nothing is like the connection that I have here. Honestly, it’s a different level of friendship, when you have the exact same feelings towards music, the same experiences — almost.”
Stax began online Black History Month presentations in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous programs have included specific themes, with this year’s being the U.S. labor movement and how it involved and affected Black people, including work training, entrepreneurship and unionization. But this year’s show is a series of in-person concerts at a downtown Memphis venue where attendees will hear Sam and Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Comin’”, Arthur Conley’s “Sweet Soul Music,” and “Cause I Love You,” by the father and daughter duet of Rufus and Carla Thomas.
A companion study guide includes lessons and activities highlighting key figures and events that shaped labor policies and standards.
“It’s all about the message for me,” said Johnathan Cole, an 18-year-old singer and songwriter. “It feels good because with the world going crazy right now, everybody just needs a little bit of love, happiness and music. That’s what Stax Music Academy has always been about: love, music, creativity.”
When the labor and civil rights movements were striving for racial equality and social justice, Booker T. and the MGs churned out “Green Onions” and other toe-tapping instrumental songs, with Black men at organ and drums — Booker T. Jones and Al Jackson Jr. — and white players on lead and bass guitar — Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn.
“I would describe Stax as ‘change,'” said Johnathan McKinnie, a 16-year-old piano and organ player. “It drastically changed how music was formed … It was definitely an advocate for civil rights.”
In the vocalists’ rehearsal room, the group is perfecting Eddie Floyd’s song about luck and love, “Knock on Wood.”
“It’s like thunder, and lightning, the way you love me is frightening … better knock, knock, knock on wood,” three vocalists sing in harmony.
“Breathe. You’re not breathing,’” one instructor tells a student, who smiles and nods.
The exchange exemplifies the spirit of cooperation and dedication that permeates the academy. Pasley Thompson, a 17-year-old singer and songwriter, calls the academy “an escape from the every day.”
“Being able to be in a space with people that get you on a creative level, and on a personal level, because we’re around each other all the time, it’s a really great feeling to have,” she said.
The City of Birmingham and Builders + Backers have created a strategic partnership to advance innovation and entrepreneurship. (Adobe Stock)
birminghamal.gov
The City of Birmingham and Builders + Backers have announced a strategic partnership to advance innovation and entrepreneurship across the Magic City. The collaboration will immediately open applications for the Spring 2025 Idea Accelerator program, offering Birmingham residents the opportunity to transform their innovative ideas into viable enterprises.
The partnership aligns with Birmingham’s vision of developing an inclusive and resilient economy by combining the City’s focus on fostering entrepreneurship with Builders + Backers’ proven venture studio model. This initiative builds upon Birmingham’s commitment to creating quality jobs and ensuring equitable access to economic opportunities for all residents.
Cornell Wesley, director of Innovation and Economic Opportunity for the City of Birmingham. (File)
“This partnership with Builders + Backers represents a significant step forward in our mission to create an inclusive economy that works for all Birmingham residents,” said Cornell Wesley, Director of Innovation and Economic Opportunity for the City of Birmingham. “By providing our entrepreneurs with funding, mentorship, and a proven pathway to launch their ideas, we’re investing in Birmingham’s future and creating opportunities for generational wealth building in our communities.”
Selected participants in the Spring 2025 Idea Accelerator will receive up to $5,000 in non-dilutive funding and dedicated assistance from Builders + Backers’ venture studio team to test and develop their ideas. The program especially welcomes innovations that can strengthen Birmingham’s small business ecosystem and create new opportunities in our neighborhoods.
“We’re excited to partner with the City of Birmingham and support their vision for inclusive economic growth,” said Donna Harris, CEO of Builders + Backers. “Birmingham has a rich entrepreneurial spirit and tremendous potential for innovation. Our Idea Accelerator program will help surface and support promising ideas from across the community, contributing to the city’s growing ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation.”
The Idea Accelerator program combines a rapid Builder Bootcamp with hands-on experiment execution, enabling participants to rapidly test and validate their business concepts with the help of a dedicated Venture Studio team. Applications are now open through March 11, with the program set to begin April 10, 2025. Interested residents can learn more and apply at bit.ly/spring25-apply.
This initiative complements other City of Birmingham economic development programs, including small business support services, workforce development initiatives, and efforts to increase access to capital for underserved entrepreneurs.
About the City of Birmingham Innovation & Economic Opportunity The Innovation and Economic Opportunity Department works to create an inclusive and resilient economy for Birmingham by fostering entrepreneurship, strengthening small businesses, and ensuring equitable access to economic opportunities for all residents. Visit: ieo.birminghamal.gov
About Builders + Backers Builders + Backers helps entrepreneurial dreamers become Builders who create and grow promising new companies. Through innovative programs and investments, the organization makes it possible for anyone to bring their ideas to life and make a real impact in their communities. Visit: https://www.buildersandbackers.com/
Birmingham author Randi Pink is seen at a reading for her 2019 novel "Girls Like Us." Her 2021 novel "Angel of Greenwood" has been a hot topic is one Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, school system. (File)
In a heated five-hour meeting in January, the Pine-Richland School Board in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, rejected a request to add Randi Pink’s “Angel of Greenwood” to the ninth grade curriculum.
The historical fiction novel follows two teenagers through Greenwood, Oklahoma, in the 1920s and the Tulsa Race Massacre.
“I look at historical fiction novels as a crack in the door to introduce people to history, so I focus on the heroes and history,” Pink said. “If you’re burying the history, you’re burying the heroes with it.”
Elise Duckworth is an 11th grader at Pine-Richland High School and said she doesn’t understand the board’s decision.
“I’m having trouble understanding the reasoning behind not letting this book in,” Duckworth said. “I’m currently reading it right now. I think it is a great book. It talks about something that many students don’t know anything about; many people don’t know anything, anything about the Tulsa Race Massacre. So, teaching about these things should never be seen as a threat, and teaching history is never going to be a threat.”
Pink said she was shocked to hear about the controversy surrounding the book but also proud of those taking a stand. Pink, who grew up in Titusville and Homewood, says she found her voice through writing. So she is moved by the students who are fighting for her novel.
“Immediately, I started to see the incredible young people in that community who were so brave and so inspiring to step up in that heated debate,” Pink said.
Duckworth said the book taught her and her friends valuable lessons. That’s why they’re so passionate about seeing the book in the curriculum.
“I loved hearing all these stories and diverse opinions that I never got to experience growing up where I did,” Duckworth said. “Learning about wars and learning about the Tulsa Race Massacre — it was important, and it helped me grow empathy and compassion for others. So, I feel like having these books and having diverse perspectives, especially in a place like this, where we live, where we don’t get those, it’s important.”
That’s one of the main reasons why Pink is so passionate about defending her book.
“Most of us have a ZIP code, and the same people who live in that ZIP code are people who look like us, talk like us, worship like us. We go to the same Piggly Wiggly, the same coffee shop. Books are a bridge out of that bubble,” Pink said. “When things like this happen, I think immediately that if you burn the book, you burn the bridge.”
That’s why she will be traveling to Pittsburgh this weekend to talk directly to the community where her book has caused so much controversy.
“I would love to come there and take a little bit of heat out of the discussion, look at these people eye to eye and say, ‘Hey, we can meet in the middle on this and discuss in a civil, hopeful way,'” she said.
“The Office of the City Attorney’s Drug Nuisance Abatement Team is committed to disrupting illegal activity that takes root when property owners fail to keep their property free of blight and crime,” City Attorney Nicole King said. “DNAT has developed a track record of holding property owners accountable to generate a safer environment for residents, both on those properties and in surrounding neighborhoods.”
“I look at historical fiction novels as a crack in the door to introduce people to history, so I focus on the heroes and history,” Pink said. “If you’re burying the history, you’re burying the heroes with it.”