USA 2014: Birmingham - Magic turns to Tragic (13th September)

Birmingham was founded on coal and iron ore. Cheap labour was used in the mines, and America needed the steel to expand the frontier after the civil war. Birmingham had wealth if you were owners of the mines or the steel mills. But for the workers both black and white, it was dangerous and the pay very little. Though integration was forced upon the south after the war, as the years passed slavery was replaced with segregation with the blacks forming their own communities with their own businesses, schools, etc. as they were not allowed in the white only areas. With the depression in the late 20's, Birmingham went from "Magic to Tragic", mines and mills closing and many now out of work. The blacks wore the brunt of it, pushing them even further down the food chain. With WW2, steel was again in demand, but with time came unions and better pay. Plus the federal government was pushing for integration especially for schools. Now comes the rise of the white supremacists, the KKK, the White Knights of Columbus, etc. and with that comes the violence. Race riots occur in Birmingham in the early 1900's, and again the the 1950's. But nothing changes, and now there are bombings, 4 girls at Sunday School, plus shootings, a black boy going home from church, another going home from work. Enter Martin Luther King Jnr, and the Civil Rights now have a focal point and a leader. The nonviolent battle is eventually won, and segregation is no longer openly practiced, but there are still white and black churches, still white and black businesses. It will still take a number of years and perhaps even generations before those walls are ever breached. But the one way out of poverty is music, and Birmingham has produced its fair share of singers and musicians who have gone onto fame and sometimes fortune. We learn all this while on our walking tour of Birmingham, visiting the Alabama Jazz Museum, the Civil Rights Museum, and the many story boards and sculptures in the parks. A nice enough city with a troubled past. Vulcan representing the steel industry at the Trades Fare in St. Louis in 1904, sits upon Red Mountain surveying the city below. Great view and he is now restored to his former glory.