Experts work on mystery of Mabila
Tuscaloosa News – June 8
…”The Search for Mabila: The Decisive Battle Between Hernando de Soto and Chief Tascalusa,” the book is, as the title describes, a search – a means to an end. Printed by the University of Alabama Press, the book hits shelves this month, two and half years after a commission of 15 scholars met here to study not the largest battle between Europeans and Native Americans east of the Mississippi River, but the search for the battle site…On its first page, UA professor Jim Knight, who edited the volume, admits the pages to follow do not place Mabila’s dot on the map. “The truth is that to this day, nobody knows where Mabila is – neither the editor, nor any of the fifteen contributors to the volume, nor any of the historians and archaeologists, amateur and professional who have long sought it,” Knight writes. “One can rightfully say that the lost battle of Mabila is the predominant historical mystery of the Deep South.”…UA history professor Lawrence Clayton argues that Mabila, which he admits had no redeeming value at the time, represents one battle in the struggle for human rights. For without Mabila and other atrocities committed by the Spanish, the reforms signed into law later in the 1540s restricting conquistadors would not have come. As part of the long historical chain for human rights, Mabila needs a place for remembrance, Clayton wrote. “Perhaps it is not the hallowed ground of a Gettysburg, but it opens a window into the past, revealing a panorama of what the human heart is capable of feeling and doing, for great evil and for great good,” he wrote…
Business of Civil Rights: T.R.M. Howard and his crusade against Jim Crow
National Review – June 8
“While historians have properly acknowledged the contributions of clergymen and grassroots activists” to the civil-rights movement, write David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, “they have too often neglected those made by entrepreneurs and black professionals.” The Beitos’ new book – Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard’s Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power — begins to set the record straight. David is a professor at the University of Alabama and Linda is an associate professor at Stillman College. David recently took questions from NRO‘s John J. Miller…
Program shows ancient roots of organic gardens
Tuscaloosa News – June 7
…The program, which continues through June 27, focused on Native American food and farming. The event showcased the park’s garden, which features corn, squash and beans – known as the three sisters – and other plants used by the past residents of Moundville…
Crimson Tide Bass Anglers host annual invitational tourney
Tuscaloosa News – June 7
Top collegiate bass angling teams will converge on Lake Tuscaloosa on Saturday and Sunday for the fourth annual University of Alabama Invitational bass tournament hosted by the UA Crimson Tide Bass Anglers…The home Alabama team will put five boats in the tournament. Other schools competing will include cross-state rival Auburn, Ole Miss, Southern Mississippi, North Carolina State, Iowa State, UAB, Montevallo, Faulkner, Louisiana Tech, Arkansas-Monticello and North Alabama…
Women make statement with their name
Florence Times Daily – June 7
…The tradition of taking a man’s last name symbolizes leaving an old life and identity to start a new one, said DoVeanna S. Fulton Minor, chair of women’s studies at the University of Alabama. “Marriage signifies inheritance as well as the way in which one traces one’s lineage,” Minor said. “The woman taking the man’s name signifies her leaving her own family and taking on the identity of the husband and his family, which is why it has been problematic for women.”…
Alabama State Troopers begin entering electronic crash reports
Birmingham News – June 6
Alabama state troopers have launched a new electronic crash report system that speeds up the turnaround time for getting a crash report. The system, called eCrash shortens motorists’ wait times for copies of wreck reports from state troopers…The system came to DPS through a grant to the University of Alabama. “It didn’t cost us anything,” Brown said. UA’s School of Engineering adapted the program for use in the state, and gave it to DPS.
Student group not giving up on tax bill
Tuscaloosa News – June 8
…University of Alabama student David Lindsay said he is not disillusioned about his first brush with the political process. “It was definitely disappointing,” said Lindsay, who worked with Impact Alabama, an initiative of the UA Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility, on the bill that died on the next to last day of the session last month. “But at the same time, we’ll be coming back next year, we’ll be going at it again and while this experience definitely opened my eyes to some aspects of politics, at the same time I wouldn’t say it made me cynical,” the Chicago junior said…