The Winter 2023 issue of Alabama Heritage magazine remembers the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis and his legacy in Alabama, and the United States. Author B.J. Hollars talked with several people who knew Lewis, giving first-person anecdotes of his work.
Born in 1940 in Troy, Alabama, Lewis grew up hoping to be a preacher. At 15 years old, he had his first public sermon. He followed the civil rights movement, hearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. over the radio before, at age 18, meeting King in person. Lewis was one of the original 13 Freedom Riders, participating in nonviolent protests in Washington, D.C., before organizing voter registration efforts in Selma, Alabama. Lewis and activist Hosea Williams led a peaceful demonstration across the Edmund Pettus Bridge before police used tear gas on the crowd in what came to be known as “Bloody Sunday.” Lewis, who died in 2020, lived his life fighting for others. Hollars has been featured in several previous issues of Alabama Heritage.
Other features include a photo story on the newly restored Frank Lloyd Wright’s Rosenbaum House in Florence, Alabama, which was previously believed to be beyond saving. The Rosenbaum House, located on Riverview Drive, is considered to be one of the purest examples of Wright’s Usonian architecture. Usonian houses were modestly priced smaller houses intended for the middle class. Purchased and restored by the city of Florence in 1999, it is the only Wright house in the Southeast open to the public.
The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Thousand Eyes Archaeological Outreach Program in North Alabama teaches everyday citizens how to protect Native American sites. The Florence Mound, built in two stages over a thousand years by Indigenous people of the Woodland period, is the largest in the Tennessee Valley. Authors Erin Dunsmore and Brian Murphy give an in-depth look at this program.
Also included in the Winter 2023 issue is a feature on the life of Joseph Humphrey Sloss, a man known for his fiery temper throughout the newspaper industry, and branded a “liar,” “slanderer” and “dirty dog.”
Regular departments including Alabama Governors, Portraits and Landscapes, From the Archives and much more.
About Alabama Heritage
Alabama Heritage, celebrated its 35th year, is co-published by The University of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the Alabama Department of Archives and History. The quarterly magazine covers a variety of subjects related to Alabama history and culture, and has garnered numerous local, regional and national awards over the years. Copies are available for purchase at The University of Alabama Supply Store, at Barnes & Nobles and Books-a-Millions throughout the state, and online.