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To old Tuscaloosans, I was always an outsider who didn’t arrive until October 1895, and from Kansas City at that. I could never be part of this town’s bedrock - not like Jemison, Maxwell, Fitts, Moody, Searcy, Somerville, Monnish, Cochrane, Friedman, Finnell and others. One of them or not, I became successful in coal and grain, which got their attention. For that I was accepted.

I made money working coal properties east of town on the river and from a grain elevator I built at the Mobile & Ohio railroad. This entire decade, plus three later years, I headed the Board of Trade, an association of businesses and forerunner of today’s Chamber of Commerce..

Citizens sent me to city hall as an alderman in 1900. I ran for mayor in ’02 but lost, then was elected mayor in ’04..

Right away I rattled many old families trees by removing their names and those of U.S. presidents from our streets. I replaced them with numbers, which made more sense, and laid out the town with streets north-south, avenues east-west. Greensboro became 24th Avenue, but nobody cottoned to that. .

By public vote, saloons were closed on January 1, ’02, and the town itself started selling liquor and wine from a dispensary at the corner of Broad and 23rd. That lasted until prohibition in ‘08. A board I led ran the enormously profitable dispensary, which netted the city and county more than $200,000 in six years. .

The Board of Trade had broad powers. For example, we could invite desirable immigration, call emergency meetings of citizens and advance the business interests of the town and county as we saw fit. We also published a 50-page pamphlet that presented Tuscaloosa in story and pictures as impressively as anything I’d ever seen..

Controversy often fueled the board’s monthly meetings. Broad Street and Greensboro Avenue interests fought over who would get prime business development. Two rival banks, City National and Merchant’s, vied for town deposits. In that fight, we found common ground for cooperation in procuring more industry. The two banks, and a third, all shared in deposits from the town, county and our Alabama Insane Hospitals..

There were other challenges. Twice I helping rescue the city financially; in 1906-11, I was waterworks commissioner; and in 1909, I developed the Pinehurst subdivision. Along the way I acquired a nickname I took as a compliment: “the great compromiser.” Let’s just say I know this decade well. Here then is how I saw the town and its 5,000 residents at the turn of the century..

Broad, Greensboro and other main streets were graveled, which helped control dust and mud. We had electric lights, water works and sewers; the McLester Hotel; a handsome city hall, an opera house, six saloons and the dummy line. The McLester sent a carriage over to where the M&O stopped to pick up passengers. But one sultry summer afternoon, after a thunderstorm, the horses stepped on fallen electric line and were killed..

The dummy line, our only public transportation, ran over seven miles of track. A chugging, clanging, noisy locomotive pulled the cars of people and freight to its stations. In some respects it wasn’t a real engine, hence the name, dummy..

Three important events had already occurred that set the stage for our impressive growth from 1900 to 1909. Two of them concerned the river, the other the railroad..

January 27, 1896, the steamboat “Baltimore” negotiated three new locks near town and pushed our first coal-filled barge down river. We celebrated the great significance of opening a route clear to Mobile. Businesses closed, whistles blew and C.B.Verner led a parade through town to Lock One for a ceremony of speeches, cannon volleys and fireworks. Jennie Maxwell christened the steamboat with a bottle of wine..

In 1898, business and civic leaders, I among them, met here to discuss further river development. Thanks to U.S. Senator John Bankhead, among others, the 1899 federal Rivers and Harbors Act put the Warrior-Tombigbee River System under a continuing contract plan and gave $900,000 for improvements. And do you know, from 1902 to 1915, 17 locks and dams were built from Birmingport to Mobile, 450 miles! Bankhead Lock and Dam was the last, dedicated in 1915. Our river road was open year round! .

Also in 1898, on May 12, the M&O finished its line from Columbus, Miss. to Tuscaloosa and on to Montgomery. What a day! So happened the Alabama Press Association was meeting in town - so Greensboro sported two majestic arches, one welcoming the railroad, the second the press. Mayor William Jemison led a parade to the depot for a program in which his daughter, Kate, drove a silver spike to formally finish the job. That night, everybody dressed up for a party at City Hall with music, dancing, food and drink..

As the 20th century dawned, this town was on the cusp of big things that brought new jobs, more self-confidence and political presence..

Central Coal and Iron Co. of South Pittsburgh, Tennessee, found land here (thanks to Sam Friedman’s help) and by 1902 was making pig iron. Named its site and company village after one of its officers, Frank Holt. The Strickland brothers, Charles and Clayton, were building boilers, engines, smoke stacks and repairing GM&O locomotives at the factory they founded in 1894. .

Northport’s 474 citizens survived a major flood in 1900, then one of its own, Jack Hardin, crossed the river to open our first bakery. Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph brought us the telephone in 1902. That same year J.H. Fitts and Co. - a bank established by James Harris Fitts in 1865 - became a national bank with $125,000 in deposits and a new name, City National..

On the south edge of town, at Socktown, brothers Dave and Monroe Rosenau operated a big hosiery mill, making a thousand dozen hose and socks a day from yarn spun at Cottondale. It was the only factory that hired women and children. .

In 1908 we opened a new Courthouse on Greensboro, just north of First Baptist Church. The Alabama chapter, Colonial Dames of America, placed a boulder on its front lawn in honor of our namesake, Chief Tushkaloosa. Two years later we completed a new, three-story jail to accommodate our criminal population..

East of town, across the Big Gully, the University in 1900 was a military school that also had played collegiate football since 1892. It dropped military training in 1903 after a student rebellion - taking the first step to create a regular college - and opened its College of Education in 1909. .

Stillman Institute had moved from in-town to the old Cochrane home place at Newtown, and continued training in the name of its founder, Dr. Charles Stillman. We had two successful female colleges, plus city and county public schools. We built our first high school in 1910 at 10th Avenue and Queen City. .

County roads were mostly trails, kept open by men from nearby settlements. Road camps were formed in 1899, whose crews slept, ate and did maintenance, working 10-hour days for 10 cents an hour. The County Commission, led by Probate Judge James Brown, created a convict camp in 1905, where locals wearing pin stripes did hard labor on the roads to satisfy their court sentence..

For fun, many people swam and socialized at Lake Lorraine and at the Swimming Club on the river between locks 10 and 11. The lake, east of the dummy line’s Bryce Hospital station, offered a dance pavilion and Sunday orchestra concerts. The club’s ladies changing room even had a trap door so those who wouldn’t remove their modesty could go straight into the water. Moonlight picnics on the locks were popular. Some of us also learned about golf. Our first course; nine holes, opened in 1905 at Queen City Park..

We had a few infirmaries for those needing medical care. But we welcomed our first hospital, opened in ’08 by a group of 10 doctors. To feed the patients they kept a cow and a garden on the premises, which was in line with my way of doing business..

Sources: “A History of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1816-1949,” Ben A. Green; The Tuscaloosa News; “The History of Northport: A Native Son’s Story,” Maggie Geist; “Past Horizons,” Marvin L. Harper.

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1910-1919: A Decade of Challenge

A few rough years ushered in our second decade. Prohibition dealt us fits. And I’m not taking sides in the fight to say so. But the fact is, when the town’s liquor dispensary closed to prohibition in ’08, we lost $39,000 in annual revenue. Three aldermen resigned in despair, saying weeds would cover our streets and taxes our citizens. Enforcement depended on two local ordinances. One banned the sale of liquor and the other outlawed public drinking. Policemen caught drinking on duty were fired.

More unpleasantness occurred when Mayor W.M. Faulk and our women-folk had it out over the width of our streets. By law, side streets were 99 feet wide and main drags like Greensboro and Broad, 132 feet wide. Problem was, houses, flower gardens and fences kept encroaching, and when workers started moving them back, some ladies brought a pistol to the garden and told them not to touch a single board or flower. Police guarded the workers, and gradually the work proceeded. Sidewalks were laid as well. .

In 1910 we followed a national trend by changing government in mid-stream from elected Mayor/Aldermen to a City Commission appointed by the governor. That gave the decade a rocky start! Our Board of Trade, led by Frank Blair, endorsed the change, but only after arguing about entering the political arena. .

After talking with local leaders, Gov. Emmett O’Neal appointed former aldermen Charles Weatherford and Sam Friedman. The third choice was a dark horse and total surprise, attorney Sam Sprott, a Tuscaloosa resident only since ’03. Stranger still, the three elected Sprott as president. They became our government July 3, 1911 and thereafter had to stand for election..

I’d divide the decade from then on into three general parts: the era of street paving and improved water, our Centennial celebration, and the war..

We paved streets for three years, ‘11-’13, mostly with asphalt because it was quieter than concrete. A few cars were around, including Dave Rosenau’s steam-driven Locomobile. But most folks traveled on horse-drawn vehicles with steel-rimmed tires, which clattered loudly on concrete. We also built our Alabama Great Southern Railway Station in ’11. .

One of the cars you’d see was the Windwagon. Now that was a novelty if we ever had one! The Maxwell brothers, Fred and Luther, built it, using an eight horsepower motorcycle engine, steering column from a 1910 Maxwell and a wooden propeller with a four-foot span mounted at the rear. They claimed it would go 30 miles an hour, but it was banned in town due to danger from the propeller..

A water consultant came to us in 1913 from up east, Pittsburgh it was, to help improve our water. We did what he suggested - installed 1,000 meters, began chlorination, built a booster pump and constructed a 2,500,000-gallon reservoir. Those were appreciated improvements over what came out of the old downtown water tank..

About now, folks also were complaining about the steam-driven dummy line, which I can attest was so noisy it could be heard all over town on a quiet day. Pressure by a business group headed by Frank Blair led the operator to electrify the line in 1915. That group also brought in our third railroad in 1911, the L&N, by building a track from Brookwood. .

Tuscaloosa was on the move in 1915; you could just feel it. With the completion of 17 locks and dams, we could ship goods and people for 400 miles down river any day of the year. The steamer “Peerless” left every Friday for Mobile, $7.50 roundtrip. .

Major industries included Central Coal and Iron Co. and Kaul Lumber Company. The University was growing under George Denny, who became president in 1912. The town was moving into the auto age. City Livery Stable added the repair of rubber tires to its horseshoe and blacksmith work. .

Our two picture shows were so popular that a city ordinance passed forbidding them to sell more tickets than they had seats. A Rotary Club was chartered, with Blair its first president. Alberta City was founded..

Northport in 1915 had 750 citizens, Faucett’s clothing store, Holly & Quarles Hardware, a Methodist Church and it, too, was growing..

Momentum began building toward 1916 and a grand celebration of Tuscaloosa’s first 100 years. Blair was the Centennial Chairman and worked with the University to combine its commencement with our party. He again was heading the Board of Trade..

May 1916, an original pageant in six parts was staged outdoors in Guild’s Woods, directed by Tom Garner, leader of the University glee clubs. In drama, song and dance - from Chief Tuscaloosa forward to the present - our friends and neighbors brought Tuscaloosa’s history to life with feeling and elegance. The second performance, at night, was even more spectacular under giant arc lights. Some 12,000 of us almost burst with pride!.

The Druid Brass Band led a huge parade downtown that ended at City Hall. Fincher and Ozment, the winning float, featured the “wedding” of two well-known children, Louise Alston and Thomas M. Ozment, son of one of the founders..

So the second hundred years opened with expectation and energy such as we had never known before. Yet all too soon they would fade under the dreadful shadow of something that would consume us for two years: The Great War..

In June 1916 our Warrior Guards were ordered to New Mexico, to join the search for Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. They returned in March, ’17, but within weeks America declared war on Germany. The Guards were dispersed into several regiments and the officers were assigned to train recruits..

Tuscaloosa County sent 1,800 men to war, 46 of whom were killed. Women made bandages, sweaters and other items to comfort the troops. We also met our quota in every drive for blood and war bonds. A huge American flag fluttered over Broad Street. And when news of the Armistice flashed over M&O railroad wires, November 11, 1918, we quickly mobilized a massive parade that stretched for blocks. Businesses and citizens alike dropped everything to celebrate and give thanks..

Gradually we returned to a normal way of life. In the process the town bought the West Alabama Fairgrounds, 20 acres for $16,000, selling it later for what became the Capstone Court development. The University also gave the town the block at Hackberry and Broad that soon became the site of Druid City Hospital..

About this time, in 1918, Charles Morris and I took a step of faith ourselves. We bought the Fitts Company, whose former owner, the late James Harris Fitts, had hired us in ’07. We changed the name to Duckworth Morris Insurance Co. and began to grow..

Sadly, Mr. Fitts died in 1912. The president of City National Bank and one of our legendary pioneers, his obituary aptly called him “one of the strongest and most picturesque characters in banking circles in the South, and one of the foremost leaders of the community.” This decade also brought international recognition to one of our own, and our greatest local tragedy to date. .

General William C. Gorgas served as U.S. Surgeon General ’15 to ’18, and proved beyond doubt at the Panama Canal that mosquitoes carried yellow fever. He gained a worldwide reputation and was awarded six honorary degrees. .

On a pretty Sunday afternoon in June 1919, the motor launch “Mary Francis” left the dock near Holt and started across the river carrying 62 men, women and children. It suddenly overturned and sank in water 100 feet deep, and 26 persons drowned. Samuel Alston, a good citizen, owned the boat and was aboard when it went down, but survived. Inspectors absolved both him and the captain of any blame, speculating that a rush of passengers from one side to the other caused the accident. Alston personally paid funeral costs for all victims at Evergreen Cemetery, but was so stricken with grief and guilt that he died at age 63..

Sources: “A History of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1816-1949,” Ben A. Green; “A History of Northport: A Native Son’s Story,” Maggie Geist; “Past Horizons,” Marvin L. Harper; The Tuscaloosa News.

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1920-1929: The Roaring Twenties

Tuscaloosa roared in the ‘20s. You could hear us all over Alabama and from coast to coast. I was probate judge when the decade began, and am proud to tell you about it.

First of all, we became a real city. You knew that when we doubled the taxes on ourselves to build schools, pave streets and develop a new source of water. (The river was awful.) Going east primarily, 41 new subdivisions opened! Civic clubs, a Community Chest and similar organizations enriched our lives. In 1925 we had 25,000 people, but were a much bigger trade area..

And, by golly, we showed everybody that our little ole country boys who talked funny could also play football. Tuscaloosa High School won the national championship in ’26 when it skunked Senn High of Chicago 42-0. That was a mythical title because there were no such rankings. But we claimed it just the same. The THS Black Bears had seven straight perfect seasons, ‘25-to-’31, something like 65 games in a row. Coach Paul Burnum might’ve been elected governor, but I’m glad he didn’t run. ‘Cause I did..

In the election of ’22, I carried every county but one to wallop Bibb Graves, and became governor in ’23. Since my ‘Plain Bill’ reputation was that of a little man with a big voice, who just told it like it was, I didn’t back away from the Legislature, the Klan, the press or anyone else. I enjoyed my term, but was glad to come home and run again for probate judge in ’27. Yes sir, won that, too. For the entire decade, I was either probate judge or governor..

During my first year as governor, my friend and president of the University of Alabama, George Denny, hired Wallace Wade as his football coach. This soft-spoken, hard-nosed gentleman built a powerhouse that in 1925 went undefeated and, in unprecedented recognition for a southern team, was invited to the Rose Bowl!.

Most of these farm boys had never been out of the state or ridden a train, much less 2,000 miles to the west coast. Underdog to a heralded Washington team, they pulled a shocking upset, 20-19, as folks back home crowded around radios to listen and cheer. It was a helluva trip, I’ll tell you. Hollywood was something else!.

My last year as governor, ’26, our Crimson Tide was unbeaten again and returned to Pasadena. Stanford played us to a 7-7 tie. But America knew about our little ole football players. So did Alabamians..

Denny field with its few bleacher seats couldn’t hold the crowds that came to the games. Dr. Denny decided to build a stadium with 12,072 concrete seats and wooden bleachers for spillovers. We dedicated it in ’29, whipping Ole Miss 22-7. I’ve gotten ahead of myself with all this talk of football and politics, but they’re natural bedfellows. Lots more was going on..

We mourned the death of Frank Sims Moody in 1920. One of our most dominant business and civic leaders, he was president of First National Bank for 40 years, and was a former state senator..

In August ’21, I signed the papers officially establishing the Chamber of Commerce as successor to the old Board of Trade. Frank Blair, who headed the board 1900-11 and 1916-17, led the move creating the chamber..

Fall of ’21, the city’s bonded debt was a staggering $2 million, due mainly to infrastructure improvements of the previous decade. The Legislature, in special session in November, passed our bill to double our tax rate from 5-to-10 mills, if state voters ratified it. They did. We met debt payments and moved toward even better living standards..

Our ladies now having the vote, one actually tried for City Commission in ’21. Myra Hausman ran third out of four candidates, but got a surprising147 votes. The Civic Improvement Society of public-spirited women also ceased operation. They had tended Greenwood and Evergreen cemeteries for years and put the pretty fountain at Sixth and Greensboro. They turned their work over to the city. .

’22 was quite a year. Citizens voted a $350,000 bond issue for a new high school and other education needs. We opened the Hugh Thomas Bridge, happy to close the shaky pontoon bridge we had used for two years. A non-profit corporation was formed to operate Druid City Hospital, being built at Hackberry and Broad. DCH opened in ’23 and included a School of Nursing run by Miss Etta Pearson, which gave young women a new career opportunity. Mr. Blair, who didn’t play golf, banded together 146 charter members to form Tuscaloosa Country Club and build a nine-hole course by the river, west of town. .

The Alabama Power Company came in November ’23, prompting The Tuscaloosa News to editorialize it was “the best development that has occurred in Tuscaloosa in many years.” Few argued the point, for the Birmingham-based operation bought and took over our electric and gas utilities that were serving 4,600 customers, plus 15 miles of street railway and cars. The company let us know it was glad to be in a city of such great promise. “More power to Tuscaloosa!” it said cleverly in “Powergrams,” its own publication. Service improved noticeably, which we liked. In ’28, we got streetlights..

Nothing spurs residential and industrial growth more than good water. We voted a $250,000 bond issue in ’24 to make improvements, but they didn’t help the taste. Our water came right out of the polluted river and had to be chlorinated so heavily that it was almost undrinkable. .

We needed a new waterworks system, and began moving toward it, but it didn’t happen for several years. City Engineer W.H. Nicol and University engineering dean George Davis were studying possibilities as 1926 ended. They recommended we turn to Yellow Creek, a spring-fed source east of town. Citizens voted a $350,000 bond issue to buy land and build a dam with capacity of 16 million gallons a day. .

City commissioners in July 1929 named the lake formed by the dam Harris Lake. Purer and sweeter than we ever imagined it would be, the plentiful, good water led to new neighborhoods and left the river to serve new industry. .

We got our first skyscraper in ’25. Merchant’s Bank and Trust Company built 10 stories where Rosenau’s hosiery mill had been before it burned in ‘22. Traffic was regulated, too; 12 mph in town, 10 mph rounding corners and a one-hour parking limit on main streets..

Our young chamber of commerce made quite a name for itself in ’27. Showing aggressive initiative, it bought 125 acres from the city for $10,000 and used the site by the river to convince an out-of-state business to consolidate its various operations here. As part of the deal, the commissioners altered the city limits to exclude the land from city taxes. The end result was Gulf States Paper Corp., which built a huge plant and added a $5,000 daily payroll to our healthy economy. .

But the chamber was just getting started, as we learned. It also raised $115,000 to lure other industries, and soon we had a milk condensary and a cotton compress. Next, it worked to bring a major Veteran’s Hospital. The multi-million dollar project looked hopeful at the end of ’29, and once again Tuscaloosans played a big part, voting a $150,000 bond issue to extend the sanitary sewer system four miles, out to the site..

We stepped into the aviation age in spring of ’28, turning a cow pasture owned by the A.S. Van De Graaff estate into a landing strip we called Maynor Field. Hargrove Van de Graaff gave his permission when the city agreed to grade and improve the land just west of Northport..

Speaking of Northport, it progressed on several fronts - built a grade school in ’21 and Tuscaloosa County High in ’27, paved Main avenue and built other roads; opened its first picture show in ’29 with a Disney cartoon film. .

Little else was lighthearted in ’29, for the nation’s panic began. We didn’t escape it. Cotton quickly fell to five cents a pound and hundreds lost their jobs. Men despaired and got drunk on cheap hair tonic they bought illegally from bootleggers and speakeasies. The decade ended ominously under dark clouds of depression..

Sources: “A History of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1816-1949,” Ben A. Green; “The History of Northport: A Native Son’s Story,” Maggie Geist; The Tuscaloosa News; “Past Horizons,” Marvin L. Harper.

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1930-1939: Progress Follows The Depression

The damned Yankees cussed us as stubborn rebels when they sacked and torched Tuscaloosa. Some of us old heads remembered that compliment during the depression. We weren’t going to buckle. And we didn’t..

Not one of our banks failed, testimony in particular to the strength of City National, founded in 1865 by J.H. Fitts, my father, and First National, opened in 1871 by Washington Moody..

I’ll tell you a story about this depression. As 1930 began, Merchants Bank was on the verge of collapse that would have wiped out hundreds of people. On February 7, directors of First National and Merchants met through the night to save Merchants. .

By dawn they had reached a gentleman’s agreement. From the steps of Merchants, First National president Frank M. Moody announced to a crowd that the banks had merged and that First National would honor all checks on either bank. The bold act literally saved lives. .

Still, however, teachers took a 10 percent pay cut, and so did city workers, but our schools and government kept running. We howled when gasoline and amusement taxes were imposed, but the income helped keep the city solvent. .

County schools suffered terribly when the state couldn’t send them operating money. They owed teachers and staff $80,000 and closed their doors in December ’32. Supt. H. G. Dowling cried announcing the sad news. Over 400 other parcels of land also had delinquent taxes due. .

At the university, President George Denny enforced two 10 percent salary reductions on everyone, but at least paid the faculty in cash, not script. Our farmers’ harvested 15,000 bales of cotton in ’31; a good crop, but got nothing for it; 4 ¾ cents a pound. The Tuscaloosa News in ’31 reported “several liquidations” among local merchants and “a regrettable temporary unemployment situation.” But it predicted the surviving stores would profit by the increased trade. Federal programs worked - and probably saved -- hundreds of people. In ’33 the Civilian Work Administration had 1,700 citizens on its payroll, and the Civilian Conservation Corps employed 200 youths. Under these and other similar programs, needed buildings were built both in town and at the university..

Adding to our miseries were summers that baked us, winters that froze us, and a state law banning the consumption of liquor and beer even though prohibition had ended. In July ’36 the temperature soared above 100 for eight straight days, topping out at 108 degrees. In ’34 and again in ’38 we got snow - nearly two inches on March 19, ’34, and eight inches on January 30, ’38, when the mercury fell to three-above-zero. I had just become chamber president and my shivering friends asked why did I let this happen?.

Summer of ’34, many of us would have welcomed a cold beer, and 2,000 cases the sheriff had confiscated disappeared from the jail. All I’m willing to say is that six prominent men were indicted for theft. Four of them paid a fine and the other indictments were dropped..

But as I said, we didn’t give in to the times. In ’34, boosted by the benefits of F.D.R.’s New Deal, we had $5.7million in retail trade at mid-year, followed by a healthy Christmas shopping season. By ’37 we were putting the depression blues behind u s. We had a lot to feel good about. Even during the roughest years..

The Veterans Hospital, a huge cooperative project between Washington, and us was assured in November 1930. The federal government bought 400 acres; our chamber of commerce raised $10,000 to pay legal fees and other incidentals, and our people voted a $125,000 bond issue to finance a nine-mile sewer to the site. It was doubled in size after dedication in the summer of ’32..

May ’31, the university celebrated its Centennial with ceremonies that included a barbecue, band concert, a ball and an academic procession. The crowning event was a spectacular outdoor pageant staged by more than 1,000 costumed students; the finale of which was a Lincolnesque address by President George Denny. Surrounded by a huge semi-circle of students, he hailed the university’s achievements, saying it “has taken its place as a university of the people, by the people and for the people, which is the proper place of a university in a democratic society.” Thousands of students, alumni and visitors enjoyed the festivities..

National newspapers wrote about one of our own in ’31. Robert Jemison Van de Graaff, University graduate and Rhodes Scholar, had invented a belt-charged electrostatic high voltage regulator. He refined and improved the invention while doing research at Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. If we didn’t grasp the importance of his work, we liked the association..

The Crimson Tide kept us on America’s football map, winning the Rose Bowl in ’30 and ’35 before finally falling in ’38. Hank Crisp’s basketball squad won the conference title in ’34. Elsewhere on campus, buildings were rising everywhere. Those completed during Dr. Denny’s presidency included the Union building, men’s/women’s gymnasiums, home economics and fine arts building and Tutwiler Dormitory. Dr. Denny left office in December ’36, having led the institution since 1912. During that time the campus grew from 400 to 4,850 students and from 16 buildings to 75..

His successor, Richard Foster, kept building. He added the main library, a field house/auditorium and 13 other buildings, mostly dormitories. He also restored salary levels, gained new funds from the Legislative and hired more faculty. .

Buildings sprouted and grew in town, also. We voted a bond issue in ’36 for a new city hall that included an auditorium, also a police station/jail. Oliver Lock and Dam was under construction in ’37. Already completed: two new grammar schools and an addition to Tuscaloosa High, where our Black Bears were state champion in football and basketball in ’35..

The Bama Theater occupied the new city hall auditorium under a 20-year lease, and startled its audiences with shimmering stars in a night sky ceiling. Now that was classy!.

By ’36 our City Commission was serving four-year terms, instead of two, thanks to the Legislature approving our local bill making the change. It gave us much better continuity at city hall. We also had our first Civil Service Board, named in ‘31..

Tuscaloosa and Northport together bought the 240 acres of Maynor Field airport property for $30,000 in ’36, and planned to spend $211,000 to improve it. In ’39, as signs of a new world war became more apparent, the state Institute of Aeronautics leased the facility to train aviator cadets. Oliver Lock and Dam, named for its champion, Congressman William P. Oliver, also went into service..

Our community suffered the deaths of several prominent citizens in the ‘30s. Among them: “Plain Bill” Brandon, our former governor, December ’34; Frank Blair, the outsider from Kansas City who became mayor and Mr. Everything, October ‘38; L.O. Dawson, 30 years pastor of First Baptist Church, ’38; Sampson McGee, county tax collector for 39 years, October ’35; Judge Henry Foster, longtime president of the university board of trustees, fall ’39. Their loss saddened us deeply and cost us great leadership..

But nothing - absolutely nothing - grieved us as much as the loss of 38 fine mothers, fathers and children who died in the terrible tornado of March 21, 1932. .

The heavy, breezy day awoke with a roar at 4 p.m. when the storm arrived from the southwest. Going to ground in the west end, it caused awful damage and death. It was on the ground for 20 miles, next exploding the Tuscaloosa Country Club, then jumping the river and literally destroying Northport along Bridge Street and Main Street. The tornado demolished 350 homes and buildings, left 3,000 people homeless and made all of us storm-conscious from that day forward..

Matthew W. Clinton spoke for many of us in describing his frantic afternoon. In “Matt Clinton’s Scrapbook,” he wrote, “I hurried to the Druid City Hospital. I have never seen such a sight in my life. In the lobby people were all over the floor - some moaning, some screaming, some unconscious - and all covered with dust..

“Nobody knew where anybody was, but I finally located my father on the top floor. He had been cut … but he was not seriously injured. The shock was the worst thing that had happened to him.” .

Sources: “Matt Clinton’s Scrapbook,” Matthew W. Clinton; “A History of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1816-1949,” Ben A. Green; “The History of Northport: A Native Son’s Story,” Maggie Geist; The Tuscaloosa News; “Past Horizons,” Marvin L. Harper; “The University of Alabama, A Pictorial History,” Suzanne Rau Wolfe.

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1940-1949:The War Years & Beyond

We took our positions to fight the war that the Nazis and Japanese forced upon us. The military needed 7,500 of our sons, fathers, brothers and uncles, many of them so terribly young. Hundreds didn’t come back.

Left behind, but not left out, were our daughters, wives, sisters, aunts and children. They all fought on the home front in a variety of ways.

We took the rationing of gasoline, food, clothing and other daily needs in stride, knowing that our sacrifices were small by comparison. Community-wide drives collected scrap metal and paper, also money for the Red Cross. Citizens by the hundreds bought war bonds for war bombs, as a slogan urged us to do. Civilian defense programs drew huge turnouts, including 11,000 at a special demonstration at Denny Stadium.

So many men were gone that the university’s student body was mainly women. Alabama even disbanded football in ’43 for lack of able-bodied athletes. In ’44, Harry Gilmer led a team of freshman war babies and men exempted from service to the Sugar Bowl, where they lost to Duke by three points.

Strange-talking men from France and England arrived in our midst to be trained as fliers at our airport, and later at Foster Field south of town. We made world headlines the day a British cadet fell out of his plane but amazingly landed on it and rode it to earth unhurt.

Industries thrived with government contracts. Central Foundry made shell casings of all kinds at Holt. National Southern Products chemical plant turned out soap and war supplies using waste products from other businesses.

Reichhold Chemical Co. moved in, east of town, to make phenol. We didn’t know what that was, but were assured it wouldn’t blow up. The only thing that exploded was the bedrock the county blasted through to get a road out to the plant.

West of town, the federal government started building a $17 million tire plant to keep America’s war machine moving. Toward the end of the war, however, with construction 65 percent complete, work was stopped. B.F. Goodrich stepped in, bought the facility and finished construction. Those jobs added greatly to our post-war economy.

We cheered collectively at the news that the U.S.S. Tuscaloosa had earned five battle stars in action against the Nazis; moreover, that it was never hit by enemy fire. Picked as the site for an Army hospital of more than 2,000 beds, we felt especially important to the war effort. Northington Hospital opened in September ’43, south of town, with 2,300 employees. One of the wounded treated there was Alvin DuPont, a Louisiana lad who had survived D-Day. He stayed in Tuscaloosa, married a local girl and eventually went to work for the city. The facility housed German prisoners in ’45.

April 14, ’45 was a day we all will remember - a sad day, a terrible day, not unlike December 7, 1941. We’ll always know where we were when the news flashed on the radio: FDR was dead. Our great leader through the depression and this war was dead. The mantle of ending the war fell to Harry Truman. He did it convincingly, although our thanks and celebration were tempered by the memory of so many lost loved ones.

Wartime didn’t stop everything in Tuscaloosa. Because the war accelerated highway construction nationally, it helped us realize a longtime dream - that of a quicker way to Montgomery.

The only routes we had to the seat of state government were either through Uniontown to the south, or Birmingham to the east. Both of which were tiring, dusty, all-day treks of almost 150 miles each way.

Gov. Frank Dixon’s administration some years earlier had begun plans for a more direct road to connect us with Montgomery by way of Centreville, Maplesville and Prattville. The war sped completion to the extent that by summer of ’43 a ribbon of handsome gray pavement 99 miles long was finished at a cost of $2.6 million.

As a city commissioner and president of the chamber in ’42 and ‘43, I was one of six men who planned the dedication ceremony. Judge Chester Walker was our chairman. Working with our friends in Montgomery, we set July 30 as the day.

The program was very elaborate. It started with a motorcade that left Montgomery that morning and stopped for celebrations at the three towns along the way. At noon a group of us met the processional two miles south of town, and cut the ribbon to formally open the road, which the state had named the University Highway. Then we all went to the McLester Hotel for lunch.

A festive program at the Courthouse at two o’clock featured speeches by Gov. Chauncey Sparks, university president Raymond Paty and state highway director Robin Swift, among others.

Sparks took the occasion to tell outsiders to keep their noses out of our race relations, and let us work out our own problems. The South, he said, would give every man an equal opportunity regardless of color. Swift promised the construction of a new highway to Birmingham after the war to replace what he called “that mess of a road.”

Even through the clouds of war the sun of progress shone upon us on that great and memorable day. Fifteen leading businesses joined to sponsor a full page ad in The Tuscaloosa News that hailed the road as the key link joining Florence to Tuscaloosa to Montgomery to Dothan, diagonally across Alabama, and completing the most direct route from Chicago to Florida, opening us up to Midwest tourists. There was more big news in town in ’43.

On a pretty day in May, we dedicated the Queen City Swimming Pool, a majestic showplace if I do say so, and the result of local, federal and private cooperative efforts. It was a $125,000 project, jointly funded by the city, the local David Warner Foundation and the federal Work Projects Administration.

The program included swimming and diving demonstrations, and participation by Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and the Tuscaloosa High School band. Mrs. Herbert D. Warner dedicated the pool. And throughout the summer, the community band led by Col. Carlton Butler played delightful evening concerts there.

This was also the year when Druid City Hospital added a 24-bed wing, and the Jaycees held a Founder’s Day celebration attended by 12 former presidents. The others were away at war.

Our sun of prosperity beamed brightly in peacetime. By ’47 we had nearly 28,000 residents, almost 14,000 electric meters, 8,000 water meters and 9,200 phones. Bank assets totaled $42 million. And the Tuscaloosa Country Club doubled in size to 18 holes.

It was an eventful year at the university. Veterans flocked to enroll under the G.I. Bill. Dr. Paty labeled them the best students. Nonetheless, he quit as president in ’47 and was succeeded by John Gallalee, the supervisor of campus construction and a former mechanical engineering teacher. The posh University Club also opened in the old Governor’s Mansion at the corner of Broad and Queen City. With money provided by the Warner family and foundation, the university bought the old house in ’44 and restored it elegantly.

Dr. Gallalee had a stormy relationship with the students. Once he ordered campus police to shoot in the leg any student who tried to take down a fraternity’s confederate flag symbol. The fracas ended with no injuries, but “GGG” (Gallalee’s Gotta Go) appeared in many places on campus. He also opposed serving alcohol at frat houses.

Dr. Samuel Hay became president of Stillman College in ’48. Within a year it expanded into a four-year liberal arts college and began a million dollar building program. Four of the seven Lary brothers, of Northport - Al, Frank, Gene and Ed - all great athletes, led Tuscaloosa County high to a perfect football season in ’46. Under Swede Kendall, who coached at Tuscaloosa High for 20 years, the Black Bears were state champions in football in ’49.

Republic Airline brought commercial air service to west Alabama in ’49 with two daily flights from our airport. Phifer Wire Products Company opened as well, a new dimension to our economy.

A new Tuscaloosa News publisher, Buford Boone, arrived from Macon, Georgia in ‘47. Stories then appeared exposing the Ku Klux Klan. They had a lot of folks talking, some of them ugly. Among those who read them were a local man, Robert Shelton, a Klan Grand Dragon, and a feisty young politician, George Wallace. Pretty Lurleen Burns, of Fosters, had married George in ’43, after graduating from County High.

Sources: The Tuscaloosa News; “A History of Tuscaloosa County, 1816-1949,” Ben A. Green; “The History of Northport: A Native Son’s Story,” Maggie Geist; “The University of Alabama, A Pictorial History,” Suzanne Rau Wolfe.

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1950-1959: Good Times & Challenges

We thought we were sitting pretty as the 1950s dawned. Chamber president Clemson Duckworth noted as much in the annual report commemorating the chamber’s 50th anniversary -- $40 million in bank deposits and 46,364 people equaled a balanced city of institutions, agriculture and industry. As president of City National Bank, I felt good about that.

Republic Airline added a third daily flight. A chamber program, Alabama Industry Days, showcased the locally made products of 31 businesses. The chamber, Merchants Bureau and Jaycees worked well together to promote many community activities. Our own Ann Adams was Alabama’s Maid of Cotton and made an impressive ambassador for her hometown.

Tuscaloosa in ’51 hosted a conference of business leaders who talked about the future of our most dependable lifeline, the river. At that meeting we created the Warrior-Tombigbee Development Association, which we hoped would become a helpful link to Washington. We hadn’t had such a conference in 52 years. That first one led to the construction of 17 locks and dams that opened up the Black Warrior from Birmingport to Mobile. Once again, we had high hopes.

Others thought well of us, too. A Baltimore, Maryland magazine, “Manufacturer’s Record,” published a big article about us in ‘52. It talked about our strong economy, good quality of life and influence of the University of Alabama. Pointed out the importance of two new organizations in continuing industrial growth, the well-funded New Industries Committee and the Warrior-Tombigbee Development Association.

The article ended saying, “Tuscaloosa’s remarkable balance in economy is reflected in the fact that the per capita effective buying income of Tuscaloosa residents in 37 percent higher than the average for the state.” Our work ethic and good efforts were returning dividends, helping establish our name nationally.

Just as true, however -- but we didn’t know it -- was that hundreds of our people would soon cast themselves in another light, that of rioting mobs who threatened others’ lives and the very essence of city and university.

You could sense a growing uneasiness in the community, almost imperceptible, yet unmistakable. It began building in ’52, when two Negro women applied for admission to the all-white university. The trustees refused them but their attorney sued, and we braced ourselves.

Meanwhile, our growth was evident. The 240-bed, $3.2 million Druid City Hospital opened in December of ’52, with public tours over four days. U.S. Sen. Lister Hill was the dedication speaker, a fitting choice as he was author of the Hill-Burton legislation that provided $2 million of the cost of our hospital.

The city and county jointly owned DCH. A nine-man board, of which I was chairman, managed it. DCH opened paid-for and debt-free, thanks to a temporary one-cent sales tax. The tax went off the books in July ’52.

Health care was a huge, $4 million payroll, with 2,000 employees at the V.A. Hospital, Bryce Hospital and Partlow State School, in addition to DCH. The Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools accredited Stillman College in ’53. And in ’54 we got a fine new hotel, the Stafford, built on the site of the original Stafford School. Another Stafford School was built at 15th Street and Queen City.

The need for better-prepared workers kept growing. In answer, DCH opened a new nursing school, and in ’54 Shelton State Technical Institute was established specifically to upgrade the skills of our workers. Also, the public library moved to the larger Jemison House after its owner, Hugo Friedman, gave the house to the city. We renamed it the Friedman Memorial Library.

By now we had six flights a day to Memphis and Atlanta. But the undercurrents of change continued boiling, pulling Tuscaloosa toward dangerous whirlpools.

In October ’55 I was serving my second year as chamber president when the United States Supreme Court ruled that a university or college could not deny anyone admission because of race. The inevitable was upon us.

One of the women who applied in ‘52, Autherine Lucy, was admitted in February ’56. Her first days were routine, but that weekend mobs of locals and outsiders invaded the campus. Shouting “Keep Tuscaloosa white!” they burned a cross, booed president Oliver Carmichael’s appeal for order, damaged several cars and caused an ugly scene.

Monday was worse. The mob numbered 1,000 by 11 o’clock. It chased Miss Lucy across campus as she was driven to class and attacked a car. That night the mob threw rocks and eggs at Mrs. Carmichael when she appeared on the balcony of her home.

President Carmichael and the trustees were meeting in emergency session. They suspended Miss Lucy, saying it was for her own safety.

Tuscaloosa News publisher Buford Boone was as shocked and incensed as many others of us. But he had paper and ink, also the courage to speak out. The next day a front-page editorial appeared. Under the headline, “What A Price for Peace,” he accused the administration and trustees of crumbling “to the pressures and desires of a mob.”

He said, “What has happened here is far more important than whether a Negro girl is admitted to the university. We have a breakdown of law and order, an abject surrender to what is expedient rather than a courageous stand for what is right. Yes, there’s peace on the university campus this morning. But what a price has been paid for it!”

The Klan, White Citizens Council and other extremists reacted predictably. They made threatening calls to Buford at home, broke his windows with bricks and picketed the newspaper. But the News didn’t flinch from its position that we should obey the law of the land, and do so peacefully. Buford even spoke in person to the citizen’s council, telling its members in a speech that was broadcast, “our problem is with ourselves.”

The university on February 29 expelled Autherine Lucy for libeling the institution with false and defamatory charges after being suspended. The action relieved even our Negro leaders, who were thankful this ugly episode ended without anyone being killed.

Buford’s courageous editorial received The Pulitzer Prize, journalism’s highest award, in May ’57. His response to Time magazine, “Please be kind to me and forget it.”

Local sports offered us welcome diversion. Tuscaloosa High was state champion in basketball and track in ’55. In ’58 Indian Hills Country Club opened with a nine-hole golf course, Meadowbrook was swinging along as a successful private golf club and the Y.M.C.A. moved to a new building downtown. Eight public parks and playgrounds were in use across the city.

In ’56, Bama’s fabulous “Rocket Eight,” under coach Johnny Dee, won the SEC championship. But Alabama football suffered the second of three dismal seasons under coach Ears Whitworth, who had succeeded Red Drew in ’55.

First Baptist Church dedicated a splendid new sanctuary on Greensboro Avenue in ’58, and a barbecue joint called Dreamland opened way out on Jug Factory road. That year, the university also made two benchmark decisions.

First, it hired Frank Rose to replace Dr. Carmichael, who resigned in January ’57, and interim president James H. Newman. Frank came from the presidency of Transylvania College in Kentucky, his alma mater, and quickly launched a $5 million development campaign primarily to improve faculty salaries. He was a dynamic leader, taking higher education’s message to hundreds of audiences annually.

Second, Alabama fired coach Whitworth and brought back home one of its own, former Crimson Tide player Paul William Bryant, who was coach at Texas A&M. He went 5-4-1 in ’58 and improved to 7-1-2 in ‘59.

We looked forward with guarded optimism. We believed in the future. For football, and ourselves too.

Sources: West Alabama Chamber of Commerce; “The Schoolhouse Door,” E. Culpepper Clark; “The University of Alabama, A Pictorial History,” Suzanne Rau Wolfe; The Tuscaloosa News.

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1960-1969: Advancement Out of Adversity

When I told a Time magazine reporter to forget about my Pulitzer Prize, it wasn’t false modesty. I knew that years of upheaval, turmoil and violence lay ahead for Alabama, Tuscaloosa and the South as the civil rights movement gathered momentum.

What I didn’t know, as the decade began - what none of us knew, really - was the extent of change this 20th century revolution would produce. Or that our state, and particularly the University of Alabama, would become a pivotal proving ground.

Had we known, we could have done nothing about it except what some of us did, anyway, stand firm against lawlessness and appeal for law and order. One thing for sure: my newspaper, The Tuscaloosa News, had plenty of hot copy most every day.

The irony of the decade is that its winds bore historic achievement - our Sesquicentennial, the development of McFarland Mall, Bear Bryant’s three national championships, completion of the Holt Lock and Dam, among many examples.

Yet those same winds blew us to the brink of self-destruction, then held us there as the prisoner of two forces: our own resistance to the inevitable changes occurring around us, and a demagogue governor’s grandstand play in the schoolhouse door.

By the hardest, we survived. A group of brave-hearted leaders refused to let us fall before hatred and racism.

I think of bank president George LeMaistre, chamber president Jack Warner and real estate executive Harry Pritchett, who quietly went to South Carolina in April ’63 to see firsthand how Clemson University integrated successfully. In doing so they put themselves at risk in our powder keg political environment.

I think of Frank Rose, University president, whose style, actions and polish enabled him to carefully work both sides of an electrified fence. On the one hand, preparing the campus to integrate, on the other hand appeasing the single-minded politician who governed the Board of Trustees. I think of the behind-the-scenes tireless labor of Dr. Rose’s right hand man, Jeff Bennett that few knew about.

I think of T.Y. Rogers, sent here by Martin Luther King Jr. to open us up or close us down. Many whites branded him an outside agitator and troublemaker. He definitely filled the churches, our streets and lunch counters, and the jail. His strategy was to apply non-violent, continuous pressure. Local officials finally negotiated the end of public segregation. I think of others who led the Tuscaloosa Citizens for Action Committee. They, too, didn’t want our streets bloody, as many in Alabama were.

I think of “The Price of Defiance,” a masterful speech the courageous George LeMaistre wrote in the fall of ’62. He contrasted Tuscaloosa’s good image with that of the Little Rock of Gov. Orval Faubus, and gave our business community a rallying point for law and order.

I think of Ryan de Graffenried, the Tuscaloosa attorney who died hoping to guide Alabama onto a moderate racial path. One day after qualifying for governor, in February ’66, he was killed in a plane crash while campaigning in northeast Alabama. That opened the door for the demagogue governor; who couldn’t serve consecutive terms, to run his wife, our own Lurleen from Fosters. She was elected, but died in office in May ’68 of cancer. She was a fine woman, and a tragic loss.

I think of Coach Bryant, whose unique style and national championship teams in ’61, ’64 and ’65 gave us all braggin’ rights and a special pride. If the nation didn’t like us, it warmed to the Bear. Alabama football stood for class when not much else did in the state.

I think of General Henry Graham, a gentleman from Birmingham whose Commander-in-Chief, John F. Kennedy, gave him a tough order. Standing eye-to-eye with George Wallace at Foster Auditorium, Graham executed that order: “It is my sad duty to ask you to step aside, on order of the President of the United States.”

At the other end of this spectrum were the Klan, White Citizen’s Council, the National States’ Rights Party and those who fell in behind the likes of their leaders, Robert Shelton, Leonard Wilson and J.B. Stoner. They hated every step taken toward moderation, and fought back with flaming crosses, hooded rallies, late night phone threats, violent mobs and intimidation. But their extremism wouldn’t beat us.

You’d hardly know it, but good things were happening in Tuscaloosa during these years. County High started the decade winning the state basketball title in ’60. April of ’62, P.B. Raiford, executive director of the Tuscaloosa Chamber of Commerce, with daring thoughtfulness, made eight predictions for the year 2000, put them in an envelope and saw them sealed in the wall of City National Bank’s east Tuscaloosa branch, which was under construction.

He wouldn’t tell me all of them, just a few. One was that Tuscaloosa’s population would be 200,000, countywide, 275,000. Northport and Tuscaloosa would be one city. A new bridge would be located west of Hunt Oil Co. The University of Alabama would have 20,000 students and the Northington campus would contain several major schools of the university. The main campus would extend eastward to Druid City Hospital. Well, was he visionary or delirious? We’ll know in 38 years.

We built a handsome new Courthouse downtown, which Gov. Wallace dedicated in May ‘64. Next day signs of segregated bathroom and water fountains appeared in the building, but weren’t supposed to. White officials had agreed there wouldn’t be any. If a single action fused our demonstrations, that was it. The federal court ordered them removed in June.

Druid City Hospital grew steadily until it reached 500 beds in ’67. That year, too, the West Alabama baseball team won the American Legion World Series, and Druid High had a 31-0 basketball season. Tuscaloosa High won its fifth state tennis title in seven years. But the biggest crown - that of Miss Universe! - was placed on the head of the beautiful Sylvia Hitchcock, a University student, no less.

And ’68 was huge. The new Holt Lock and Dam was completed in $28 million splendor. The city awarded the contract for Riverside Drive that would run beside the Black Warrior from Holt all the way into downtown. Our $2 million federal courthouse was opened. Lake Lurleen was dedicated as a state park in May and in July the first contract was let for the Woolsey Finnell Bridge. A chamber of commerce delegation even slipped away to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to study its consolidated government.

Air-conditioned public buses began running in ’68, after the chamber intervened in a transit crisis to save the franchise. The system had been shaky, and from August ’64 to April ’65, the city was without public transportation altogether.

Two of our major churches, First Methodist and First Baptist, both observed their Sesquicentennials in ’68, at a time when Tuscaloosa also was planning its 150th celebration. Tom Shurett was chairman of our party and promised it would give us all “not only an awareness of our rich past, but also of the tremendous growth and developments that lie ahead.” The Tuskaloosa Sesquicentennial Committee, Inc. contracted with a professional outfit, The Rogers Company, to create our show.

April 19-26, ’69, at Memorial Coliseum, “The Black Warrior Saga” premiered with a cast of 575 citizens. Its festive overture ushered in the Celebration Queen and her court amid brilliant lights, baton twirlers, Scouts, trumpeters and 400 actors. Ten dramatic episodes followed, starting with The Creation, going through post-war development and leaving us with the question, what of our tomorrow?

It was a week none of us would ever forget, capping a decade we’d never forget, either. Chamber president D.O. McCluskey made a forthright statement to the members in ’69. The man who ran DCH said, “our endeavors must be - and will be - in behalf of the welfare of the entire greater Tuscaloosa area.” He invited the help of “all members who wish to add luster to our heritage not tarnish it.”

Sources: “The Schoolhouse Door,” E. Culpepper Clark; “A History of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 1816-1949,” Ben A. Green; Tuskaloosa Sesquicentennial souvenir program; Greater Tuscaloosa Chamber of Commerce; The Tuscaloosa News; “The University of Alabama, A Pictorial History,” Suzanne Rau Wolfe.

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1970-1979: The Uncertainty of the Seventies

In my 32 years in Tuscaloosa, there hadn’t been such excitement downtown as occurred on that pretty spring morning, April ’70. Hundreds of us crowded the intersection at Greensboro and Broad to watch a sight most had never seen.

A huge crane grasped a sign that measured 50 feet long by 30 feet high. Carefully but steadily, it began lifting 15 tons of metal. We held our collective breath. It didn’t stop until that sign was resting on the roof of the First National Bank building, 200 feet up.

The day ended with an emblem on top of our tallest building that gave us the time and temperature at any given minute, and rotated while doing it, as if slow-dancing with the clouds. Its big numeral “1” glowed green unless we had a traffic death, then it turned red. Some of us thought all this was just about magic. The bank said it was the biggest sign of its kind in the South, and you could see it even from across the river. Guess you can be proud of all kinds of things.

So we opened the decade with flair and noticeable relief that the ‘60s were behind us. Mayor Snow Hinton’s newly-appointed a bi-racial committee met regularly to discuss issues and how we could become better neighbors together. The housing authority was busily building two major projects - the Delaware Jackson complex, 230 apartments, and May Court, 80 units.

Business was good. The tire plant was adding 300,000 square feet and 400 more jobs. It alone was a $16 million annual payroll. Olympia Mills, which made dyed polyester, also was expanding into one of our largest industries. Gulf States Paper Corporation built a gorgeous national headquarters on a bluff overlooking the river.

The city was building a new terminal building at the airport, big enough to accommodate three airlines. And construction was fully under way on the interstate highway system that passed just south of town and promised new areas for growth.

In May of ’70 the city dedicated magnificent Lake Tuscaloosa, a $7 million development northeast of the city that would become our chief source of drinking water. Lake Nicol and Harris Lake were about tapped out (excuse the expression). The lake covered 5,885 acres and had 177 miles of shoreline. It, too, assured future growth.

Our community also was anticipating two milestones that lay ahead in ’71. In April, First National Bank celebrated its 100th year with a weeklong gala whose highlight was the unveiling of its original charter, issued in 1871.

In October, Northport observed its Centennial in memorable style. Under the leadership of Marvin Harper, historian and president of the county preservation society, the celebration featured a pageant, community dinner, tours of old houses, downtown art show and recognition of houses 100 years or older. A gala Centennial Ball capped the week’s events. The Centennial Planning Committee was proud of its work, justifiably so.

Momentum continued into ’73. The state opened a 134,000-bushel grain elevator on the river at Port Tuscaloosa. Northport’s little art show became an annual event, named itself Kentuck and moved to some cleared woods just west of downtown.

Also in ’73, Tuscaloosa dedicated a new airport control tower, and both the Hugh Thomas Bridge over the river and Lurleen Wallace Boulevard leading to it opened to traffic. Our historic City National Bank affiliated with First Alabama Bancshares, Inc. on December 31. And the Tide finished number one in college football.

I stepped down as chairman of the Tuscaloosa County Park and Recreation Authority in ‘75, after serving five years in that office. The city had Munny Sokol Appreciation Day on October 24, giving me a fancy resolution. Best of all PARA bought 25 acres north of the river for a new park that would bear my name. Perhaps it was because I believed in giving back to the community that blessed you with prosperity. In that spirit, I was president of 14 civic organizations, one of which was the Chamber of Commerce in ’73, and active in many more. I called it paying your civic rent.

The chamber reached its own milestone in ‘75, when Dexter Hulsart was president. It held a Diamond Anniversary Banquet to cap 75 years of continuous leadership, with Congressman Jack Edwards of Mobile as speaker.

In ’76, we celebrated with Stillman College, which observed its Centennial - the third significant 100th birthday of the decade.

A new industry appeared in our midst in ‘77: oil and gas exploration. A gathering system and transmission pipeline were built in Tuscaloosa and Fayette counties, which opened new areas of exploration for oil and gas reserves.

Political upheaval occurred in April ’77 when five black citizens sued the city saying that the three-commissioner form of government disenfranchised blacks through at-large voting. They wanted a new, more representative government.

About this time our economy, and the nation’s, began to falter. We remained stable in ’77, but ’78 saw rising unemployment and labor unrest. Disaster struck full force when a bitter strike at Gulf States led to the plant being closed in February ’78, putting 1,200 people out of work. Our large institutional payroll, covering nearly half of our economic base, is all that saved the local economy.

But in ’79 the one-two punch of a mild recession and high inflation hurt us badly. Bankers Frank Moody and George Shirley reflected the picture in saying, “… there seem to be clouds hovering over the future, and only time will tell whether the depressing influences will carry us into further recession or whether we may get into another upward spiral.”

Two announcements in ’79 helped considerably. First, that our second indoor shopping center - University Mall - would be built at the old Northington site. Second was the merger of Shelton Trade School and Brewer State Junior College to form Shelton State Community College. We also had a new town - Brookwood, which incorporated in September ’77. And Druid City Hospital performed West Alabama’s first open heart operation in ’78, boosting our plan to become a regional medical center.

At the University, trouble boiled over in the ‘70s. Problems began soon after David Mathews became the 21st president in the fall of ‘69. He was a tall, slender 33 years old and looked like a student.

Americans were still fighting and dying in Vietnam, and unrest over the war was rampant on campus, reflecting that of the nation. Besides that, David’s policies and philosophy became issues that led to factions both for and against his administration.

In May ’70, some 60 students were arrested in a clash with police, and an abandoned campus building was burned. Students sharply criticized David’s handling of these events. Mayor Hinton acknowledged that some of the arrests were unnecessary.

But David’s innovative thinking and his vision for higher education led “Saturday Review” to give him accolades in a ’71 cover story entitled “New Beat in the Heart of Dixie.”

From ’70 to ’76, the University enjoyed dramatic successes in enrollment and in graduate and adult education. In ’70 it also named a new administration building for past president Frank Rose.

In rapid order it established New College, Weekend College, the External Degree Program and four state regional offices. It also opened the School of Communication, Graduate School of Library Science, colleges of Community Health Sciences and Nursing, a School of Accountancy and the School of Mines and Energy Development.

David Mathews was the force behind all of that spiraling growth. And other things of special significance to the campus occurred during this time, as well. The University elected its first black homecoming queen in ’73 and Alabama won its fourth national football championship under Coach Bryant.

In summer of ’74 the University launched a showboat, “The Alabama Belle,” given by Gulf States. It sailed the waterways of West Alabama and drew big crowds to its a student musical review. But sadly it sank near Demopolis in August. There were no casualties, but the show closed permanently. That same summer, Jerry Pate, of the University’s golf team, shot into national headlines by winning the U.S. Amateur Tournament and then the U.S. Open.

Students elected Cleo Thomas as the first black student government president in ’75. That fall, the stadium’s name was enlarged to include one more coach. It became Bryant-Denny Stadium. In ’76, Jack Warner his family’s house in Pinehurst and gave it to the University System for the chancellor’s residence.

Mathews left office for 18 months in the mid-70s to become Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare for President Gerald Ford. In hindsight, he shouldn’t have, for he returned in ’77 to a hostile faculty that accused him of decade-long neglect of academic programs and basic research. Twice its 800 members voted “no confidence” in their president, and there seemed to be no end to the tumult and shouting that overpowered an era otherwise marked by indelible brilliance.

The economy trembling, our government in limbo and the university in academic crisis, we moved into the ‘80s, not knowing what to expect.

Sources: The Tuscaloosa News; “The University of Alabama, A Pictorial History,” Suzanne Rau Wolfe; “Tuscaloosa, Portrait of An Alabama County,” G. Ward Hubbs; First National Bank of Tuskaloosa.

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1980-1989: The Turn-Around Decade

To put it bluntly: in the ‘80s Tuscaloosa County took itself from the outhouse to the penthouse. In the history of this community, I doubt that our people had ever worked together so hard and so smart as they did in fighting the local spillover of a national recession. When there were no other choices, we did what we had to do.

Early in the decade we had 15 percent unemployment, widespread business failures, vacant buildings downtown and growing fear. The University and Tuscaloosa’s government also were in turmoil.

How did we rebound? We did it with persuasive leadership in the private and public arenas; a commitment to unity by business, labor, industry and the University; and by embracing change at all levels.

Coming in as Chamber of Commerce president in ’83, my charge to others and myself was simple and direct: “We have got to get new jobs for our community.” And we did.

By the mid-80s - in ’84 to be exact - Tuscaloosa County got 57 percent of Alabama’s new capital investment to lead the state in that important category. Part of our local investment came from JVC America, Inc., a major satellite of the Japanese corporation. We hoped JVC would open the way for other international growth and vowed to use it as a stepping-stone.

In ’85, our first City Council took its oath, elected from seven districts in more representative fashion. Two members were black, John England and Charles Steele. Al DuPont was re-elected mayor for a second term.

David Mathews resigned the presidency of the University in July ’80, ending the long unrest and giving normal campus life a chance to return. The faculty liked interim president Howard Gundy, who was the first dean of the School of Social Work back in ’66. It also supported Joab Thomas, the former biology professor, who left the chancellor’s post at North Carolina State to come home as the University’s 22nd president in July ’81, the year of the University’s Sesquicentennial.

If any one thing pulled us together for survival, I’d say it was the Rochester Products plant. That’s quite a story. It starts in the depression year ’82, when our economy was awful. General Motors was closing our Rochester plant, taking 200 jobs with it. To stave off disaster we formed a daring team, composed of the University, autoworkers union, Rochester officials and business sector.

GM leased one-third of the plant to the University for $470,000. Students and faculty then created a laboratory of cost-saving programs in which each dollar of permanent savings was credited to its rent. Employees also put a portion of their wages, up to $470,000, into a trust fund the University used to pay its rent until the savings measures took effect. Another $75,000 in seed money came from the Chamber of Commerce, Industrial Development Authority and IDA Foundation.

The experiment saved the 200 jobs and got national attention for demonstrating that a city, its University and local industry could cooperate in a common cause. In December ’83, with the plant on its feet again, the employees’ contributions were returned to them as a historic Christmas present.

Turning that defeat into victory gave us confidence in a unified approach, and we were determined to build on it. In ’83-‘84 we added four more key ingredients.

In ’83, Johnnie Aycock came aboard from Jackson, Miss. as our chamber’s new executive. As one who worked closely with him, I can say unequivocally that his initiative and leadership were big factors in producing several innovative programs as the decade progressed and moving The Chamber to a higher level of influence and impact.

First, we created a five-year economic development plan. The results of the work of 300 citizens, it contained eight avenues - manufacturing, tourism/conventions, the University, commercial, education/government services, international trade, medical/health, and natural resources. Now we had a roadmap to growth.

Second, we formed a plan to revitalize downtown to compete with the dazzling University Mall, open since ’80, and busy McFarland Mall. The $2 million effort included trees, shrubs, lights, brick walks and street medians. It was finished in late ’85 and spawned its own celebration of music, food and crafts named CityFest.

Third, we had millions in new investment. This included Tuscaloosa Steel’s new mill, $75 million; B.F. Goodrich, $8.5 million incineration plant for turning garbage into electricity; Sherman Utility Structures; the Bama Theater renovation; expansions at Druid City Hospital, Rochester Products and other local businesses totaling $48 million. Also a full-service new industrial park near the airport became a reality.

Fourth, the Tuscaloosa and Northport chambers merged in March ’84 to form the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce, and give substance to our new theme, “Progress Through Partnership.” Charles Delgaudio, my counterpart in Northport, and I were proud to lead such a progressive step.

Among other innovative initiatives during this period were: Leadership Tuscaloosa in 1983; Adopt-A-School, begun in ’85; a Sister City relationship between Tuscaloosa and Narashino City, Japan, ’86; the annual Sakura Festival, celebrating our Japanese connections, ’87; Crime Stoppers, ’88; and the chamber’s own television channel, ’89. In 1987, Johnnie also was president of the state chamber executives association, and our chamber had become one of the leading local chambers in Alabama.

When this decade began we were Alabama’s fifth largest metro area, with 137,473 people. And we had good overnight space, 17 parks, five golf courses, two malls, the river and other attractions. But we were missing a big opportunity in one of the cleanest industries around, conventions.

To close that gap, the city contracted with the chamber in ’80 for convention services. It passed a one percent lodging tax, with most of it dedicated to convention operations, and the Tuscaloosa Visitors Bureau was born.

Both visitor and revenue numbers climbed steadily with almost every year. The highlight probably was the B.A.S.S. Federation National Championship tournament in June ’89, which brought in thousands of visitors, had a $3.5 million impact and national television coverage. That was huge for our image and proved we could make even bigger things happen in the area of tourism.

For all the gains we made in the ‘80s, we lost an irreplaceable giant. In November ’82, Paul Bryant rang up the most wins in college football history when Alabama beat Auburn, 28-17. He retired in December with a victory over Illinois in the Liberty Bowl. On January 26, ’83 he died of a heart attack.

This was his legacy: 323 wins, 14 SEC titles, six national championships, seven times SEC Coach of the Year, three times national Coach of the Year, 24 consecutive bowl games and 57 straight wins at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

He once said, “I ain’t nothin’ but a winner,” and lived the truth of that statement. Millions of football fans mourned, Tuscaloosans among them. But we, in particular, also could celebrate the privilege of knowing someone who literally was larger than life.

Ray Perkins, then Bill Curry followed as head coach, and had successes. The stadium was enlarged again, to 73,000. But the Alabama football family couldn’t rekindle its vital spark. Snared in the controversy, Joab Thomas left the presidency in August ’88. Roger Sayers, who was at the university helm when the decade ended, followed him.

Finally, in this decade two particularly important events happened at one of our downtown landmarks. First National Bank became part of the regional AmSouth Bancorporation in ’86, which greatly increased its financial strength.

And second, the bank started the music again. Its storied chime clock, which had stood in front of the building since 1923, stopped running in ’80. Just wore out. But so many people missed its time and tunes, that the bank had it fully restored. In June of ’80, it was right back in its place, as good as new. And its chimes would play 12 selections, including, of course, “Yea, Alabama!” We could whistle while we worked to turn the bad times into good times.

Sources: West Alabama Chamber of Commerce; First National Bank of Tuskaloosa; The Tuscaloosa News; “Tuscaloosa, Portrait of An Alabama County,” G. Ward Hubbs; ”The University of Alabama, A Pictorial History,” Suzanne Rau Wolfe

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1990-1999: A Decade of Progress

We heard the comments, the derision and ridicule. The laughter that Alabamians thought they could compete in this huge industrial game. The scorn bothered us some, but also made us more determined to play hard and smart.

Our opponents all had big names and strong credentials. But they overlooked an important factor that we knew all too well: reputation doesn’t win games. It isn’t who has the best record or scores first, but who’s ahead at the final whistle. To the world’s surprise, Alabama beat them all to win Mercedes-Benz’ first production plant in North America. And it landed in Tuscaloosa County, probably our most celebrated economic prize of the century!

I’ll always remember that sunny morning, September 30, 1993, when Mercedes dignitaries, Gov. Jim Folsom Jr., the state’s development officials and hundreds of our local leaders and citizens crowded into the Bryant Conference Center to hear the words! Alabama and Mercedes: partners in a $500 million venture 20 miles east of Tuscaloosa, on 966 acres along I-20/59. Mercedes to build an assembly plant and make a snazzy Sport Utility Vehicle - the M Class.

Suddenly Alabama flashed across the globe with positive impact for a change - as the American home of the world’s most prestigious automaker. Finally, after years of trying, we could walk into any room, sit at any table and talk at the highest level. In these 100 years we hadn’t had a breakthrough of this magnitude.

A consortium of the state, City of Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa County and Birmingham offered Mercedes an impressive package of incentives. But so did every other state they considered. Bottom line, they felt more at home here than anywhere else, more warmly and genuinely received. Like family, they said. Quite a compliment, we felt.

Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc., of Tuscaloosa. Wow! The 90s brought several turning points to us in Tuscaloosa: internationally, of course, but also in education, transportation and football, among others.

Northport had its own head-turning points, adopting well-conceived plans to revive its downtown and develop its riverfront. Grassroots leaders stepped up with boldness and courage to lead the efforts. Dickens Downtown quickly became a holiday favorite.

Momentous news in education occurred in ’98, when after 29 years the federal court released the city school system from its control. In court terms, we received unitary status, which meant we could finally make our own decisions about suck things as school construction and zones. We also voted that year to elect our school board, rather than continuing to appoint its members, but when wasn’t immediately clear. It hadn’t happened at decade’s end.

Roger Sayers retired as university president in June ’96 after seven years in the job. Andrew Sorensen became the 23rd president in July that year.

Shelton State Community College started building a huge new campus in the south suburbs in the mid-‘90s, dedicating it in October ’97.

We crawled toward building a third bridge, near Holt, that would cross the river into our growing eastern and northern sections and ultimately connect to a proposed northern-loop highway. But we mired down in cost, route and federal regulations.

Out of the blue, developer Jim Allen came to town proposing to build a toll bridge in west Tuscaloosa County, connecting interstates 20/59 on the south with U.S. 82 on the north. Amazingly, it got done in less than three years, opening in ’98. But plans to connect it to the northern bypass soon bogged down over the route.

That bridge gave us all a lesson in civics: that privately financed projects will advance expediently freed of the cumbersome red tape that wraps federal money. The eastern bridge, as we now call it, still wasn’t fully funded as the decade ended, and construction hadn’t begun.

In football, we scored big, thanks to the cooperation of three of our local governments, the University of Alabama and the chamber. Tommy Moore and I led a Chamber proposal calling for Tuscaloosa, Northport and the county to give $4.6 million, and the University to pay the rest, to make Bryant-Denny Stadium as big as Legion Field in Birmingham, 83,000 seats.

The payoff, part one: Alabama would bring all conference games home when its contract with Birmingham expired. The payoff, part two: a $100 million bonanza for our area in new games and visitors.

When everybody understood the stakes, it happened. Magnificent Bryant-Denny, with an eastern upper deck and a string of executive boxes tucked underneath the deck, opened for the ’98 season with an electric atmosphere and a nationally telecast night game in which Alabama beat Brigham Young.

And in ’99, Tennessee played here for the first time since the ‘20s. The Vols left with a 21-7 victory and ultimately won the national championship. But the Crimson Tide had already gotten number 12. Gene Stallings led Bama through a perfect season in ’92 and capped it by beating number one Miami in the Sugar Bowl, 31-13. Stallings retired after the ’96 season, with 70 wins in seven years. His successor was Mike Dubose.

Northport charted a Renaissance course of progress in ’90 and followed it persistently, attaining a red brick road on Main Street, flower-decked brick sidewalks, period lighting, restful benches and even a freestanding clock unveiled on New Year’s Eve that chimed the new millennium. The city also built a levee, the first step in flood control and developing its riverfront.

The ‘90s produced other noteworthy events, including the Chamber’s leading role in helping set quality community goals.

A good example of that is the emphasis given our schools. Education officially was the chamber’s top priority from ’90-on. In November ’91, it sponsored a two-day, countywide Education Summit at the Bryant Conference Center. Nearly 600 people attended and agreed on 27 specific recommendations that soon were adopted for implementation by the city and county school systems.

Two years later the chamber and the A-Plus organization jointly presented the first of 24 statewide town meetings held to rally the public for education reform. The success of Adopt A School spread countywide, with every city and county school adopted by a local club, group or business.

The chamber in ’92 launched a small business trade show, Marketplace, and watched it enjoy enormous growth and participation every year right through ’99. Exhibitors and visitors alike hail it as one of the chamber’s most innovative efforts.

To improve their downtown visibility and gain needed space, the chamber and the Industrial Development Authority in ‘92-’93 renovated new offices under the same roof on University Boulevard. You can’t miss the distinctive white storefront.

In 1994, “Tuscaloosa: the Tradition, the Spirit, the Vision,” a handsome, hardcover book, was published by the chamber.

In ’96 the chamber founded Challenge 21, a citizen-based organization that produced a strategic blueprint to make Tuscaloosa County into a model place to live and work over the next 10-to-15 years. More than 1,200 of our people created this work in progress. It was a fine example of unity and cooperation to achieve a common goal.

Summer of ’91 was memorable. On July 4 we held a huge Yellow Ribbon celebration to honor all West Alabama citizens who fought in Operation Desert Storm/ Desert Shield in Iraq and Kuwait. In August we dedicated the new Oliver Lock and Dam, wider and longer than its predecessor to accommodate the biggest groupings of barges.

Distinctive recognition came to several leaders in this decade. The trade magazine “Chain Drug Review” in ’90 named Jimmy Harrison Jr., president and CEO of Harco Drug Inc. as national Chain Drug Retailer of the ‘80s.

Mayor Al DuPont was president of the Alabama League of Municipalities in ’91. River Road was renamed Jack Warner Parkway in ’99, highlighting a fitting community tribute to years of great leadership by Jack and his wife, Elizabeth. In ’97, Cordell Wynn became the chamber’s first African-American president.

In ’93, three of us original members of the City Council retired - Charles Steele, John England and I. We were humbled by the hundreds who attended a public reception held for us. Councilmen Sammy Watson and Gary Phillips stepped down later and they, too, were honored.

Charlie Land was accorded singular honors when he retired as publisher of The Tuscaloosa News in ’95. So significant was his leadership over the span of 40 years in the community that the chamber named its highest award for him - the Charles H. Land Member of the Year award. More than 300 persons attended his reception.

In ’98, we saluted the 75th year of Druid City Hospital and also the interior makeover of University Mall. In ’99, the downtown rebound continued as the Bama Theater premiered Classic Movies, encores of the best of Hollywood, and the Temerson Square retail development opened.

Back to Mercedes-Benz one more time, for it truly defined the ‘90s. A study made by the Economic Partnership of Alabama states that Mercedes was responsible for injecting $1.3 billion and 10,000 jobs into Alabama’s economy. The plant made 80,000 vehicles in ’98 and had 1,800 employees in ’99. Mind-boggling!

Now, this decade, nine others before it and the century itself recede into honorable archives, stored on history’s shelves, as happens with every new day when it finally fades in glory, into river-reflected sunset.

Here we stand, eye-to-eye with the 21st century and the third millennium, awed witnesses to the turn of time, but with earned confidence in ourselves. Sorely tested and tempered by the past, we have walked and raced, fallen and risen, over and over, to gain our place in the present. And we believe with an unfailing strength of faith that the future is our friend.

Sources: The Tuscaloosa News; West Alabama Chamber of Commerce; “Tuscaloosa, Portrait of An Alabama County,” G. Ward Hubbs.

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MarketPlace 2000 - An Emphasis On Connections

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CHOICES: A New Approach For Students & Employers

The Education Division is currently lending support to the Tuscaloosa City Schools in the implementation of a new school-to-career program called CHOICES. This is a nation-wide initiative to help middle to high school students understand how their school efforts affect career and life choices that they will have the opportunity to make in the future.

The Chamber has partnered with the city school system by recruiting fourteen business professionals to serve as presenters in eighth-grade social studies classes at all three middle schools in the system. The presenters attended a half-day training session on March 9th conducted by Win Crawford, Director of Career/Technical Education for Tuscaloosa City Schools. These volunteers then gave presentations to twenty-four classes between March 13th and March 24th.

The CHOICES program covers a wide range of topics that produce thought-provoking ideas for discussion and follow-up assignments for the students in the classes. This program can make an important contribution while students still have time to make key decisions.
The two-day sessions include instruction on:

* Learning about decisions and their consequences. The students learn how to anticipate the consequences of a particular decision before acting. Objectives and goals must be balanced with individual priorities and short- and long-term opportunities.
* Exploring time and money management. They discover how much of their time is in their control and how to invest it wisely in academics. They will also role-play to create awareness of how much money it requires to run a household.
* Relating academic decisions to career consequences. This segment illustrates typical careers and incomes that can be expected to follow from different levels of academic attainment.
* Increasing options in an uncertain world. Students in school now can expect to pursue several careers in a lifetime, which increases the importance of options.
* Learning to think beyond oneself. Students are encouraged to consider how their academic decisions today might even impact their community, country or the world.
* Obtaining the "Key to Success." The key is to control your own future instead of letting your future control you. Students discover that through self-discipline they can make wise choices now that will enable them to maximize the choices they will have in the future.

The underlying message is a strong one: to seek the highest level of study and the highest of performance according to each student's individual interests and abilities---- not just for the sake of a higher level of achievement, but to increase the options available to them after graduation.

Many thanks to the following volunteers who made this outstanding program a reality for the City Schools' eighth graders:

Mike Bean, CORUS Tuscaloosa (formerly Tuscaloosa Steel)
Jimmy Canant, Canant Veterinary Hospital
Sedelle Dockery, Bank of Tuscaloosa
Lew Drummond, IBM
John Fisher, Loftis, Skidmore & Fisher, PC
Harvey Fretwell, Travelodge
Caroline Fulmer, National Bank of Commerce
Dennis Hall, Jim Walter Resources
Brad Hanback, Sam's Club
Peggy Harris, AL Dept. of Rehabilitation
Michael Jordan, Perform Staffing
Samory Pruitt, University of Alabama
Dave Rodgers, JVC America
Lisa W. Knox, Colonial Bank

We have a vested interest in the quality of students graduating from our secondary school system. First, as a community we are interested in the quality of life in our area. The high quality of life that we enjoy now is dependent on a well-educated and enlightened citizenry.

A second and equally important reason is business related: employers are increasingly concerned about the skills employees bring with them to the job. We believe the CHOICES program is a step in the right direction to protect and enhance these interests.

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Eight Characteristics Essential For Entrepreneurial Success

A recent email and phone survey of the nation's business incubation managers by the National Business Incubation Association, reveals some essential ingredients for success.

* An effective management team that works cooperatively and consists of members selected to provide a range of knowledge and skills.

* Sound financing early on. Funding is directly related to a firm's success and can be the deciding factor between a business venture's success or failure.

* Principals who are able to focus on a lead product or service and avoid over investing in development or diversification.

* Principals who make business decisions based on a clear understanding of the market and the competition, rather than their own enchantment with their product or service.

* Principals who keep on top of best business practices by surrounding themselves with knowledgeable people, by remaining open to their advice and ideas, and by being willing and ready to make changes based on new information.

* A well-researched business plan in place that provides clear direction and focus.

* Principals who are good money managers and remain in control of the venture's finances and books.

* An entrepreneur who is passionate about his or her venture and communicates that excitement to potential investors, customers, employees and mentors.

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The Chamber's April 7 rally a bold step toward a new Alabama

There is a hint of springtime these days - a promise of change, wafting gently on the breezes of public discourse.

Alabamians appear to be awakening to the prospect of better government. They are becoming more aware of how serious problems such as impoverished schools and ugly urban sprawl can be traced to an antiquated, immoral state constitution. And they are demanding change.

Some of the protest comes from traditional champions of good government, such as the League of Women Voters. But one also hears the cry of business and professional people, local government leaders and even, if you can believe it, legislators.

Can it be that at long last we might dream of fundamental reform, with some reasonable hope of success? Certainly, many of the state's newspapers now share this dream. Indeed, their editorialists are almost unanimous in calling for constitutional revision.

The Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama took a bold step toward helping to solidify this emerging reform movement by sponsoring a rally on April 7. Citizens from around the state gathered under an enormous tent at Capitol Park to celebrate a civic renewal. They enjoyed patriotic and blue grass music, in between hearing rousing oratory about a new Alabama.

Is this vision for fundamental reform possible? I believe it is. Many Alabamians know their state is in trouble. Consider, for example, these symptoms:

-- The state's political system is unresponsive and more in tune with the desires of special interests than with the welfare of citizens.
-- Local governments often are powerless to address the terrific demands of urban sprawl and other consequences of rapid economic change.
-- Alabama's regressive tax system favors the rich and punishes the poor, while starving schools and other essential services.

The embodiment of this political and moral crisis is the 1901 Alabama constitution. Historians have shown how the framers of this document won its ratification with stuffed ballot boxes. These framers deliberately sought to deny blacks and many poor whites their right to vote -- an injustice that was not corrected until the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.

This constitution, which was largely a rewrite of an earlier, post-Reconstruction document, has now been amended 661 times. It contains close to half a million words, making it probably the longest constitution in the world. Under the weight of this rotting anachronism fester critical issues that cannot be ignored any longer. For example, why does Alabama's constitution give the Legislature dictatorial control over local affairs? Are legislators more capable of deciding what is best for counties than are locally elected officials? In fact, legislators spend about 40 percent of their time dealing with strictly local issues.

You can be sure that some special interests love the status quo. Running local affairs from Montgomery means they can concentrate their money on influencing the Legislature, rather than lobbying in 67 separate counties. But their convenience exacts a great price in governmental efficiency. Urban counties lack the tools to manage the sprawl that is spreading up and down the highways and into the countryside, creating future burdens for taxpayers who will provide the expensive services that runaway growth demands. This lack of home rule not only prevents government that is close to the people. It also discourages citizens from trying to improve their communities. It is no wonder that a common response has been to lower one's sights and concentrate on lesser goals. To counter such self-defeating attitudes, citizens have to take some risks and invest civic capital in ways that will bring greater returns. That means a willingness to unite across this state at the grassroots level and demand what is necessary, as opposed to tolerating what is merely expedient.

Better leadership can emerge once citizens have organized to pursue a new constitution. Indeed, this process would invite more citizens to get involved in public affairs. And let us always remember that citizens would have the final word on any new constitution, regardless whether it is written by a convention or by the Legislature.

No one can answer beforehand all the questions that would arise in wake of such a noble crusade. Experience must teach as we go. What is important, however, is that citizens ask the right kinds of questions. We do not have to tolerate a status quo that is morally and politically exhausted.

Already, we know a few important things:
-- Businesses in Alabama deserve a fair set of rules to play by and reasonable expectations about what government will do.
-- Local officials need real authority to address the awesome responsibilities they shoulder, especially in our sprawling urban counties.
-- Citizens require a state government that is responsive to their needs, and not just to those of powerful special interests.

Those of us who helped plan the April 7 rally have now created a public interest foundation to help champion a new constitution. We have organized a steering committee to guide its first steps toward becoming a grass roots movement. We welcome citizens to join and support this effort through their volunteer work and contributions. I direct your inquiries to Johnnie Aycock at the Chamber, 758-7588.

The strategy is simple: This foundation will be a permanent presence in Alabama demanding reforms. Other states have long benefited from such citizen-oriented advocacy. We hope to learn from their example, while creating a foundation that fits Alabama's distinctive needs.

Our goal in Tuscaloosa is to help magnify what we believe is a rising chorus for a new constitution. We believe Alabamians are ready to throw off more than a century of bad government and low expectations and finally fulfill their democratic potential. Please join us to help turn this generation's dream into a legacy for its children and grandchildren. For as the poet Carl Sandburg wrote, "Nothing happens unless first a dream."

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The Chamber's Web Site - Information At You Fingertips

Spring and Summer are great times to hit the beach and go surfing... and also a good time to surf the web! If you haven't surfed and visited The Chamber's website in a while, we encourage you to do so!

Thanks to the creativity and hard work by the staffs at dbTechnologies, The University of Alabama and The Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama, The Chamber's website has become one of the top sites in our area. After being on-line less than a year, we have decided to expand our site to include: a member's only section, up to date news articles from around the world, regional demographics, on-line training modules for business, and new search engines.

Our website hits have averaged about 18,000 per month since January and continues to grow. As website hits grow, so have the number of members that are taking advantage of linking their website to their membership listing. It serves as an online brochure for visitors to check out your business directly from our site. For more information on this popular membership benefit call (205) 758-7588.

With over thirty categories available, from business development to visitor's information, it would be impossible to list all of the exciting information contained on our site. However, we would like to highlight some of the more popular areas that might be of interest to you:

* Quick Reference Navigation Bar - To make navigating our site fast and user friendly we have designed a quick reference navigation bar on all subsequent pages. This enables the surfer to go directly to sites of interest without leaving the convenience of The Chamber's page. The frame includes a powerful internet search engine, a detailed news search engine and links to major Chamber pages.

* Membership Directory - The online membership directory contains a host of search options. Visitors and members can search for a listing by category similar to the yellow page searches or by name. The name search has special features that are not normally found in membership directories. You can search for any word listed in the category, name, address, telephone number, etc. For example, if you were on Skyland Boulevard this past weekend and remembered seeing an automobile dealership but couldn't remember the name you could type in: Skyland Automobile, tell the search engine to search for all words listed and it would list all dealerships located on Skyland Boulevard.

* Chamber and Community Calendar of Events - If you live in the West Alabama area this page is a must, with the largest listing of upcoming events and meetings in our area. You can also check out the local weather and upcoming business events at the touch of a button.

* Area Demographics - This area of our site was developed to give detailed information on the West Alabama region. With a simple to use selection box and menu you can find detailed demographic information on each county in our region. The information included on each community consists of: cities and towns, population trends, economic structure, labor market data, interstate access and many other options from which to choose.

* On-line Training Modules - In conjunction with The Business Solutions and Resource Center located here at The Chamber and students from the doctoral program at The University of Alabama, we have developed on-line training tools for members only. These modules include: Creating an effective Business Plan, Taking Your Business On-Line, E-Commerce and Your Business, and Technology and Business Productivity. Each module is made available in a text format and an on-line Power Point presentation.

To take advantage of any of the on-line training tools contact Donny Jones at (205) 391-0552.

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Five Ways To A Better E-Commerce Site

Gomez.com measures an e-commerce site's strengths on a scale of zero to ten by applying its criteria in the five categories listed below. Mastering these elements is essential to building a competitive e-commerce presence.

1. Make shopping easy. Nothing irks Internet shoppers more than trying to click their way through a sloppy website. Yet the site should not be stripped to its bare bones either.

2. Worry about the steak, not the sizzle. Razzle-dazzle graphics are fun, but e-customers want sites that they can depend on day after day. Solid customer service, ironclad security, and smooth performance should drive a site like a four-stroke engine.

3. Stuff your site with creative resources. Websites should take advantage of the Internet's limitless space to show off the company's wares.

4. Remember, there's a customer on the other side of the click. The best sites find innovative ways to deepen customer relations.

5. Open up your pricing. Low prices online are key, but creative sites do more than just lower them. They make pricing flexible as possible.

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Chamber Champions Announced

As part of The Chamber's new approach to program funding and corporate sponsorship development, "Chamber Champions" has successfully been implemented in 2000. The purpose of the program is to provide an annual foundation of program revenue that decreases multiple program funding solicitations. Chamber Champions is also designed to provide participating members a value-added return on their investment in the program.

Thank you to The Chamber's Chamber Champions for 2000:

Centennial Sponsors
Tanner & Guin, L.L.C.
Mercedes Benz U.S. International
Bank of Tuscaloosa
Alabama Power Company
WTID/WTUG/WTSK/Arrow 100.7

Gold Sponsors

Phelps, Jenkins, Gibson & Fowler
Silver Sponsors
Harper Chambers Lumber Company
Alabama Gas Corporation
Gulf States Paper Corporation

Bronze Sponsors
Totalcom, Inc.
AmSouth Bank
Welborn Transport
Campus Rentals
Heritage Health Care Center
National Bank of Commerce
Randall Publishing
Alabama Orthopaedic & Spine Center
The Print Shop

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Teachers In Business 2000

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"What two or three skills will entrepreneurs need to be successful in the 21st century?"

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What Separates Winners From Losers In Regional Competition

In an address to the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Semoon Chang, Director of the Center of Business and Economic Research at the University of South Alabama, focused on eight issues needed for regional competition. While his comments were targeted to the Mobile area, these eight issues are worthy for consideration as related to our region:

* Attraction of skilled workers. "For industries to locate in an area, the demand the availability of skilled workers.

* Growing high-tech industry clusters. "This is where both the reputation and quality of education is critical."

* Competitive business costs. What are labor costs? What about the cost of living? Are local business license costs competitive?

* Expanding export markets.

* Global challenges. Are we positioned to compete globally?

* Metro services. Are there services and functions of government, such as land use planning and permitting, that could be provided more efficiently together rather than having separate city and county governmental services.

* Shifts in business locations. Is there a shift or a potential for shifting of businesses outside of the urban areas? Is there adequate planning in place county-wide?

* Community plans. Is there a strategic plan for the entire county? Are priorities identified? Are there benchmarks in place to measure results?

(Source: The View , Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce)

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Chamber Members Share Their Favorite Web Sites

As a follow up to the last issue of Chamber Perspectives, several Chamber members have shared their favorite web sites. Here are a few of the sites that you may enjoy:

Victor Cardenas, General Cybernetics
ask.com
apple.com

La Donna Beck, Tanner & Guin
alanet.org
lowestfairs.com

Wanda Hamm, Celebrations Bakery
marthastewart.com

Susan Sanderson, Radio South
dbtech.net
usatoday.com

Glenn Tony, Darrell Walker / Workforce Systems
headhunter.com
ragingbull.com
tiderinsider.com

Deborah Stone, Advantage Training Solutions
ask.com
usatoday.com
datech.com

Robert Williams, AmSouth Bank
bloomberg.com
m-w.com

Eric Crook, Birmingham Barrons
espn.go.com
Barons@Barons.com

Dr. Earl Hydrick, Smile Design Center
ebay.com
smiledesigncenter.com

Lisa Downard, Heavenly Ham
heavenlyham.com
jokes-funnies.com

John Goodwin, T & G Professional Computing, Inc
support@mirosoft.com
mapsonus.com

Jeannie Sledge, United HealthCare
amazon.com
healthforms.com


If you have a favorite web site you would like to share with The Chamber and our members, send it to: FAX #391-0565 or email donny@tuscaloosachamber.com.

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Chamber Establishes Statewide Constitution Reform Initiative

With over 600 citizens from across Alabama at the Constitution Rally held at Capitol Park on Friday, April 7th, a statewide initiative has been launched by The Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama to reform, and eventually rewrite, Alabama's 100 year old constitution.

Developed as part of The Chamber's Centennial Year program, the rally drew support from virtually every area of Alabama and gained support and endorsements from most of the major newspapers in the state as prominent leaders delivered passionate messages for a new constitution for a new century at the rally.

Among the speakers during the rally were: former Governor of Alabama, Albert Brewer; former Governor of Mississippi, William Winter; Mobile County Commission Chairman, Sam Jones; Leadership Alabama Director, Barbara Larson; Dr. Wayne Flynt of Auburn University; Dr. Bailey Thomson and Dr. Cully Clark of The University of Alabama; Ms. Odessa Woolfolk; Mr. Bruce Ely of Tanner & Guin; Jefferson County Commissioner Mary Buckelew; Mr. Mason Davis, Chairman of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce; and various others.

To sustain the grassroots initiative, The Chamber also announced the establishment of the Foundation For Constitution Reform, a statewide public policy foundation designed to move constitution reform forward in Alabama and maintain a focused, sustained effort for a new constitution. During the rally, the first Chairman of the foundation was named along with initial members of the Board of Directors.

Elected as the chairman was Dr. Thomas E. Corts, President of Samford University. In addition, named as directors were:

Former Governor Albert Brewer; former Congressman Jack Edwards of Mobile; Sid McAnnally, an attorney from Decatur; Mason Davis, Chairman of the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce; Mobile County Commission Chairman Sam Jones; Barbara Larson, Executive Director of Leadership Alabama in Montgomery; Dr. Cully Clark of The University of Alabama; Dr. Wayne Flynt of Auburn University; Brandt Ayers, Publisher of The Anniston Star; Odessa Woolfolk, former Director of Urban Studies at UAB; Dr. Cordell Wynn, former President of Stillman College; and Johnnie Aycock, President of The Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama.

Additional directors will be named in the future as the foundation completes organizational work. Currently, it is envisioned that the Board will include 21 members, made up of 3 directors from each Congressional district.

Organizers of the constitution rally included: Dr. Barry Mason and Dr. Cully Clark, Co- Chairs; Dr. Bailey Thomson; Johnnie Aycock; Chief Ken Swindle and Cecil Lancaster of the Tuscaloosa Police Department; Joe Robinson, Rex Buck and Reggie Kennedy, Tuscaloosa Department of Transportation; Don Kelly and Gene Kent, PARA; Blake Madison, Tanner & Guin; Lil Roger, The Capitol School; and Harold Sexton, University of Alabama. Charles Land, Past Chairman of The Chamber, serves as Chairman of the Centennial Planning Committee.

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Chambers of Commerce In The New Millennium

Everyone has been using the occasion of moving into the Year 2000 to reflect on the past and focus on the future. There seems to be fascination with seeking closure to the 20th century while musing about the world of the 21st century.

There are lists upon lists being offered of the Best of the Century. We now have a rundown on the top athletes, politicians, events, books and a multitude of other lists for the past 100 years.

Perhaps it is time then to reflect on the road that chambers of commerce have taken over the past 100 years as well. How have they changed? What characteristics of today's chambers will carry over into the next century? What characteristics of chambers from 1900 have made it to 2000?

Chambers of commerce are well established elements of Americana. Most everybody you talk to has heard of a chamber. Chambers have very high recognition among Americans, and for that matter among most people. The real problem is finding strong recognition for what chambers of commerce do in their communities, and thus, for the U. S. economy as a whole. For this, we are sometimes stuck with the stereotypes of the past.

Chambers of commerce find their beginnings in America in New Haven, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston. Each has some claim on being the first in America and each predate the actual founding of the United States. As a matter of fact, you can even find a mention of chambers of commerce in the Bible, where there are references to commerce centers being set on the banks of the Mesopotamia River in Babylon.

For the early years in America, chambers were primarily booster organizations repre- sented by the plaid-suited tub-thumpers who basically promoted local communities as the best place to live and work without spending too much time making those claims realities. Over time, chambers became identified with parades and retail promotions. They also gave out maps and generally became the centers of information about communities.

In the last half of the 20th century, however, chambers have become more than that. They have become the real catalysts for changes and progress. They have led many of the efforts that have made communities viable and business flourish. They have recognized the need to positively address the social issues of communities, such as education, workforce development, health care and quality of life if communities are really going to be successful in achieving economic growth.

In a national poll conducted by the Harris Poll for Business Week Magazine, a sample of people was asked to rank a number of advocacy groups as to whether they did more good than harm. Seventy-five percent of the respondents said that chambers of commerce did more good than harm. Chambers received the highest ranking in the poll. There is no question that chambers have a very high name recognition, but a low understanding of the real work they do. Over the next century, if will be critical for chambers to raise this awareness level significantly if chambers are to continue to prosper and survive.

There are many forces at work that will impact on how well local chambers of commerce will perform in the next century.

Change is perhaps the most pervasive. At no time has change been more rapid and more fundamental. The pace of change is enormous. Jack Welch, Chairman of GE, has stated that "if the pace of change outside your organization exceeds the pace of change inside your organization, your organization is in trouble." How are we addressing this issue? How are we learning to manage the effect change has on us?

No one denies the impact technology is having on all parts of our lives. Email and voice mail sometimes manage us. We are always in touch and on duty. People's expectations for immediate response sometimes lead to responses that are not thought out or correct. We no longer have the luxury of time to reflect on responses.

Technology is also driving commerce. Chambers need to be leading the e-commerce for members. Chambers need to be seen as the safe and secure place for members to conduct business with and among each other. Are we ready for this responsibility?

Time has never been our friend, but now it seems even more rare. Members have less and less time to give to the organization requiring staffs to do more and more of the work of the chamber. Members have high expectations of staff to perform for them. Are we ready for that challenge? Are we engaged in continuous learning programs so that staff can handle this enhanced role?

There is no shortage of challenges for the next century. There is no shortage of new opportunities either. Chambers of commerce are in a great position to grasp these opportunities and flourish with them. They are also in a position to let these opportunities fly by and find themselves relegated to the past. Will your chamber continue to be relevant in the 21st century?

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View Point

Today and into the future, economic growth and new business opportunities increasingly will demand a more educated and skilled workforce. From early childhood and K-12 to technical and post- secondary…..education and training are high-stakes issues for communities and represent the foundation for economic success in the 21st century.

Communities, just like ours, are concerned that their ability to compete in today's economic environment is jeopardized by a mismatch between workforce skills and workplace demands. In Tuscaloosa County and many other communities, companies continue to cite significant labor shortages in their local markets that affect their ability to grow and respond to new opportunities.

As the National League of Cities reported in their publication, Building Learning Communities, “a community's capacity to provide a continuum of learning opportunities, from preschool through retirement, may well be the critical determining factor in local economic growth in the year ahead.

This is really nothing new, but there are important implications for the business community that must be understood and addressed.

First, workforce competitiveness is important to local economic performance. Communities that are successfully integrating economic and workforce development have forged strong alliances among the business, economic development and education communities to create policies and strategies that cut across geographic boundaries.

Secondly, economic development should move beyond short-term efforts to attract economic activity toward longer-term efforts that focus on improving education and skills of the regional workforce. A focus is needed on the long-term task of providing a steady supply of qualified workers and a flexible, capable and cohesive continuing education system.

Third, workforce development must respond to employer needs and private-sector standards. To accomplish this objective, it requires facilitation and encouragement of business-education partnerships and access to education and training resources. There must also be a flexible system to address short-term workforce needs as well development of long term strategies for improving regional workforce competitiveness.

There are opportunities in Tuscaloosa County and West Alabama to enhance our competitiveness and build a workforce for today's needs and tomorrow's opportunities, but it will take a cohesive, comprehensive approach developed by actively involved business and educational leaders. Fragmented, uncoordinated efforts will no longer work. More of the same will produce only more of the same.

Employers and business leaders must take a more active, visionary approach to building a school-to-career system that works for the region. There must be dynamic and forceful leadership to implement changes in area technical education initiatives. For example, the support of enhanced technical education curriculum that is integrated with applied academic learning would make a significant impact. Implementation of technical academies, “schools within schools”, is encouraged within our local school systems.

School to work transition is one practical solution to meet the continuing challenge of and demand for a competitive workforce. Success requires a shared vision of what is to be done coupled with an effective, comprehensive plan for implementation. The tools, vision and commitment must be shared by employers and educators alike.

Enhanced support and active involvement by businesses in Adopt-A-School, Teachers In Business and other efforts to enhance career development and student and teacher awareness of the workplace would make a significant impact also.

Working together, a model workforce development and school-to-career system for the West Alabama region can be achieved and implemented. It will take all of us working collaboratively with a focus on building a workforce and educational system for the 21st century.

ViewPoint by
Johnnie Aycock, President