I was happy when I learned The Barber of Birmingham was nominated for an Academy Award. The life of Civil Rights foot soldier James Armstrong is worth celebrating. Besides being a Barbershop owner and a World War II veteran, Armstrong successfully sued the Board of Education of Birmingham for failing to allow him to enroll his children in school. He won. In Spring 1963 Armstrong participated in daily protests. Police arrested him for his efforts to desegregate a lunch counter at a Birmingham diner. In 1965 he helped lead marchers across Selma’s Edmund Pettus bridge on “Bloody Sunday”.
I snapped several shots of Armstrong in Selma in 2009. This is an excellent opportunity to share them. 
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Filed under: art, Civil Rights, entertainment, Human Rights, news, News Headlines Tagged: | Academy Award nominee, Birmingham, Civil Rights, Edmund Pettus Bridge, Foot Soldier, Heroes, James Armstrong, Photos, Selma, The Barber of Birmingham
Love for the Barber of Birmingham, Octavia Spencer and Selma
http://redeyesfrontpage.blogspot.com/2012/02/alabama-in-house-at-academy-awards-in.html
Hey, Redeye!
Thanks for drawing attention to Montgomery native, Octavia Spencer (I keep thinking Octavia Butler because I adore that author!)
I didn’t see The Help. It’s not really my genre as I’m more into sci-fi or big special effects production for actual movie-going. But my, did Melissa Harris-Perry (who I like) raise a big, ol’ stink about it. I guess that’s good to percolate discussions on race.
I haven’t seen it yet, but “Redtails” looks to be a good AND accurate portrayal of black fighter pilots in WW2. If you’re looking for other good portrayals, check out “Hart’s War” with Bruce Willis and Colin Farrell. The movie has a pair of black fighter pilot POWs who also give excellent performances of Tuskegee airmen. Both give excellent background on the inconceivable separations between North and South as late as the 1940s – northern black pilots were stunned to find the segregation of “colored” and “white”. The blending of northern and southern blacks sped up true integration, as did Harry Truman’s forced integration of the US Army following WW2 – with equal (and equally false) predictions of disaster as we saw around the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell”.
Thanks, John! I watched the story of William Still and the Underground Railroad a few nights ago on PBS. Pretty bad ass.
Yeah, that was a pretty good documentary.
0whole1! How’s it going? Is it chilly? I just went and checked the mail in bare feet.
The new job (read: the new boss) is much better than the old job — less stress but less down time too. Spring finally here, but I think we missed out on the aurora.
Kudoes on the feet.
A wonderful story of someone (I sadly admit) didn’t know about. Thanks!
Hey, Frank!
Hope everything is going well. I love Armstrong’s face. I didn’t recognize him when I took the photos. But I knew his exuberance would look great, and I knew from his button he was a foot soldier.