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Remembering Southern History

Join us for Highlights, an informative
series of programs geared toward Seniors
with a focus on Southern History.

Sunday Morning at the Spring
Creek Baptist Church: The
Heritage of Southern Gospel Music

October 2, 2003
12:30 P.M.
West Coosa Senior Center
Scholar: Dr. Allen Dennis, Ph.D.
Department of History
Troy State University
Co-Sponsored by:
The Alabama Humanities Foundation & The
Sylacauga Service League

Few things have affected the lives of Southerners more than the music of the church, which has provided refuge and hope and an avenue for spiritual yearning. This program deals with gospel music in that human context, inviting audiences to explore why this type of music has been so influential. The presentation combines narrative and performance, and audience participation in both is encouraged.

October 14, 2003
10:00 A.M. - Refreshments
10:30 A.M. - Program
Oak Grove Community Center
Scholar: Jackie Matte, M.A.
Independent Scholar
Birmingham, Alabama
Co-Sponsored by:
The Alabama Humanities Foundation and
the Sylacauga Chamber of Commerce

Little is known about the culture of the Native Americans who continue to live in the Southeast, because after Removal, they had no legal existence in Alabama or in other Southern states. Nevertheless, at the time of European contact, the native people of the Southeast had developed the richest culture of any Native Americans north of Mexico. Their culture and the ways it has changed over time will be presented with illustrations.

November 4, 2003
10:00 A.M. - Refreshments
10:30 A.M. - Program
West Coosa Senior Center
Scholar: Frances Osborn Robb, M.A.
Independent Scholar
Huntsville, Alabama
Co-Sponsored by The Alabama Humanities
Foundation & The Sylacauga Arts Council

Americans and Alabamians fell in love with motor vehicles between 1900 and 1950. They came to depend on them for work and pleasure. They provided new topics of conversation and new types of anecdotes (from rush hour to double dates, repair bills to family road trips.) As "automobility" became a major American culture force, motor vehicles changed lifeways and the landscape, affecting Alabama and the Deep South in distinctive ways.

November 18, 2003
10:00 A.M. - Refreshments
10:30 A.M. - Program
Oak Grove Community Center
Scholar: Karen Utz, M.A.
Curator, Sloss Furnaces National
Historic Landmark
Birmingham, Alabama
Co-sponsored by The Alabama Humanities
Foundation & The Comer Museum

In 1880, James Withers Sloss, a north Alabama merchant and railroad man, founded the Sloss Furnaces Company, and two years later "blew-in" the second blast furnaces in Birmingham. This presentation speaks not only to the technological aspects of an early southern industrial facility, but to the people who made Sloss Furnaces one of the largest producers of pig iron in the word.