Black Belt News

Listing in LOC Catalog:

By Deborah Goodwin
Saturday, June 28, 2008

Repairs for Green Street Baptist Church have a $2.7 million price tag. Tithes won’t be enough.

Historical sites such as this are at the center of the mission of the Black Heritage Council, which is to provide advocacy for the preservation of African American sites and their associated history, artifacts and culture in Alabama.

Nearly 100 people from around the state came to the council’s preservation forum on Friday and Saturday in search of help. The forum took place at First Baptist Church, 709 Martin Luther King St. The theme was “A heritage so rich: Discovering, preserving and promoting the history and culture of African Americans in the Black Belt through tourism.”

Information on heir property, rehabilitation tax credits for businesses in historic building, funding for historic houses, and setting up 501 (c)(3) organizations were some of the topics at the event.

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Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Madison Spirit

During research of the old family cemeteries on Redstone Arsenal, I often encountered records of a Rodah Horton as one of the pioneer landowners. Rodah appeared in many historical records of this county, and he owned a significant amount of what became the southern part of the arsenal. However, he lived in the Meridianville area, where he owned more land.

According to the more than 30-year probate of his estate, he owned two houses and more than two lots in Huntsville, with one lot adjoining the old bank in town. His holdings included a plantation of 1,360 acres in Marengo County south of Demopolis. The nine folders of probate records for Rodah’s estate here show he owned about 130 slaves and properties called the Mountain Tract, the Cane Break Plantation, the Watt Place, a “place north of the Watt Place,” the Cavet Place, the Meridianville Quarter, the Thomas Place, the Campground Tract, the Glasscock Tract, and the Home Place, where his widow lived. The entire estate’s real property was about 5,000 acres.

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Posted by Joseph D. Bryant May 13, 2008 12:00 PM

Two groups that had worked separately to establish a Negro Leagues museum in Birmingham agreed today to work together on the project.

Birmingham City Councilman William Bell brought together representatives of the American Negro League and the Alabama Negro League during a meeting of the Birmingham City Council. The groups now say they want the museum established at Fair Park, Rickwood Field or the A.G. Gaston Building on Third Avenue North.

“We need a site that has a natural flow of traffic,” said State Rep. Mary Moore, D-Birmingham, who is assisting with the project

Source: The Birmingham News 

By Coy O’Neal
Sunday March 23, 2008

Rosa Mae Gibbs Whitt, a former Selma Times-Journal contributor and columnist, died March 15, 2008 at the age of 91 at Ingalls Hospital in Harvey, Ill.

Known as “Miss Beloit” affectionately by some in the Dallas County area, Whitt was very active in her community and spearheaded a number of projects.

“She was involved with a little bit of everything,” Chuck Chandler, who worked with Whitt during the 1990s, said. “She always worked to get support for events that were going on in her community.”

Whitt was involved heavily in quilting, and would come to quilt at the Old Depot Museum, according to Jean Martin, who currently works at the museum. Some of her quilts remain on display.

“She was the warmest, most wonderful person you’d ever meet,” Martin said.

Ethel Roper, a lifetime friend of Whitt’s, became her Sunday School teacher after Whitt had taught her for years.

“She was a very beautiful person, willing to help everybody,” Roper said.

According to Roper, Whitt’s gardening skills were top notch. ” She had the most beautiful garden in Beloit,” Roper said. “When everyone else’s gardens were brown, hers were green and just thriving.”

Whitt was born in 1917 in Cecil, Ala., the second child of 10. She attended Alabama State College, now known as Alabama State University,and later became a teacher.

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