The Birmingham (AL) Chapter of the Links, Incorporated to Host Civil Rights Program at Parker High School 
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – A select number of Parker High School juniors and seniors participated in a one-day symposium at A.H. Parker High School on Wednesday, November 6, from 9a.m. until 12:30p.m. to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the civil rights movement.
The event, “History in Your Backyard,” highlighted Birmingham foot soldiers who helped fight for justice and equality in the 1960s. Speakers included Circuit Judge Helen Shores Lee and Barbara Shores, daughters of famed Birmingham civil rights attorney Arthur Shores. Each student received a signed copy of The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill , which is about Arthur Shores’ life written by his daughters.
The goal of the program was to provide students with a better understanding of Birmingham’s civil rights movement and the significant roles that people in the students’ very own community played to make the movement of 1963 a movement that changed the world. Students learned about the critical role Parker High School students played in the movement, heard the Shores’ sisters’ accounts of growing up with their father and viewed photos from the movement. “The Barber of Birmingham,” an Academy Award-nominated documentary about the life of Birmingham foot soldier and barber James Armstrong, was also shown.
Parker High School History:
A. H. Parker High School was conceptualized as the first public high school for Black students in Birmingham. In 1900, its initial enrollment consisted of 18 students. Today, it serves 871 students in grades 9-12. Daryl Hudson is the principal.
Notable former students and alumni include:
• Carole Robertson, one of the four girls killed in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on September 15, 2013
• Oscar Adams, Jr., Alabama Supreme Court Justice
• Anne Marie Adams, Jefferson County Court Clerk
• Herman “Sonny” Blount, jazz musician, known as “Sun Ra”
• Erskine Hawkins, musician
• Lola Hendricks, African-American civil rights activist
• John Rhoden, sculptor and head of the Art Commission of the City of New York
• Katherine Burt’s Brooke, Freedom Rider
The Links, Incorporated is an international, not-for-profit corporation, established in 1946. The membership consists of 12,000 professional women of color in 276 chapters located in 41 states, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. It is one of the nation’s oldest and largest volunteer service organizations of extraordinary women who are committed to enriching, sustaining and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry. Links members contribute more than 500,000 documented hours of community service annually – strengthening their communities and enhancing the nation. The organization is the recipient of awards from the UN Association of New York and the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation for its premier programs.
The Birmingham Chapter, Alabama’s first chapter, began with a core group called “Pacesetters”, consisting of eight women: Hattie Calloway, Columbia Clayborne, Madeline Davis, Mayo Forniss, Minnie Gardner Gaston, Theodora Shores, Bernice Sterling and Essie Taggart. Area Director Georgia Schank installed the charter members on February 4, 1956.
The Birmingham Chapter continues to be a leading organization in the community in the areas of service and philanthropy. The support of the community and dedication of resourceful Link members have resulted in programs, scholarships, and activities that have benefited the Birmingham community.
