By Alaina Bookman and Cody D. Short | AL.com
This is another installment in The Birmingham Times/AL.com/CBS42 joint series, “Beyond the Violence Click here to sign up for the newsletter.
Rope. Dynamite. Guns. And more guns.
In 1933, Birmingham, then a young city founded on railroads and coal mines, counted 148 homicides, as men, so far as we know, killed each other with all manner of weapons. Some while drinking, others while fighting, others caught up in others’ arguments.
On Wednesday, Birmingham broke that nearly century-old record, as police responded to the 149th homicide of 2024, finding a man shot to death in the front yard of a home in Titusville.
Birmingham stands out among other cities in the state, and country, for its dramatic increase in homicides in recent years.
The city recorded multiple mass shootings in 2024. Instead of one or two bullet casings at a scene, police sometimes documented hundreds. Some people were killed after alleged kidnappings and torture.
Officials pleaded for peace. The killings continued.
“If we had one homicide in our city, that would be too many,” Mayor Randall Woodfin told AL.com on Tuesday. “If we had two, that would be too many. If we had 10…100. One homicide is too many because I don’t think of it in terms of a number, I think of it in terms of that victim, I think of it in terms of that victim’s families.”
In the early 1930’s, Birmingham was a growing city with a population of about 260,000 people, giving the city a murder rate of about 5.7 homicides for every 10,000 people. Today, the city is shrinking, with a little under 197,000 people, giving the city a murder rate of 7.5 homicides per 10,000 people.
City officials and residents say the trends didn’t happen overnight.
“How do you move on? How do you go forward? I don’t know,” said Charisse McQueen, whose teenage son was killed in 2023.
Who Were Recent Victims?
2024 may be a record-breaking year, partially due to a string of deaths law enforcement say are connected to one man. But violence isn’t a new phenomenon.
When Birmingham was young, industrialization attracted thousands of people looking for jobs in a melting pot of violent confrontation, with bombings, mobs and lynchings used in some of the most brutal murders.
In 1932, Birmingham-Southern College Professor Kenneth E. Barnhart published a study concluding that police brutality, lack of access to education and distrust of the justice system encouraged violence in Black communities.
Since then, Birmingham has had other waves of violent crime, notably in the 1990s.
In 2020, there were 122 homicides. Derrick Marks, 25, was one of many people shot and killed that year.
His mother, Catrina Carey, said she still grieves the loss of her son, who was a rapper and singer.
Carey recently helped her daughter, Velinda, move to a new home in Florida. Velinda believes her son can live a safer life away from Birmingham.
“My daughter chose to move out of the state because her son is graduating high school next year. He’s afraid to be in Birmingham after he graduates…She is so afraid for him to be here because of all of the killings,” Catrina Carey said.
The killings continued.
Adonnis Xavier Bishop McQueen, 17, was shot in front of his home in 2023.
He was a Huffman High School senior who had a talent for cutting hair. His mother placed his many trophies and his clippers near his urn.
Charisse McQueen said she could not stand to look across the street and see the pavement where her son’s body lay after being shot.
“I couldn’t stay in that house. I had to leave there,” McQueen said. “I couldn’t walk past there. I couldn’t look out my bedroom window. There it is. I come out my door. There it is. My children had to walk past it to go to the school bus and it’s just too much. And so they’ve been in Decatur and Huntsville and I’m still here on the opposite side of town. Just trying to figure out life. I feel powerless. I feel I’m not the same. I know I’m not the same.”
And in 2024, the killings continued.
In the last few years, escalating beefs have led to retaliatory shootings and killings, police say. Officials believe many shootings are targeted. And many bystanders have been caught in the crossfire.
Anitra Holloman, a college student and mother, was killed in the Sept. 21 mass shooting at the Hush lounge. Her child’s father was shot to death in 2022.
Skilar, Holloman’s 1-year-old, was orphaned by gun violence.
“Why?” Holloman’s mother, Candance Kemp, told AL.com. “Whoever you were targeting, why did you have to do it there with all of these innocent bystanders?
How Did We Get Here?
Lonnie Hannon teaches at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s School of Public Health and studies the cultural, political and economic factors that shape society.
Hannon grew up in Birmingham. He believes declines in core institutions such as churches, schools and families over the last 30 years have left many Birmingham residents more isolated and vulnerable. Birmingham has one of the highest rates of single-family households in the United States.
“Once those institutions decline, then you get a situation where people really don’t have a guiding post, a guiding star, a guiding light that helps them set boundaries for themselves,” Hannon said.
TeAndria Ellis, founder and executive director of the Surge Project, a Birmingham nonprofit dedicated to youth and community development, said not all residents have equal opportunities to thrive and live happy, healthy lives.
“I am a believer that gun violence is an end result of other issues that exist in the lives of not just the perpetrator, but also the victims,” Ellis said.
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Despite the city’s recent economic and civic engagement growth, almost 75% of Birmingham residents say the region’s economic resources are not distributed fairly, according to a 2022 Institute for Policy Studies and Alabama Arise survey.
“You got a lot of income inequality, and you got a lot of people who are poor who have a greater distance to close the gap, the income gap, the resource gap, and then they are willing to take bigger risks,” Hannon said.
Then add guns, many purchased illegally or converted into machine guns, to the mix.
“Most of the people who are committing crimes or retaliating want to enact street justice…Family members know who in their family is out here committing these violent crimes but there’s no accountability at home,” said Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr. “Community and law enforcement has to work hand in hand to stop any type of retaliation or shooting.”
In 2023, Alabama lawmakers allowed permitless carry. Some local mayors, including Woodfin, have asked the legislature to grant local residents the ability to decide whether permits are needed to have firearms in city limits.
“If by vote from a majority of the residents of the City of Birmingham think that people either need a permit or these types of weapons should not be allowed to be driven around with, give it to the voters. Empower the voters,” Woodfin said.
“I believe the residents of Birmingham have had enough of this and want to see more gun safety laws in place that protect people in Birmingham, but that has to come from a level higher than me.”
How Can Birmingham Become Safer?
Woodfin said his administration will “continue to be aggressive” in putting more taxpayer dollars toward public safety, hiring and retaining police and supporting youth violence prevention programs.
“2025 will be better than 2024,” Woodfin said.
Since losing her son, Carey has become a counselor and mentor to others who have lost a loved one to gun violence to help those victims heal.
“What I would like to see is more empowerment for the youth and the young adults to achieve their full potential,” Carey said. “There are plenty of programs out here. There is always hope.”
Carr said that while growing up in Ensley, he saw fathers, uncles and grandfathers kiss their loved ones goodbye and send them off to work or school with a wave.
Now, he said, he doesn’t recognize his old neighborhood. In front of the store where he used to peacefully get his groceries, he now sees people loitering, smoking weed and playing music.
But Ensley, and some other neighborhoods, are making positive changes, locals say.
Renew Birmingham revitalizes underserved communities, primarily Ensley, by offering residents mental health resources, transportation, groceries and educational and career opportunities in exchange for volunteer work.
“If you don’t have accountability and responsibility of the residents to get invested in the community, then fear, apathy and dependency will continue to drive the culture into the ground,” said Gerrel Jones, executive director of Renew Birmingham.
In 2022, there were 13 homicides in Ensley. In 2023, after Renew’s inception, there were 10 homicides in Ensley. Now the neighborhood sits at eight homicides, according to Jones. He said he also sees more people getting involved in the community.
“I did fish fries at my home. I knocked on all my neighbors’ doors. I introduced myself, passed out my card. I went to all the churches, and made sure the kids were doing volunteer work and so on and so forth. Those are the types of things that have to be done. We cannot be passive about trying to change our community,” Jones said.
He hopes similar organizations will be a norm in all of Birmingham’s 99 neighborhoods.
Local officials, gun violence experts, violence prevention advocates and community members are asking for one elusive thing going into the new year: unity.
“My hope for next year is that people understand the importance of life, that they prioritize this community. Put the guns down and understand that violence is not the answer. Understand that there are real ramifications to acts of violence in our community,” Carr said.
“The reality is that it’s gonna take everybody.”
