1920

1920 was the 49th year after the founding of the city of Birmingham. The United States 1920 Census showed Birmingham with a population of 178,806, of which 108,550 were white and 70,230 were black. It was also the census year with the greatest number of foreign immigrants, 2,160 of which hailed from Italy.

Events

• April 15: The International Association of Civitan Clubs was incorporated during a meeting at the Southern Club.
• June: The Birmingham Police Department used fire hoses to quell a lynch mob and charged attorney William Alexander with inciting a riot.
• November 23: 12 miners were killed in the 1920 Parrish Mine explosion.
• B. B. Comer filled the unexpired term of John H. Bankhead in the U.S. Senate
• Oscar Underwood, became United States Senate Minority Leader.
• Glenn Messer founded the Messer Flying Circus.
• J. Mercer Barnett was elected president of Kiwanis International.
• F. C. Bishop served as pastor of McElwain Baptist Church.
• William Dobyns became pastor of South Highland Presbyterian Church.
• St Timothy Baptist Church was organized with Reverend Sutton presiding.

Business

• The North Birmingham By Products Coke Oven Plant produced its first coke.
• James Mitchell stepped down as president of Alabama Power Company.
• 1920 general strike by the United Mine Workers of America led to the closing of Brookside mine.
• Walter Hunter opened Hunter Furniture downtown.
• Bromberg's moved to 218 20th Street North.
• Tom Stevens founded the Home Baking Company.
• Day Eye Care opened.
• The Graves Shale Brick Company closed down.
• The Linger Longer Lodge was incorporated.
• The Grapico Bottling Works was incorporated by Raymond Rochell.
• Maurice Gottlieb opened the Studio Book Shop in the Clark Building at 408 20th Street North.
• Operations at the Helen Bess Mine were ended.
• April 4: Franklin Glass stepped down as editor of The Birmingham News.
• April 18: The Birmingham News acquired the rival Birmingham Ledger.

Education

• April 15: The University of Alabama Board of Trustees voted to move the Medical College of Alabama from Mobile to Tuscaloosa.
• Howard College joined the Southern Association of Colleges.
• Property was purchased for a new building for Industrial High School.
• Pearl and Bonnie Howard founded the Misses Howard School in the former R. D. Johnson residence at 17th Street and 12th Avenue South.

Sports

• Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Southern League founded
• October 23: 1920 International Balloon Race

Works

Books

• Cruikshank, George H. (1920) History of Birmingham and Its Environs: A Narrative Account of Their Historical Progress, Their People, and Their Principal Interests 2 volumes. Chicago, Illinois: Lewis Publishing Company. - via Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections

Buildings

• ACIPCO School
• Bankers Bond Building
• Dulion Apartments
• Galax Theater
• Hill Elementary School
• Jefferson County Courthouse Bessemer Division
• Levert Apartments
• McAdory High School
• Mortimer Jordan High School
• Noojin Building, Gadsden
• Erskine Ramsay Hall (Miles)
• Shades Cahaba High School
• Tuggle Elementary School

Demolitions

• The former Zelosophian Academy in Oak Grove was destroyed by fire.

Individuals

• February: Joens Fries joined the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company.
• Cooper Green married Hattie Taylor.

Births

• January 7: Katherine McTyeire, founder of Iron Art
• January 10: Jimmy Lee Jr, chairman of Buffalo Rock Company
• January 10: Richard Frye, scholar of Iranian history
• January 17: Jay Heard, baseball pitcher
• January 20: Sam Hairston, baseball player
• February 1: Nancy Crews, World War II aviator
• February 2: Ann Hodges, struck by meteorite
• February 6: Conrad Rehling, University of Alabama golf coach
• February 11: Louis Wilson Jr, Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps
• March 19: George Huddleston Jr, U.S. Representative, 9th District
• March 25: Hugh Agricola, attorney and rector of the Episcopal Church of the Advent
• April: Heron Johnson, pastor of Faith Apostolic Church
• April 3: Mary Anderson, film and television actress
• April 21: Andrew Glaze, poet and Birmingham Post-Herald reporter
• April 22: Arthur Winograd, Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conductor
• May 3: Dan Bankhead, baseball player
• May 6: William Berney, playwright
• June 7: Carl Morton, Hardy Corporation executive and Poet Laureate of Alabama
• June 20: Joseph Gomer, Tuskegee Airman
• June 26: Edgar Arendall, pastor of Dawson Memorial Baptist Church
• July 1: Paul Lehner, baseball player
• July 5: Maree Blackwell, UAB professor and radio host
• July 17: Joe Rumore, radio announcer
• August 1: Ross Gray, Medal of Honor recipient
• August 2: Grady Cothen, Baptist minister
• September 7: William Bowron, CEO of Red Diamond
• September 16: Chuck Dryden, pilot
• October 8: William Maddox, surgeon
• October 20: Frank Rose, President of the University of Alabama
• October 22: Timothy Leary, LSD advocate
• December 10: William Spencer III, co-founder of Motion Industries
• December 11: Mary Burks, environmentalist
• December 26: Alfred Farrar, Tuskegee Airman and engineer
• Bob Bales, aviator, illustrator and college administrator
• Jack Bingham, attorney
• Charles Brooks, editorial cartoonist
• Harry Ford, Tuskegee Airman
• John Godbold, federal judge
• Benjamin Greene, former Birmingham Housing Authority commissioner
• Florine Holt, Miss Birmingham 1939
• Elbert Jemison, insurance executive and golfer
• Lee Ousley, violinist and music educator
• Earl Potts, Baptist minister
• Thompson Reynolds, football coach
• Helen Saxon, dance instructor
• Alf Van Hoose, Birmingham News sportswriter

Marriages

• Julia Shackelford to Ralph Smallman

Deaths

• February 5: J. T. Banks, miner, in a collapse at Eureka No. 4 mine in Helena
• March 1: John H. Bankhead, U. S. Senator
• March 30: Andrew Fulenwider, real estate executive
• June: William Gussen, director of the Birmingham Conservatory of Music.
• July 11: Martin Eagan, former Birmingham Police Chief
• July 16: James Gilmer, former Adjutant General
• August 1: Noah Feagin, Inferior Court judge
• November 1: Belton Gilreath, building contractor, mine operator, and philanthropist
• December 7: U. S. Marshal Dick Griffin, killed in the line of duty
• Mary Gordon Duffee, historian

Context

1920 was a leap year. It was the first year of women's suffrage, and also the first year of national prohibition (an experiment already tried in Birmingham between 1908 and 1911). Babe Ruth was traded to the Yankees. The Senate blocked the United States' membership in the League of Nations while Woodrow Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its establishment. The Royal Canadian Mounted police were created. Joan of Arc was canonized. The Mexican Revolution puts Alvaro Obregon in power. Warren Harding defeated James Cox in the 1920 presidential race. British troops gunned down soccer fans in Dublin on Bloody Sunday. Those born in 1920 include Isaac Asimov, Sun Myung Moon, Federico Fellini, Ravi Shankar, Pope John Paul II, Yul Brynner, Ray Bradbury, Mickey Rooney and Dave Brubeck. 1920 saw the deaths of Amedeo Modigliani, Robert Peary, William Dean Howells, Max Weber, Peter Carl Fabergé and Gaston Chevrolet. Notable works of 1920 included Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love, Karel Čapek's play R.U.R.', Gustav Holst's The Planets, and the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

1920s

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