Gwendolyn Webb
Rev. Gwendolyn Cook Webb (born February 15, 1949 in Birmingham) is a civil rights activist, Christian minister, former Birmingham Police officer, and founder of Foot Soldiers International.
Webb attended Western Olin High School and was one of hundreds of Birmingham students trained by James Bevel who left school to participate in the Children's Crusade in May 1963. She was arrested for demonstrating and held in a temporary jail at the Alabama State Fairgrounds.
Webb graduated in 1967 and was married and had a daughter that year. She enrolled at UAB and worked as a hospital technician before joining the Birmingham Police Department in 1975. She was assigned to the department's business services unit investigating financial fraud.
She remarried, to white internal affairs lieutenant Bill Webb in 1979. The department reassigned them both from investigative roles to prison duty in apparent dissatisfaction with their relationship. In 1980 the Webbs were chosen to serve as Mayor Richard Arrington's personal security detail. The image of an interracial couple in that role brought favorable national attention, but struck some in Birmingham, including City Councilor John Katopodis, a frequent Arrington critic, as "tasteless".
After retiring from the department, Webb was ordained as a minister. Her third marriage was to James Appling, with whom she operated Travel Scene Tours. Webb was part of the inaugural class of Leadership Birmingham in 1984.
She founded Sisters Informing Sisters in 2008 and Foot Soldiers International in 2012. Webb has incorporated several organizations, including God's People United For A Better World, Future Multipreneur Of America, Women Of War Ministries and Gwendolyn C. Webb Ministries.
Webb was appointed to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Board of Directors in 2019.
References
- "Interracial Couple Guards Birmingham Mayor" (August 14, 1980) Jet. Vol. 58, No. 22, p. 12
- Franklin, Jimmie Lewis (1989) "Back to Birmingham: Richard Arrington Jr, and His Times" Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press
- Pillion, Dennis (May 4, 2018) "Marchers to commemorate 1963 Children's Crusade protest this weekend in Birmingham." The Birmingham News
External links
- Reverend Gwendolyn Cook Webb oral history interview (2016) Chicago, Illinois. The HistoryMakers