The Crimson White Local Edition, Aug. 18, 2022

Students shouldn’t overlook Tuscaloosa’s local history
7B
Tuscaloosa’s organizations talk nonprofits and volunteering
AUGUSTUS BARNETTE
STAFF REPORTER
Nonprofit organizations are
widely misunderstood;
from believing employees work
for free to thinking that overhead
is low, the general public has a
warped understanding of the place
of a nonprofit in the Tuscaloosa
community.
Charles Scribner, executive
director of the Black Warrior
Riverkeeper, a branch of the
Waterkeeper Alliance that aims
to protect the Black Warrior
watershed, agrees that nonprofits
are misunderstood.
“It can be said that nonprofits
have to focus on not one, but two
‘bottom lines’ as an organization.
Like for-profit businesses, they must
focus on the financial bottom line:
to bring in more money than they
spend, or else they will cease to exist,”
Scribner said. “On the other hand,
[nonprofits] must simultaneously
ensure that they are fulfilling their
mission, or else they will lose the
trust and support of people in their
service area.”
Avery Rhodes, a University
of Alabama alum and executive
director of Community on the Rise,
said that running a nonprofit must
come from the heart.
On the hard days, the days
that are not joy-filled, the
passion that you have for
the work can be the gas
you need to keep moving
forward. That passion can
sustain you.
AVERY RHODES
Community on the Rise is a
nonprofit based in Birmingham,
Alabama with the goal of
empowering the community
through the four tenets of housing,
education, healing and employment.
With these, Community on the Rise
aims to lift people out of poverty,
and recover identity documents,
as well as provide other services to
those impoverished.
“On the hard days, the days that
are not joy-filled, the passion that
you have for the work can be the gas
you need to keep moving forward.
That passion can sustain you,”
Rhodes said. “If you love the work,
the climb is worth it, and you know
there is a breathtaking view waiting
for you at the top of the mountain.”
Whereas Black Warrior
Riverkeeper and Community on
the Rise have become established
nonprofit organizations, recognition
is not something that comes
overnight, and in the case of the
West Alabama Women’s Center,
located on Jack Warner Parkway in
Tuscaloosa, it’s very fresh.
Robin Marty, the director of
operations at the West Alabama
Women’s Center, said she wants
people to know the struggles of a
newly minted nonprofit.
“One thing that I think people
don’t understand when it comes to
transferring over to a nonprofit, but
especially when you’re a medical
center that goes from what was
essentially a task-based operation
to now doing everything and based
either on grants or on insurance, is
that the big danger of this is that you
have a period of time where there is
no income,” Marty said. “It doesn't
matter how much work you do, there
is going to be no income because
you’re waiting for grants to come
in, or you’re waiting for insurance
to happen, and you’re waiting for
reimbursements to happen.”
Once an abortion clinic before
the overturning of Roe vs. Wade,
the West Alabama Women’s Center
now aims to provide gynecological
care, access to contraception and
more to the people of West Alabama
as an alternative to going to the state
health department.
“At this point, we have transitioned
over services away from elective
abortion, and the clinic currently is
focused primarily on a few different
forms of healthcare,” Marty said.
“We actually launched a ‘Pay What
You Can’ emergency contraception
program, which is a prescription only
brand of emergency contraception,
and have just received a large
donation of that which we will also
be offering up and that will be for
free… our job is to get as much
contraception into people’s hands as
possible, because we know that that’s
really how you stop abortion.”
While the West Alabama
Women’s Center leaves a noticeable
mark on Tuscaloosa, it may be hard
to notice these other organizations’
marks on the Druid City. However,
these nonprofits are still invested in
the wellbeing of Tuscaloosa even
behind the scenes.
As for Black Warrior Riverkeeper,
it’s best for Tuscaloosa not to get highand-mighty,
as it’s county is only one
of 17 which the organization keeps
under its radar.
“Black Warrior Riverkeeper's
patrol area is the entire Black Warrior
River watershed: all the land area that
drains to the Black Warrior River.
This service area includes parts of 17
counties in Alabama, including not
only the river itself in Tuscaloosa,
but also Lake Tuscaloosa, which
is the Tuscaloosa-area's drinking
water source,” Scribner said.
“Our organization is increasingly
active in and around Tuscaloosa,
patrolling for pollution, engaging
volunteers, and making educational
presentations to schools, businesses,
religious organizations and
civic groups.”
Like Black Warrior Riverkeeper,
Community on the Rise is based in
Birmingham, but its reach extends
into Tuscaloosa.
“While we are based in
Birmingham, we accept clients
from all over Alabama. If you are
struggling to obtain your identity
documents due to poverty, we
welcome you,” Rhodes said.
Community on the Rise
employs survivors of homelessness
through their Wellness & Housing
Opportunity Linked to Employment
program. Workers gain access to a
clean-living space and earn a salary
through creating artisanal goods out
of recycled #5 plastics, which are the
most common household plastics
and includes items like pill bottles
and storage bins.
Rhodes said she noticed that
Tuscaloosa generates #5 plastic
waste during football games, but the
city only recycles #1 & #2 plastics.
In addition to helping those in need
from all over the state, Community
on the Rise is open to a partnership
to reduce plastic waste and educate.
“We’d also welcome partnership
A few of the artisanal goods from Community on the Rise.
Courtesy of Community on the Rise
with Tuscaloosa organizations and
schools like UA to collect those #5
plastics… We’d love to come on
campus and educate about #5s and
how we recycle, as well as talk about
homelessness and poverty in our
state,” Rhodes said.
Even with a dedicated team of
nonprofit leaders, if the community
is unaware of the services, it’s easy for
nonprofits to fizzle out.
Marty said that other than
financial contributions, the best
thing citizens can do to help the West
Alabama Women’s Center is to take
advantage of their services.
“It’s really important that we
let the community know that we
are here and we’re still open… I
believe that a lot of people tend to
go to Birmingham when it comes to
getting gynecological care and they
don't need to, there’s a doctor right
here. There's someone right here
who can help,” Marty said.
As for Black Warrior Riverkeeper,
Scribner added that volunteering
for a nonprofit is beneficial to
both parties.
“Volunteering at nonprofits is a
great way to support good causes
while also building your resume
and experience. Black Warrior
Riverkeeper continually offers a
wide variety of volunteer projects
for people of all ages, backgrounds,
and locations,” Scribner said. “When
students volunteer for different
nonprofits, they can get a better
sense of the type of work they might
want to do upon graduating.”
Rhodes shares a similar view
to Scribner, in that working with
a nonprofit can be a great way to
gauge your own interest, as well as
change lives.
“Nonprofits often offer internships
and hands-on opportunities to
delve more deeply into the work - a
great way to gauge how interested
you truly are in a subject,” Rhodes
said. “Nonprofit work is beautiful,
demanding, life-giving, hard, joyful
- all these things on any given day of
the week.”
MARY CLAIRE WOOTEN
STAFF COLUMNIST
While residing in Tuscaloosa,
we find ourselves easily
fixated on the luxuries accessible
to us here. Whether that be new
student housing apartments popping
up within months to accommodate
growing student populations or the
abundance of downtown scenery and
restaurants, the “college portions” of
Tuscaloosa steadily grow.
But what’s at the root? Tuscaloosa
is more than we see on the surface of
the Quad’s thick grass and within the
stands of Bryant-Denny Stadium.
The University of Alabama’s
Department of History offers courses
focusing on Southern history and
racial and gender exclusion. Joshua
Rothman, professor and chair of the
department of history, published his
book “The Ledger and the Chain”
which follows the business history of
domestic slave traders and exposing
their cruel daily lives.
These courses and professors
provide valuable resources for
students to learn about Tuscaloosa,
but there is much more beyond the
classroom. Tuscaloosa was the state
capitol from 1826 to 1846, but its ruins
remain in Capitol Park.
Throughout Tuscaloosa are
historical buildings that have
withstood some of history’s most
prominent and violent periods.
Historic Tuscaloosa is a nonprofit
organization that works to preserve
several buildings around the city and
the history they represent.
Among their properties, Historic
Tuscaloosa preserves the Jemison-
Van de Graaff Mansion, the residence
of Robert Jemison Jr., who was a
plantation owner and a state senator
from 1859-1863. They provide free
public tours of the mansion and other
properties Tuesday through Sunday.
Senator Jemison’s lineage
continued to make headlines. His sonin-law,
Colonel Hargrove, a decorated
confederate general, would later go
on to be the dean of the University of
Historic Tuscaloosa preserves the Jemison Van de Graaff Mansion and
other properties around the city. Photos CW / David Gray
Alabama School of Law.
Later, his grandsons, Robert Van de
Graaff, awarded physicist and inventor
of the Van de Graaff Generator, and
William Van de Graaff, named the
first All-American football player for
the University of Alabama’s football
team, would become responsible for
the partial namesake of this building.
Historic Tuscaloosa works to
upkeep and preserve this building
along with four others that remain
crucial to the foundation of the city.
Alfred Battle, of the Battle-
Friedman homestead, was a wealthy
merchant and crucial financier of
many railroads we drive past today.
One hundred years later, after financial
loss from the Civil War, the house was
then bought by the Friedmans and
it became their new family estate. In
1963, the house was later sold to the
city of Tuscaloosa to be upkept by the
historical association.
While these buildings hold
centuries of complex history, the styles
incorporated into the homes represent
the popularized Southern antebellum
architecture that began appearing
30 years before the Civil War began.
The Battle-Friedman home is the site
of the last antebellum style garden
in Alabama.
The University of Alabama offers
tours for incoming students to
familiarize themselves with campus,
and there are also self guided tours
available to learn about history that
often goes unspoken by the Capstone.
In 2015, Hillary Green, a history
professor at the University, began
researching campus history with a
focus on those enslaved in Tuscaloosa
between 1829 and 1865. Her work
seeks to provide accessible, hands-on
forms of education about the enslaved
individuals who lived, worked and
even died during this period.
Historic Tuscaloosa is a
nonprofit organization
that works to preserve
several buildings around
the city and the history they
represent.
The Hallowed Grounds Tours are
available in pamphlet form, estimated
at a leisurely pace for 90 minutes, or as
a mobile device tour through Adobe
Spark, an abbreviated 45 minute tour
utilized for classes.
That history expands to the city.
The Tuscaloosa Civil Rights History
and Reconciliation Foundation also
hosts a Civil Rights History Trail that
covers 18 locations across the city and
details the local fight for racial equity.
These trails give a personal
perspective to Tuscaloosa’s racial
past and provide powerful narratives
of local resistance. While
many assume they
are aware of the
South’s brutality,
these initiatives
function as a
reminder of the local,
personal stories that
follow from slavery
and oppression.
H i s t o r i c
Tuscaloosa
owns the
Murphy-
Collins House, which now holds the
Murphy African-American Museum.
It preserves the lives of Will Murphy,
Tuscaloosa’s first black mortician and
funeral director, and his wife, Laura
Murphy, who was the principal of
20th Street Elementary School. The
museum also places an emphasis on
the history and culture of Tuscaloosa’s
African-American population.
Then there’s the more hidden
histories associated with Tuscaloosa.
The Prewitt Slave Cemetery is the
largest of its kind in the state, but it was
overtaken by nature through time.
Patricia and Eloise Prewitt now work
to ensure that the history remains.
“That cemetery needs to be
publicized,” Patricia Prewitt said.
“School kids need to drive over there
and say look, that’s a slave cemetery.”
Those sites hold realities beyond
words, statistics or any history lesson.
The University of Alabama offers
an educational foundation to better
understand history, but those lessons
become more personal through
Tuscaloosa. The city is rife with
historical sites and stories that provide
a new lens for learning and growing
that students would be remiss
to overlook.