Pat Duggins

“For me, it was just a day of resolve and resolution, and I said ‘sign me up,” says James Stewart “Well, the first thing I tell them is that I went to jail, and they go ‘Oooh, Grandmama,” and I say well, let me explain…” recalled Eloise Gaffney. “It was just…you knew God was on your side,” says Washington Booker. “And we knew that it didn’t matter what we were facing. You knew if God was on your side, you’d overcome it.” Stewart, Gaffney, and Booker are all in their early sixties. They’re all from Birmingham. They’re all African American. And fifty years ago, they made national news.

Birmingham area disc jockey Shelley the Playboy may have signaled the start of the children’s march in 1963, but he didn’t organize it. The credit goes to a lieutenant of Dr. Martin Luther King, the reverend James Bevel. One of the teenagers he inspired was James Stewart… “He wore one of the blue jeans suits, and had badges from everybody, and pins all over, and he was baldheaded and wore this skull cap,” Stewart remembered, “And he’s the one who was the kids’ ‘pied piper,’ he talked to us about getting involved.

“Let me know at the start of this conversation that I have never been a civil rights activist of any kind,” says former Birmingham radio disc jockey Shelley Stewart. “I want to make that perfectly clear.” The teenagers who took part in the 1963 children’s march see it differently They say they relied on signals and code words from Stewart’s radio show to know when the protest would begin. And even Shelley admits he knew firsthand what school kids, both black and white, could do in the race of racism. When he wasn’t on the air, Shelley the playboy played records at dance parties.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Relatives of four black girls killed when Ku Klux Klan members bombed an Alabama church are split over how to mark the crime 50 years later. Sisters of two victims said Friday they favor a proposed congressional medal honoring the girls and aren't interested in financial compensation. Their opinions differ from those of the bombing's lone survivor and the brother of another victim. They told The Associated Press earlier this week they want money and call the medal an unneeded token.

Friends, family, and fans of the Alabama Crimson Tide gathered in Tuscaloosa to remember Mal Moore. The former Alabama football player, assistant coach, and athletic director died just ten days after resigning his post at UA. A celebration of life was held at Coleman Coliseum, next to the athletics facility named in Moore's honor. Alabama Public Radio was there. APR's Pat Duggins and Stan Ingold put together this sound portrait.

Alabama Public Radio News Director Pat Duggins reported on stories in 2012 ranging from the twin EF-2 tornadoes that struck near downtown Mobile in Christmas night. This entry also includes his report from the Mercedes Benz Superdome following the Alabama Crimson Tide's 21-0 victory over the LSU Tigers for the BCS college football championship. Finally, Duggins reports from Washington, D.C. on a congressional hearing on the growing problem of HIV infection in the South, where activists from Alabama where scheduled to testify.

Alabama Public Radio's Ryan Vasquez reports on the on-going legal fight over treatment of Alabama prisoners who test positive for the virus that causes AIDS. This story involved tracking down former inmate Alfred Knox, who was diagnosed with HIV while in prison in Alabama. He now resides in Illinois, and whose case is the heart of the legal fight on whether infected prisoners can legally be segregated from the general population.

Alabama Public Radio's Pat Duggins reports on the University of Alabama football team's victory during the 2012 BCS college football championship in New Orleans, by defeating the only team that beat the Crimson Tide during the regular season. The Louisiana State University left Tide fans demoralized by forcing Alabama into overtime before a hometown crowd in Tuscaloosa, and then winning by a field goal. Duggins reports on how both teams won slots in the BCS game, with Alabama winning with a 21-0 shutdown.