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Transcript on deposit at The Southern Historical Collection, The Louis Round Wilson Library
Citation of this interview should be as follows:
“Interview A-0001, in
the Southern Oral History Program Collection #4007,
Southern Historical
Collection, The Wilson Library,
University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill”
Richard Arrington, who three years after this interview would become the first African American mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, discusses race and politics in the American South and his nascent political career, which began with a seat on the Birmingham City Council. He describes a city where white elites are very concerned with controlling the kinds of African Americans who enter politics, but where young black politicians are managing to get a foothold in city politics. He hopes that the black presence will continue to increase in Alabama and that African American politicians can set aside their differences.
African American Birmingham city council member Richard Arrington discusses the slowly increasing presence of African Americans on Birmingham's political landscape.
[START OF TAPE 1, SIDE A]
Let me ask you first just a little bit about your own background and how you got involved politically.
Well, I'm a late comer to the political scene. By training I'm a biologist all of my degrees, bachelor's through doctorate being in the area of biology. Entered into college administration about five or six years ago serving as academic dean at Miles College after serving as chairman of the natural science division. I came to the center here, Alabama Center for Higher Education, in '70 and sort of got into the political arena without any planning. I was approached by a group of young blacks that was interested in trying to run some people for offices here in the city in the city election. They were particularly interested in trying to support what they considered to be new faces. People with new ways of thinking. And so I was contacted one night while sitting here in my office working. Just received a phone call from a friend of mine and asked if I'd come to a meeting. And I was asked if I would agree to run for . . . frankly, I was asked to agree to run for mayor that year. I said no and then I was asked if I'd run for city council. So I did and I ran and that was in '71. That was really my first effort at any political office. I had qualified to run for the state board of education about two years prior to that time, only to learn after qualifying that the law does not allow an educator to run for the state board of education unless he has been out of education for at least five years. So I had to withdraw.
Did you have the support of the Progressive Democrats of Jefferson County?
I was endorsed on the ballot of the Progressive Democrats when the ballot came out. I did not consult with the Progressive Democratic Council at the time that I entered the race. However, my feeling was that I thought I was in a position that I would get support from the Progressive Democratic Council. It turns out I was right. I could have been wrong, but I did not feel at the time that the Council could afford to not endorse me. But anyway, I was supported. I did get the endorsement.
You're how old now?
I'm 39 years old.
Tell me a little about your experience on council? Did you have any prior political experience at all? [Any] party activities?
No, I had none at all. I think I was becoming more and more aware of the need for blacks, particularly some of the younger blacks and some who have sort of reaped some of the benefits of older blacks in terms of getting education and some of the other benefits that blacks are enjoying as they move to the middle class. I think I was becoming increasingly sensitive to the need for us to become involved in the political situation and what the political situation means for blacks. And the hope that it holds for blacks in terms of achieving what I consider to be full equality and freedom for black people in this country. But I had never before participated in the political race. In fact I don't believe I had ever even worked in a political race for a candidate. I sort of kept an interest in it as a voter and that was about it.
What happened after you got in that council race? How did
Well, I was at somewhat of an advantage. I had just come from the
position as academic dean at Mills College. And so I wasn't completely
unknown here in the Birmingham area. Having served as academic dean at
Mills College at which time, of course, Lucius Pitts was president of
Mills College and was very active in this community and widely
recognized as sort of a black leader in this community. I had worked
with Lucius Pitts so I had gotten quite a bit of exposure to citizen
groups in the community. So I wasn't unknown. I had taken the
responsibility at the time the black citizens in Birmingham first
approached the city government and power structure in this city to do
something about police brutality in this city and all of this eventually
resulted in the formation of the community action committee, the ONB,
which you may have heard something about. Which is a biracial committee
here that deals with problems here and I think it's made some
significant strides in helping to alleviate some of the tensions, racial
tensions and deal with some of the problems in this community. I, at
that time, was asked by Dr. Pitts to serve as a person who drafted most
of the documents that were sent to the group and so I got in on some of
those meetings. So I was among what was called the twenty-one concerned
black citizens who did go before the city government, representatives of
the city government and people in the power structure here in this town
to ask them to do something about some of the problems affecting black
folks, which we felt that they could do something about. So what I'm
saying is that I had had some exposure to some of the leaders here,
limited exposure. I was known from my work as an educator particularly
because I was connected with Miles College here in Birmingham. So I
Let me ask you one more thing about your background. Are you a native of Birmingham?
Well, I consider myself to be, but I'm originally from Livingston,
Alabama, which is down in the black belt area. My father and
How do you assess Operation New Birmingham?
Well, I think it has done some good things here. I alluded to that a moment ago when I was talking about the CAC committee. Operation New Birmingham, of course, is unquestionably a powerful organization here because it has the leading civic figures and businessmen and so forth in the community on Operation New Birmingham. So I think it has done some good things here. I think it has been . . . I think it has made a few awkward moves that it should not have made and it has put a sort of bitter taste in the mouths of some of the citizens, particularly in the minority community. I tend to think that if you try to weigh the pluses and the minuses, the negatives, that Operation New Birmingham certainly has done more good for the city than it has done harm. I think right now . . . a couple of things that people dislike. A number of people, particularly blacks, dislike about Operation New Birmingham. One was the role that Operation New Birmingham played in the last city election. Through the organization called . . . the acronym was BAG . . . I can't even remember what that stands for . . .
Birmingham Action Group.
Yeah, Birmingham Action Group. And despite all the denials that have been made by officials of Operation New Birmingham about their role, I think it is pretty obvious to anybody who bothers to look into it that Operation New Birmingham did indeed play a role in re-electing the incumbents. Now that, in and of itself, was not so bad, but I think it was the tactics that were used. Which was in a very subtle sense an appeal back to, you know, the racist appeal, racist feelings or emotions. And people resent that about Operation New Birmingham and I think that resentment was reflected in the demand a citizen made recently that Operation New Birmingham be taken out of the community participation plan the city government had come up with, or the mayor's office had come up with. But I think that Operation New Birmingham has played an important role in helping this city to move along. Now, again, the problem with Operation New Birmingham is that I think it wants to define when, where and at what pace progress and change will be made in this community. And it has been composed, largely, of people of upper income. Some middle income people. But mainly people who are identified as being in the power structure. So it has not, in the past, been inclusive enough. I think it's taken some steps to try to correct that. Secondly, I think it's overly sensitive to criticism. Apparently so many people, in Operation New Birmingham, feel that they never do anything wrong. Whatever Operation New Birmingham supports, that's it. That is obviously not true.
How valid is the criticism that Operation New Birmingham is overly concerned with image as opposed to substance?
I think number one priority is image. It has done some things of
substance, but Operation New Birmingham had, first of all, to try to
change the image of this city. And it has done that. And
What would be some of these positive things?
Well, I feel that, to a large extent, we have opened our . . . first of
all . . . communication. Operation New Birmingham honestly gets the
credit, I think, for that. And Operation New Birmingham did take the
lead, at the request of the black citizens, the black citizens group
that was called twenty-one concerned citizens, to set up some mechanism
whereby there could be some discussions held, problems. That in itself,
for Birmingham, represented a significant change in posture. Secondly,
Operation New Birmingham has worked to help getting blacks placed on
boards, some of the boards. Now here I must say that I think Operation
New Birmingham takes too much of the credit. In some of its literature
it takes credit for just about every black that was appointed to a
board. And being a member of the Birmingham city council, I know that
that is not the case at all. We have a council that's sensitive to
blacks being on boards because of the black political power here in this
community. But Operation New Birmingham has certainly moved to support
the efforts to get the black judge in the city of Birmingham and I don't
question that it did swing some votes on the council that were necessary
to get a black judge elected. Places like the personnel board, a
three-member board that's very powerful in this city, controlling
personnel policy for cities over 5,000 in this county. Operation New
Birmingham got the first black appointed there and I think this was
really as a direct result of Operation New Birmingham. Operation New
Birmingham has gone out to try to involve the community, at least
provide a channel
Can you explain to me what happened in so far as that last city election? Particularly. . . . Well, let me tell you what I know. As I understand it . . . Two things, and I'm particularly interested in one. One, I understand that the Progressive Democrats did not endorse . . . endorsed a biracial slate even though there were some additional black candidates. And that this had an adverse effect in the black community toward them. Two, that subsequent to the election, one of the incumbent councilmen died and that U. C. Clemon, who had been the next highest vote-getting candidate, was considered but passed over in favor of a white candidate as replacement.
Yeah, well, before I deal with those let me say . . . One thing you have
to know about Birmingham, and I guess this relates more to the earlier
question than to the two you've just raised, is that as we look at the
progress here in this city and we look at the role, say, of ONB, you
will see that we are still a city that's dealing
I think it referred to Progressive Democrats in Jefferson County and their endorsement policy and the effect of that in the black community.
Yeah. Well, in Birmingham we still, unfortunately, we still play,
particularly in the black community, endorsement politics. Many blacks
in this community and this county as a whole look for political
Let me ask you a question? Was Arthur Shores on the latter ballot?
No, he was not. And for that reason he did not . . . in a number of
predominantly black boxes, he did not, you know, run among the top vote-getters. And this resulted in Arthur having to go into the runoff. Now
if you followed the runoff . . . Arthur was, of course, a
The other question related to the aftermath.
What was that now?
When the vacancy occurred.
Well, when the vacancy occurred, some of us pushed for U. W. Clemons and
U. W., of course, was the next in line in terms of the number of votes
he got. However, met with strong opposition. Most of this was done
quietly, but being on the council, being in meetings behind
What effect do you think it's going to have . . . the increase from three to fifteen blacks in the legislature? Both in Jefferson County and statewide.
I think it's going to have some significant impact in changing the whole
political situation in the state legislature. I think, first of all,
it's going to make the state legislature more sensitive to some black
concerns and to problems that may relate specifically to black
community, but at least the concerns that the black community would
have. I think personally that the blacks just going down from Jefferson
County will mean that I will be a bit more influential as a local black
elected official. I have felt in the past, in dealing with the Jefferson
County legislative delegation . . . when we dealt with matters that
affected us locally—and of course we have to go to the state
legislature for almost everything, we have no home rule—I felt that I
could contribute almost nothing to it in trying to deal
Which committee was this?
The transportation and communication committee. Even when trying to get the bill amended on the transit authority or what have you, I simply felt I did not have enough influence and was not acceptable enough to the white legislators from this district. That will be changed.
Did many of those white legislators have the endorsement of the Progressive Democratic?
In the past I would suppose quite a number of them have had the endorsement.
But even so you didn't find them very responsive?
As a black, no. Somehow in this town . . . I don't know how much this has
changed now, but because I raised some issues that I felt needed to be
raised, particularly police brutality and this kind of thing . . . for
some folk, I guess that makes . . . you know, I'm the kind of guy . . .
at that time . . . just sort of keep hands off. All I'm saying is that
. . . I'm not saying it was just because I was black. I think maybe
Arthur Shores, who is also black, going to the state legislative
delegation, I mean the Jefferson County legislative delegation, would
have had much more influence as a member of the Progressive Democratic
Council and as a recognized black. One who has been in this community
all the time. One whose posture is more or less acceptable to whites
here. Would have had much more influence. That may mean that he is
perhaps a much better politician than I am. But, now
Do you think this new legislature will result in granting home rule in Alabama?
I doubt it. I don't think so. As much as we'd like to have home rule, I don't think so. Even when I look at the Jefferson County delegation, I don't think we're going to see home rule. The push for home rule comes mainly from a city like Birmingham and maybe the largest urban areas. We have a lot of smaller cities that usually sort of gang up on the big cities. The mayors' conference. The mayors from the smaller cities and so forth. And some of these representatives to the state legislature represent not only Birmingham but in some cases, the way our lines are drawn, they also represent some of the smaller cities. And so that is going to serve to sort of minimize some of the strength that Birmingham might wield among the delegation.
What's your reaction to those black officeholders who endorsed George Wallace?
Well, I guess I'm somewhat puzzled by it, to be very honest. I've not
talked with the mayor down in Tuskegee, John Ford, about that. Though
I've talked with him about a lot of things. Not about that. But I have
talked at some length with Jay Cooper, who is a good friend of mine,
down in Pritchard. Even up to the recent meeting of the
Have you done any such analysis or seen any?
I've only looked at the brief analysis done by Henry O. Jackson, on the
Birmingham World. He has analyzed several of the
What did he come up with?
He noted that Wallace got less than 10% of the votes in those boxes.
I talked to one person who said he did his own statewide analysis and said 12%. I've heard others say 7.
Well, Henry Jackson took what I thought was a good cross section of boxes, black boxes, and on that analysis . . . I remember it was less than 10%. So I do think that's somewhat misleading. I think it's good for Mr. Wallace's image, you know, his national image. It is not necessary for him to openly fan the fires of racism any more. Because I don't think there's anybody . . . Wallace is so powerful in Alabama . . . I don't think there's anybody who is really to the right of him or who . . . I just don't even think he's threatened in terms of losing his political strength. What he had to do, I feel, was to try to slowly pull in more black voters. Carefully do this by not being openly offensive to blacks. But still he has not given up very much in terms of trying to get blacks more involved in the political process.
What would he have to do that would indicate to you that he has changed?
I think he would have to begin to appoint some blacks to some positions
where decisions were made, on boards. I think he would have to begin to
do some of that. I think he would have to at least adopt some sort of
sensible policy at the state level or encourage or support some sort of
sensible policy for increasing black employment. Rather than always
appearing to be opposed to it. Or still making it necessary for blacks
to have to go to court to try to get employment opportunities
How would you feel if Wallace were on the Democratic national ticket in '76?
I wouldn't be happy about it but I . . . I assume you're talking about in
the vice presidential thing. A candidate for vice president. I would
support him. I'm much more interested in who is running for president
than I am vice president. And I am slowly coming to realize political
realities of the situation. I don't always like them. That's
Would you be interested in attending the convention as a delegate?
No, I'm not interested in attending as a delegate. I have become involved
over the last couple of years more and more in politics. I ran for the
county Democratic executive committee for my district. I ran simply
because I want blacks to have more voice. I ran for the state Democratic
executive committee for my district. I was successful in both of those
races. I don't think that's necessarily good from my own viewpoint.
Being a member of the city council, I think that implies enough
involvement for me. But I wanted blacks to have increased representation
and I felt that I could win those races when no other black in my
district could win. So I ran. I think the situation in this state is
changing. I think there are a lot of young blacks coming along. We're
going to see some of them in the legislature, we're going to see more of
them in local government. They're going to be better prepared than
blacks have been in the past. And we're going to begin to see the impact
of that. We're going to see them more active in party politics.
Different executive committees and so forth. This is the way I think it
all ought to be. And really I guess I'm more interested in that than I
am in anything else. Getting some of the young, capable blacks involved
not only on the political scene but involved in Birmingham in terms of
who sits on these boards and who sits on these
Do you see the National Democratic Party of Alabama remaining a viable force?
NDPA? No, I frankly do not. I think NDPA has a few strongholds. How long
they will hold on to those in rural Alabama, I do not know. I know
Cashin well. I've talked with him quite often. But I don't think it's a
strong force. I frankly do not. Now I think it played an important role.
I think it influenced some of the policies made by the regular Democrats
in this state. I think when the NDPA came on the scene
Looking ahead, what black organizations do you project as
That is true. It does and I expect it will continue to be. You see that
council, like the Progressive Democratic Council here in Jefferson
County, which is an arm of that council, is again the only organization
here that really has an organization or anything like a machine, in that
it is owned and organized. When I look at the council here in Jefferson
County, it's the only group in this county that's organized and has bloc
captains, precinct captains, house units and all this. And I see a lot
of people . . . and I meet with a lot of young black folk who are
concerned and the young—including most of those who have just been
elected to the state legislature—who have been dissatisfied with
what the council has done and dissatisfied with the Democratic
Conference, Joe Reed's group. But being dissatisfied is one thing. Then
getting out there, organizing . . . You know, being dissatisfied and
complaining is one thing. And cussing them and saying what they're not
doing. But to get out and organize. To do something about your
dissatisfaction, say, is still another thing. And that is what we have
not done. I think that the Democratic Conference headed by Joe Reed will
still be the single most powerful political group here. I think, however,
as was indicated in the last meeting we had with the conference, that
the conference is likely to undergo some changes. It's likely to be not
quite as—well, I don't want to say conservative because it has not
been conservative but—it's going to share some of its decision
making power. A part of the criticism that the conference has been
subjected to is that all of the decisions are
How much potential is there for there to develop a strong black elected officials association? I understand one exists but that it is not particularly strong at this time.
It is not particularly strong. It is fragmented. I don't know. The extent
to which we can do that will depend on the response we get from groups
like Joe Reed's. I mean it this way. When there were no black elected
officials, none to make mention of, a very small number, the Progressive
Democratic Council . . . that's not the group, the Democratic Conference
which Joe Reed heads up, was certainly in a very strong position because
it provided the only black political leadership there was in this state.
With more and more blacks being elected to office, blacks do have
somewhere else to look for leadership. They don't have to look just to
that conference or just to the Progressive Democratic Council. And I
think that Joe Reed and the Progressive Democratic Council and all of
those of us who work with it, we have got to realize that. That we have
got to give some consideration to the fact that there are a large number
of black elected officials and they were elected in most cases mainly by
the black vote and that they do then hold some claim to being, providing
some black leadership. And that they ought to be doing it. Now if they
might come together to do this,
They're mostly younger people.
Yeah, they're young and many of them have some anti Democratic Conference
feeling. And it stems mainly from the fact that they feel two or three
people have run it and have not shared the decision making power. Now we
have got to respond to that and if we respond to it in a positive manner
by saying that we are inclusive, by reaching out to bring these folk in
and not send them back saying, "We're here and if you want to be a part,
come on in. We got it." You know. If we respond—and I said this to
Joe Reed, I said it to the whole group when we met at the
Is the main conflict an age . . . old vs. young?
Yeah, but I don't think it stems from that directly. I think it's related more to the way some of the older members think. They are more conservative. This is not unusual.
Do you see yourself in a position to play a middleman role in that?
I would like to be. I would like to be in that position more than any
other I can think of. I would like to be. I don't know
END OF INTERVIEW