Lola Mae Haynes Hendricks (
née Haynes) (December 19, 1932 – May 17, 2013) was corresponding secretary for
Fred Shuttlesworth's Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) was an American civil rights organization in Birmingham, Alabama, which coordinated boycotts and sponsored federal lawsuits aimed at dismantling segregation in Birmingham and Alabama during the ...
from 1956 to 1963. She assisted
Wyatt Walker in planning the early portions of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference's involvement in the 1963
Birmingham campaign
The Birmingham campaign, also known as the Birmingham movement or Birmingham confrontation, was an American movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the integration efforts o ...
during the
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
.
[White, Marjorie Longenecker (1998) ''A Walk to Freedom: The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, 1956-1964''. Birmingham: Birmingham Historical Society. ]
Early life
On December 19, 1932 Lola Mae Haynes, the first of two daughters, was born to Buford and Addie Hanes.
Lola Mae Haynes was born in
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...
on 4th Avenue and 15th Street South on the south side of Birmingham.
Her father was employed as a coal-truck driver from
LaGrange, Georgia and her mother, from
Chambers County, Alabama
Chambers County is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census the population was 34,772. Its county seat is LaFayette. Its largest city is Valley. Its name is in honor of Henry H. Chamb ...
, worked as a domestic cook. Lola Mae Haynes went to school in Birmingham at Cameron Elementary School, graduated, and then went to Ullman High School for two years. In 1949, Haynes attended Parker High School for two years and graduated in January of '51.
After graduating from Parker High School, she began working as an elevator operator at Hillman Hospital, now called University Hospital.
Lola Mae Haynes saved her money from the hospital for a year, until she was able to enroll herself in beauty school in 1952 where she attended the Ruth Porter's School of Beauty Culture.
In February 1953, Lola Mae Haynes married Joe Hendricks. Lola then went on to study for two years at the Booker T. Washington Business College. After graduating from Booker T. Washington Business College, Lola began employment in the
insurance industry
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...
at Alexander & Company.
The company, owned by John J. Drew and his wife Deanie, had employed Lola Mae Haynes Hendricks as a
clerk-typist and an insurance writer.
[Huntley, Horace (January 19, 1995]
Interview with Lola Hendricks
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute In 1963, Haynes began working for the Federal Government under the
Social Security Administration
The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability and survivor benefits. To qualify ...
, where she became one of the first African Americans to integrate amongst the whites into the workforce. Hendricks worked in files for about two years, and then was promoted to Clerk Typing and again, to Award Typing.
Civil Rights Movement
The Hendrickses were members of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
(NAACP). When the group was outlawed by the State of
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County
, LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham
, area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...
in 1956 she became one of the early members of the
Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) was an American civil rights organization in Birmingham, Alabama, which coordinated boycotts and sponsored federal lawsuits aimed at dismantling segregation in Birmingham and Alabama during the ...
, joining at a mass meeting at Nelson Smith's New Pilgrim Baptist Church where she was a member.
The ACMHR, led by Shuttlesworth, organized local boycotts and demonstrations as well as coordinating legal challenges to Birmingham's
segregation laws
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Internati ...
in the 1950s and 1960s.
Hendricks and her husband were the named parties in ACMHR-backed lawsuits to force integration of Birmingham city parks and to desegregate the
Birmingham Public Library
The Birmingham Public Library, one of the largest library systems in the southeastern United States, consists of 19 branches and a main or central library located in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. The main library is composed of two buildings, th ...
. She also served as the organization's correspondence secretary, working from Shuttleworth's office at
Bethel Baptist Church from 1956 until the culmination of the
Birmingham Campaign
The Birmingham campaign, also known as the Birmingham movement or Birmingham confrontation, was an American movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to the integration efforts o ...
.
In December 1962 she traveled to
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
as a field director for the
Southern Conference Education Fund
The Southern Conference Educational Fund (SCEF) (1942-1981) was an organization that sought to promote social justice, civil rights, and electoral reform in the American South, particularly for African Americans. The organization began as the Educa ...
, raising awareness among Northerners about the realities of Southern
segregation Segregation may refer to:
Separation of people
* Geographical segregation, rates of two or more populations which are not homogenous throughout a defined space
* School segregation
* Housing segregation
* Racial segregation, separation of humans ...
and soliciting donations of Christmas toys for movement members
boycotting Birmingham's
department store
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...
s.
In the Spring of 1963, Hendricks coordinated the practical office requirements and cultivated local contacts for the combined efforts of the ACMHR and the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civ ...
(SCLC), which Shuttlesworth had co-founded and which was chaired by
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
She worked directly with the SCLC's
Wyatt Walker during the campaign, helping organize support and logistics for marches and department store boycotts.
It was Hendricks who applied directly to Public Safety Commissioner
Eugene "Bull" Connor
Theophilus Eugene "Bull" Connor (July 11, 1897 – March 10, 1973) was an American politician who served as Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of Birmingham, Alabama, for more than two decades. A member of the Democratic Party, ...
for a parade permit for the first day of marches and was told "You will not get a permit in Birmingham, Alabama to picket. I'll picket you over to the jail."
[ McWhorter, Diane (2001) ''Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama, The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution.'' New York, New York: Simon & Schuster. ] At Walker's urging she did not actively demonstrate and risk jailing, protecting her behind-the-scenes importance to the movement. Hendricks' nine-year-old daughter, Audrey Faye Hendricks (1952–2009), however, was the only child in her class to participate in the May 2, 1963 "
Children's Crusade" that brought national attention to Connor's brutal tactics against demonstrators. She spent five nights in jail as minders got word out to her parents that she was safe.
[Sznajderman, Michael (Fall 2003) "A dangerous business: Children on the front line." ''Alabama Heritage''] She was the youngest known child to be arrested for that protest.
The children's book ''The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, A Young Civil Rights Activist'' (2017) by Cynthia Levinson, is about that.
That book also contains a recipe for Lola Hendricks’s "Hot Rolls Baptized in Butter".
Later life
Hendricks left her insurance company job in 1963 to join the newly integrated Birmingham office of the
Social Security Administration
The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability and survivor benefits. To qualify ...
. She was hired originally as a filer but was promoted to the unit clerk before moving to the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...
where she became a supervisor. She left in 1983 to care for her mother. In 1988 she rejoined the Social Security Administration where she worked until reaching retirement.
She continued to volunteer at the
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and in the mid-1990s she assisted the Birmingham Historical Society in researching movement churches and landmarks for
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
status.
She had two sisters (one predeceased her), two daughters, Audrey Faye Hendricks (1953–2009) and Jan Hendricks Fuller, and one grandson, Joel A. Fuller.
See also
*
List of civil rights leaders
Civil rights leaders are influential figures in the promotion and implementation of political freedom and the expansion of personal civil liberties and rights. They work to protect individuals and groups from political repressio ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hendricks, Lola
1932 births
2013 deaths
African-American activists
Activists for African-American civil rights
Activists from Birmingham, Alabama
20th-century African-American women
Women civil rights activists
21st-century African-American people
21st-century African-American women