Richard Arrington Jr. (born October 19, 1934 in
Livingston, Alabama
Livingston is a city in and the county seat of Sumter County, Alabama, United States and the home of the University of West Alabama. By an act of the state legislature, it was incorporated on January 10, 1835. At the 2010 census the population w ...
) was the first Black mayor of the city of
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 ...
(U.S.), serving 20 years, from 1979 to 1999. He replaced
David Vann and, upon retiring after five terms in office, installed then-City Council president
William A. Bell
William A. Bell Sr. (born June 1, 1949) is an American politician who served as the 33rd mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, from 2010 to 2017. He had previously held the office on an interim basis in 1999. Prior to that, he had served several term ...
as interim mayor. Bell went on to lose the next election to
Bernard Kincaid
Bernard Kincaid (born June 5, 1945) is an American politician who is the former Mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, elected in 1999. In 2007 he was defeated in a bid for re-election, winning only 8% of votes. He was succeeded by Larry Langford.
Early ...
.
Early life
Arrington's father moved his family to the steel-town of Fairfield, Alabama from rural Sumter County, Alabama when Richard Jr. was five years old to take a job with U.S. Steel. The steady work was an improvement over sharecropping, but Richard Sr. still had to supplement the family income by working off-hours as a brick mason.
His parents emphasized self-reliance, choosing to rent a home rather than stay in workers' housing and shopping at a black-owned cooperative store rather than accept credit at the company commissary. Richard's mother, Ernestine, kept the table filled with home-grown vegetables and made sure that her children made use of the opportunities given them through church and school.
Richard, while still a teenager, served as secretary of the Sunday School at Crumbey Bethel Primitive Baptist Church. Soon he was Sunday School superintendent, a member of the choir, and eventually elected to the Board of Deacons. He was also a standout student at Fairfield Industrial High School, where he had first decided to study tailoring. With those classes full, he instead learned
dry cleaning
Dry cleaning is any cleaning process for clothing and textiles using a solvent other than water.
Dry cleaning still involves liquid, but clothes are instead soaked in a water-free liquid solvent. Tetrachloroethylene (perchloroethylene), known in ...
, graduating in 1951 at the age of 16 he took a job at a cleaner and applied to Fairfield's
Miles College
Miles College is a private historically black college in Fairfield, Alabama. Founded in 1898, it is associated with the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME Church) and a member of the United Negro College Fund.
History
Miles College bega ...
.
Academic career
Arrington majored in
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
at Miles and excelled in the classroom and as a leader, rising to the presidency of his chapter of the
Alpha Phi Alpha
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved int ...
fraternity. He was also an officer in the Honor Society and the Thespian Club. In his third year of college, while still living at home, he married Barbara Jean Watts. He graduated ''
cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
'' in 1955 and took a position as a graduate assistant at the
University of Detroit
The University of Detroit Mercy is a private Roman Catholic university in Detroit, Michigan. It is sponsored by both the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Sisters of Mercy. The university was founded in 1877 and is the largest Catholic universi ...
in Detroit, Michigan. While there he first experienced an integrated social environment and gained the perspective necessary to effectively critique the established
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 ...
of his home town. He earned a master's degree in 1957 and returned to Miles as an assistant professor of science where he taught for six years before entering the
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...
doctoral program in
zoology
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...
in 1963, in the midst of
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 ...
between African-American protesters and city authorities in Birmingham. He earned his doctorate at Oklahoma in 1966, completing a dissertation on the "Comparative Morphology of Some Dryopoid Beetles",
and, at the urging of President
Lucius Pitts
Lucius ( el, Λούκιος ''Loukios''; ett, Luvcie) is a male given name derived from ''Lucius'' (abbreviated ''L.''), one of the small group of common Latin forenames (''praenomina'') found in the culture of ancient Rome. Lucius derives from L ...
, returned to Miles as acting dean and director of the summer school. He was quickly promoted to chair of the Natural Sciences Department and eventually was named
Dean
Dean may refer to:
People
* Dean (given name)
* Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin
* Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk
* Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean
Titles
* ...
of the College.
Political career
In 1971, Arrington began campaigning for election to the Birmingham
City Council
A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...
with the pledge to make Birmingham "a city of which all her people can be proud." He placed third among 29 at-large candidates and faced five opponents in a runoff election for three remaining seats. He won his seat easily, becoming, after
Arthur Shores
Arthur Davis Shores (September 25, 1904 – December 16, 1996) was an American civil rights attorney who was considered Alabama's "drum major for justice".
Education
Shores graduated from Talladega College where he became a member of Alpha Phi A ...
(who had been appointed to a vacant seat by Mayor
George Siebels
George G. Seibels, Jr. (July 16, 1913 – March 28, 2000), was the first Republican to serve as the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama. Seibels was born in 1913 in Coronado, California. He was the son of Rear Admiral George Seibels, Sr., of Montgome ...
in 1968), the second African American to serve on the council. After two years of quiet service, he introduced an ordinance requiring city departments to formulate hiring plans that included
affirmative action goals and to contract business to companies that hired minorities. With opposition in the business community, the latter action failed, but the departmental hiring ordinance made it out of council to be vetoed by Siebels. Revised proposals that established recruitment programs and prohibited contracting with openly discriminatory firms, were later passed. His next major controversy was to push for a formal investigation of the shooting of an African American suspect while he was under police custody. The hearing was inconclusive, but opened the door to a more serious look at police procedure.
Arrington also co-founded and served as the first president of the Alabama New South Coalition, a liberal advocacy organization which split off from the
Alabama Democratic Conference The Alabama Democratic Conference (ADC) is an African-American political league, co-founded by Orzell Billingsley and others, in cooperation with the national Democratic Party. Formed in 1960 as the Black Political Caucus of Alabama, it was the fir ...
over strategic and leadership differences.
References
*
*Mark Kelly. "Toward a New Birmingham: A Four Part Series on the Life and Times of Richard Arrington Jr." ''Birmingham Weekly''. October 19 – November 10, 2005
External links
Oral History Interview with Richard Arringtonfro
Oral Histories of the American South
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arrington, Richard Jr.
1934 births
Living people
African-American mayors in Alabama
American entomologists
People from Livingston, Alabama
Mayors of Birmingham, Alabama
Alabama city council members
Miles College alumni
University of Detroit Mercy alumni
21st-century African-American people
20th-century African-American people