The Railroad Park and the Birmingham Jail

The Railroad Park and the Birmingham Jail
Or The Strange History of Jim Crow

This article flowed out of my consciousness as I was thinking about the construction of the New Railroad Park in Birmingham, Alabama and reading Martin King’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail.

What is the reason for development in Birmingham? We are all in Birmingham and injustice is still here. We are all compelled by God to build the gospel of freedom and justice for all in this city, yet we reject the call again and again and again.

We are aware of the interrelatedness of all in our city, county, state and nation. We know that injustice to anyone is a threat to justice for everyone. Anyone who lives in Birmingham can never be considered an outsider or undesirable and excluded because of how they look or by what they have. So I continue to be deeply grieved that our leadership cannot acknowledge the conditions of poverty, homelessness and injustice in Birmingham and address these issues.

The Railroad Park is an expression of a broken promise to the poor and marginalized of Birmingham. It is the cause of the dark shadow of a deep disappointment to settle on us when we spend the scarce resources of our community on amenities for the wealthy and the deep injustice of no permanent supportive housing for the homeless is built or no quality regional transit constructed.

What majestic heights of understanding goodwill for all are enshrined in the Railroad Park? What beloved community is the fruit of its construction?
To long has our beloved Birmingham been bogged down in a tragic monologue that benefits the wealthy and powerful, rather than a dialogue with and for all of our residents that builds justice instead of parks.

We know through the painful experience of the 60’s that freedom and justice are never voluntarily given by the oppressor. Freedom and justice must be demanded by the oppressed. The Railroad Park is a call for new demands to be made with nonviolent direct action using the power of love to build justice and freedom. When we still see the large numbers of our people in Birmingham living in homelessness, poverty and deteriorating neighborhoods, still suffocating in the airtight cage of poverty in the center of an affluent region; our cup of endurance is about to run over!

We have stood on the sidelines and mouthed pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities to long. We have failed to advance the struggle for racial and economic justice in Birmingham for the poor and homeless. The Railroad Park is a new railroad to hopelessness and exclusion for the homeless.

But one day Birmingham will recognize the real reason for development in our city! We will with courage and a majestic sense of purpose build justice for all, not parks for some. We will rise up with our true sense of dignity and decide to build quality regional transit, affordable supportive housing, world class fully and equally funded public education, living wage jobs and healthcare for all.

We will do this instead of building parks that honor an oppressive past, because it was the railroads that spread Jim Crow across the south as C. Van Woodward makes clear in his book The Strange History of Jim Crow. We will build a future for all of Alabama, a future of action not a park in the past, a future of freedom and justice for all.

May God help us do these things!

R. Lawton Higgs, Sr.
June 9, 2010