02/28/2024
The A.G. Gaston Motel
As comes to a close, I thought I'd share my photographs of the in Birmingham, Alabama. Lord Aeck Sargent was the architect for the historic preservation of the site, built in 1954 by A.G. Gaston, a local African-American entrepreneur.
Listed in the —a guide for African-Americans travelers in the days of segregation—the A.G. Gaston Motel was a place of refuge for the weary roadtripper. It was also the 1963 headquarters for the Civil Rights Campaign to desegregate restaurants and hotels in Birmingham, lead by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Before I began photographing this project, I was sent a photograph—which you can see here—of a news conference that took place at the A.G. Gaston Motel. In this photograph one can immediately see Civil Rights Icons Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph David Abernathy and a youthful Andrew Young in overalls, along with legendary broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite. What an historic photograph!
Right after photographing the motel, I went to a small gathering at some friends’ house and one of the guests turned out to be Andrew Young. What a moment of serendipity, right after having been at this important historic site for the Civil Rights Movement, to then to see Andrew Young in person!
So I went over and introduced myself and told Mr. Young about having just photographed the A.G. Gaston Motel – hence the last photograph in this series; Andrew Young and me. He proceeded to speak rhapsodically about how he and his wife had been living in Chicago and his wife read about the demonstrations going on in the South in the newspaper. She said that is where they needed to be, and so they headed to the center of the movement. He referred to this time in his life and the work he did as being one of the most meaningful and happiest times of his life.
The A.G. Gaston Motel is now part of the National Park Service and is a Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument. I’m humbled and honored to have photographed such an important piece of history.
