6: Shelby County Reporter: Covering a changing social order

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Two decades after Ralph and Marcia arrived in Montevallo, an offer took them by surprise. The longtime owner of the county weekly newspaper wanted to sell. Would they be interested? Well, yes. The summer purchase in 1967 combined Ralph’s work promoting the college, selling airtime on WBYE and covering the news. It gave Marcia a new title, Editor. Her voice for social concerns strengthened over time. The University of Montevallo is beginning to digitize the Shelby County Reporter editions they published here.

1967 was an exciting time for the news in Montevallo and Shelby County. George Wallace voters elected his wife Lurleen to be the first woman governor of the State. The Montevallo High School band marched in her inaugural parade in Montgomery. Main Street lost its last Victorian house when workers tore down the Kroell house.

The first women in the county’s history were called for duty on the grand jury. That was news enough, but a photo showed a worker installing what the paper called a “modesty screening partition” as they sat on risers in the grand jury room. The new fashion of miniskirts likely inspired this construction. Mrs. Will Fullman from Montevallo was among the first four women breaking this gender barrier.

Among the church news and social notes (Pete and Sassy Givhan attend the Master’s Golf Tournament, Betty Jane Barclay wins the CowBelle’s Beef Cookoff) was another reminder the old social order is changing.

April 27, 1967 “All Shelby County public schools will be desegregated on a freedom-of-choice basis under federal court order.”

In June, Shelby County Reporter owner Luther Fowler told readers he’d sold the paper. “On Saturday, June 3, Mr. and Mrs. Sears became the new owners of the county paper.” Under a photograph of Lolly Seaman winning first place in a horse show, Fowler described the paper's long history. It began publishing in 1843, born to promote one side of a long-forgotten losing presidential campaign.

Men pushing Henry Clay’s presidential campaign started the paper, then named the Talladega County Reporter. Five owners later, Luther Fowler purchased the paper in 1920. Fowler wrote “Former probate judge L. B. Riddle and former circuit Clerk Tom Taylor came to Talladega early in 1923 and invited us to move the Reporter to Shelby County. I had taught history at Alabama College so it was not difficult for me to decide to return to Shelby County. We moved in May of 1923. Each year that has gone by has emphasized the wisdom of this decision.”

The Reporter merged with the Shelby County Democrat in 1948 and purchased the Shelby County Times Herald in 1959. The new owners’ fingerprints quickly appeared. The next issues included positive stories on Alabama College and an ad for WBYE Radio, reminding readers the evening programming included Hawaiian music, news, sports and conservative commentaries by Fulton Lewis III. A nearby ad offered a lightweight fashion girdle for only $12.50. Another ad for pesticide Endrin promised to save your cotton crop from cutworms, boll weevils and leafworms, from the growing world of Velsicol. The product, a persistent neurotoxin, was banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1984.

On June 26, 1967, Marcia’s first byline led a story on the dedication of Logan Martin Dam near Vincent. But the lead story that week held no byline. Shelby County school officials expressed dismay at the cutoff of federal funds for non-compliance with the Civil Rights Act. The chairman of the all-white and all male five-member board promised to “do whatever the law tells us to do. We need the money.”

By July 13, 1967 a letter from US Congressman Armistead Selden questioned HEW’s decision. A week later, July 20, a lead story statement from the school board hinted at the reason why Shelby schools were cut off. The board said HEW demanded 16 teachers be assigned “to cross the color line”. The school board refused, saying HEW was making an example of Shelby County. The school system sent board members and the superintendent to Washington to complain. After all, the board argued the school system was offering “equal facilities and opportunities for all.” (So-called separate but equal school systems were outlawed in 1954 by the US Supreme Court.) HEW did not agree. Neither did a series of federal court rulings. The orders meant teacher, pupil and school bus integration had to begin. Or Shelby County schools would live without the half million federal dollars.

The school board backed down within the week. In the July 27 edition, headlined County Schools to Comply, the board said HEW demanded 26 teachers desegregate the faculty of Shelby County schools, by assigning 9 white teachers to Negro schools, 17 Negro teachers to white schools. Soon the paper reported school buses would be integrated when classes began in September. “…overlapping and duplicative bus routes will be eliminated.” Then a few weeks passed without school news, perhaps as the school board assigned teachers and waited until the last minute to deal with integrating the students themselves. In the August 24 edition the board explained “school choice.” If too many students chose the formerly all white schools, preference would be given to students living closest to the overcrowded schools. No preference would be allowed for race.

When schools began after Labor Day, a short story with no byline on the front page in the September 7 issue said integration had begun. “No problems and no incidents were reported in the schools where integration of students took place.” The issue included several photographs of smiling boys and girls meeting their teachers for the first day of class. None of them were Black.