Abernathy House
This house served as the parsonage home for the First Baptist Church. Rev. Ralph David Abernathy occupied the home from 1952 to 1961, while he pastored the church. At this house Rev. Abernathy hosted planning meetings for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The home was then bombed on January 10, 1957, after Montgomery busses were successfully desegregated. At the house Abernathy discussed organizing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during 1956, and he helped ASU students plan a sit-in that took place at the Montgomery County Courthouse on February 25, 1960. After Freedom Riders were assaulted by a mob at the Greyhound Bus Station in downtown Montgomery, the parsonage was the location for a May 1961 press conference where Rev. Abernathy, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and John Lewis announced the continuation of the Freedom Rides. Rev. Abernathy lived in this parsonage house with his wife Juanita Oddessa and their children until moving to Atlanta in 1961.
Kilby Hall
Kilby Hall is now the oldest building on ASU’s campus and the second permanent brick building constructed at ASU. In 1922, this one-story brick building was built with a dining hall for 300 students. In the basement was located a laundry for girls and a heating plant. As a student at Alabama State University (1946-1950), Abernathy was voted president of the Student Council and led a hunger strike to protest the differences in the dining hall between what students and faculty were fed. After having meetings with the couple that ran the dining hall to no avail, Abernathy brought a suggestion to the student council to call for a campus wide hunger strike and boycott of the dining hall until conditions improved. After a day on strike, Abernathy was called to the president’s office (Hooper Councill Trenholm) and asked to call off the boycott. Trenholm promised that dining conditions would improvise immediately–which they did.
Paterson Hall
This two-story brick building originally housed nine regular classrooms, two classrooms for Plastic-Graphic Arts, three classrooms for Home Arts, one double classroom for the Communications Laboratory, and one lecture-assembly room with seating for 340 students. The building was named for ASU president William Burns Paterson. The attic was remodeled to serve as temporary quarters for the library. The library was moved to G. W. Trenholm Hall in 1948. The building then was used to house the central administration offices, classrooms and offices for Student Financial Aid, Career Planning and Placement, Co-operative Education Reading Center and ROTC. The administrative offices were moved to Councill Hall in 1955. As a student at ASU, Abernathy was superintendent of student Sunday School, which took place in Paterson Hall. Later on, Abernathy attended meetings at the 2nd floor home economics department dining hall along with Martin Luther King Jr.
Former Site of Army Barracks
These barracks were moved from Maxwell Airforce Base after World War II and used as men’s dorms for Alabama State University. With the conclusion of the war, there was an overcrowding issue at colleges everywhere as men–like Abernathy–returned from war and enrolled in colleges already at capacity. As a veteran, Abernathy did not mind living in barracks, but claimed the conditions were worse than anything he had experienced in war. Issues in the barracks included lack of hot water, heat, and working toilets. In his junior year, Abernathy was elected president of his class and used his position to hold another protest.. Instead of waiting to be called to the president’s office as he had been with the hunger strike, Abernathy made an appointment to meet with officials. Abernathy brought their complaints to President Trenholm and Dr. Levi Watkins, who was at that time the local veteran officer and would become the next president of ASU. The president and Watkins listened to the complaints and agreed they should be rectified. In his memoir, Abernathy credits these small-scale protests with aiding in his later dealings with mayors, governors, and presidents during the civil rights movement.
Tullibody Auditorium
Old Tullibody Hall was built in 1906 and demolished in 1982 to make way for the Tullibody Fine Arts Center. This two-story brick structure featured fourteen classrooms, a reception room, an office, and an auditorium. Over the years a number of activities were held in this building. The auditorium was the setting for guest speakers and other cultural activities. On Sunday evenings, students were required to attend vestibule services at 6:00pm. Although the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, engineering studies and surveys indicated that it was not feasible to preserve the building. In spring of 1950, Abernathy starred as Nat Turner in the production, “Nat Turner” as part of the “Negro History Class” at ASU.
Shuttlesworth Dining Hall
Prior to 2006, the Shuttlesworth Dining Hall was the Charles Johnson Dunn Sports Arena. Efforts among alumni and supporters to raise money for an arena-auditorium were launched in 1952, with the construction of the new facility beginning on Founder’s Day, 1955. Dubbed the “solicitation project,” the arena-auditorium was financed by public contributions and built by craftsmen employed by Alabama State College. The Arena, located on John Brown Hill, had a seating capacity of 3,000 for basketball games, a capacity of 4,000 if configured as an auditorium, while this same space could be transformed into a gymnasium for physical education instruction. The facility was built with four lounges, three snack bars, showers for basketball players, two scoreboards, a film room, bleaches and a section with individual cushioned seats. On May 21, 1968, only a month after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, Abernathy was invited to give the commencement speech as the new president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Upon accepting the offer to speak Abernathy said, “I will be honored to take time and serve my Alma Mater, because I am as proud of Alabama State as Martin was of Morehouse.” In his speech to the graduating class of 1968, Abernathy urged the importance of militant protest and the difference that students are able to make.
