118-743: The Red Mountain Suburbs Historic District , in Jefferson County, Alabama , including parts of Birmingham and Mountain Brook , is a 333 acres (135 ha) historic district which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The listing included 392 contributing buildings and three contributing structures . It is roughly bounded by Crest and Argyle and Altamont, Country Club, Salisbury, and Lanark Roads. Its boundaries were drawn to include
236-467: A "scientific" theory of white superiority and black inferiority . One such slave owner, future president Thomas Jefferson , wrote in 1785 that blacks were "inferior to the whites in the endowments of body and mind." In the antebellum South , four million slaves were denied freedom. The outbreak of the Civil War saw the desire to uphold white supremacy being cited as a cause for state secession and
354-542: A property in Alabama on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Jefferson County, Alabama Jefferson County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Alabama , located in the central portion of the state. As of the 2020 census , its population was 674,721. Its county seat is Birmingham . Its rapid growth as an industrial city in
472-519: A "dark side" of social media: There certainly were hate groups before the Internet and social media. [But with social media] it just becomes easier to organize, to spread the word, for people to know where to go. It could be to raise money, or it could be to engage in attacks on social media. Some of the activity is virtual. Some of it is in a physical place. Social media has lowered the collective-action problems that individuals who might want to be in
590-671: A Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt in 1944 . Before Obama's victory, Jefferson County had last supported the official Democratic candidate for president in 1952 , and only once since 1944. Amtrak passenger service is provided by the Crescent , which stops in Birmingham. Freight service is provided by BNSF Railway , CSX Transportation , Norfolk Southern Railway , Alabama & Tennessee River Railway and Birmingham Terminal Railway (formerly Birmingham Southern Railroad). There
708-660: A Nordic admixture and suitable for Aryanization . In the United States, the groups most associated with the white-supremacist movement are the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), Aryan Nations , and the White American Resistance movement, all of which are also considered to be antisemitic . The Proud Boys , despite claiming non-association with white supremacy, have been described in academic contexts as being such. Many white-supremacist groups are based on
826-461: A President from among its members, who serves as the chairperson of all County Commission meetings, and who has additional executive duties. The Commission hires a county manager, who oversees and directs daily operations of county departments. Sales tax on many items within the county can be as high as 12%. The County Commission approved an educational sales tax by a 3–2 vote in October 2004. This
944-507: A black man raped, assaulted, talked to or glanced at them. The Tulsa race massacre , the destruction of Black Wall Street, was spurred by an incident between a white female elevator operator and a black man. As the Oklahoma Historical Society points out, the most common explanation is that he stepped on her toe. As many as 300 people were killed because of it. The torture and murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955,
1062-708: A black man, a bird-watcher, that she was going to call the police and tell them that he was threatening her life. The Tuskegee Institute has estimated that 3,446 blacks were the victims of lynchings in the United States between 1882 and 1968, with the peak occurring in the 1890s at a time of economic stress in the South and increasing political suppression of blacks. If 1,297 whites were also lynched during this period, blacks were disproportionally targeted, representing 72.7% of all people lynched. According to scholar Amy L. Wood, "lynching photographs constructed and perpetuated white supremacist ideology by creating permanent images of
1180-639: A collective and an individual level ( ceteris paribus , i. e. , when individuals are compared that do not differ relevantly except in ethnicity). Legal scholar Frances Lee Ansley explains this definition as follows: By "white supremacy" I do not mean to allude only to the self-conscious racism of white supremacist hate groups . I refer instead to a political, economic and cultural system in which whites overwhelmingly control power and material resources, conscious and unconscious ideas of white superiority and entitlement are widespread, and relations of white dominance and non-white subordination are daily reenacted across
1298-443: A controlled white citizenry juxtaposed to images of helpless and powerless black men." White supremacy has also played a part in U.S. school curriculum. Over the course of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, material across the spectrum of academic disciplines has been taught with a heavy emphasis on white culture, contributions, and experiences, and a lack of representation of non-white groups' perspectives and accomplishments. In
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#17328016449191416-666: A hate group would face. You can see that there are people out there like you. That's the dark side of social media. A series on YouTube hosted by the grandson of Thomas Robb , the national director of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, "presents the Klan's ideology in a format aimed at kids — more specifically, white kids." The short episodes inveigh against race-mixing, and extol other white-supremacist ideologies. A short documentary published by TRT describes Imran Garda's experience,
1534-479: A journalist of Indian descent, who met with Thomas Robb and a traditional KKK group. A sign that greets people who enter the town states " Diversity is a code for white genocide ." The KKK group interviewed in the documentary summarizes its ideals, principles, and beliefs, which are emblematic of white supremacists in the United States. The comic book super hero Captain America was used for dog whistle politics by
1652-495: A lynching actually, occurred because a white woman said that he "grabbed her and was menacing and sexually crude toward her". This practice, this exercise in racial extremism has been dragged into the modern era through the weaponizing of 9-1-1, often by white women, to invoke the power and force of the police who they are fully aware are hostile to black men. This was again evident when a white woman in New York's Central Park told
1770-492: A racist faction of the skinhead subculture , despite the fact that when the skinhead culture first developed in the United Kingdom in the late 1960s, it was heavily influenced by black fashions and music , especially Jamaican reggae and ska , and African American soul music . White-supremacist recruitment activities are primarily conducted at a grassroots level as well as on the Internet. Widespread access to
1888-404: A result. There were 263,265 households, out of which 30.80% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.10% were married couples living together, 17.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.20% were non-families. Nearly 28.70% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.90% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size
2006-486: A situation dating to when the state legislature was preparing to split off a portion of Jefferson County to create a new county, centered around Bessemer . The city is located about 16 miles to the southwest by car. The split did not take place because the area of the proposed county would have been smaller than the minimum of 500 square miles set forth in the state constitution . The additional county courthouse and some parallel functions remain in service. The main courthouse
2124-410: A social system in which white people enjoy structural advantages ( privilege ) over other ethnic groups, on both a collective and individual level, despite formal legal equality. White supremacy has ideological foundations that date back to 17th-century scientific racism , the predominant paradigm of human variation that helped shape international relations and racial policy from the latter part of
2242-586: A speech at the Brookings Institution , McAleenan cited a series of high-profile shooting incidents, and said "In our modern age, the continued menace of racially based violent extremism, particularly white supremacist extremism, is an abhorrent affront to the nation, the struggle and unity of its diverse population." The new strategy will include better tracking and analysis of threats, sharing information with local officials, training local law enforcement on how to deal with shooting events, discouraging
2360-410: Is also one switching and terminal railroad , Alabama Warrior Railway . White supremacy White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine of scientific racism and
2478-675: Is chosen by the eligible voters in an at large election. The Sheriff's Department fields about 175 deputy sheriffs who patrol the unincorporated areas of the county, and also all municipalities that do not have their own police departments . The Sheriff's Department has two county jails , one in Birmingham and one in Bessemer, which are used to detain suspects awaiting trial (who cannot afford to post bail ), and convicted criminals serving sentences less than one year in length. Two judicial courthouses are located in Jefferson County,
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#17328016449192596-542: Is home to the Watercress Darter National Wildlife Refuge . As of the 2020 census , there were 674,721 people, 274,699 households, and 170,971 families residing in the county. The population density was 607.0 inhabitants per square mile (234.4/km ) There were 307,927 housing units. Jefferson County population had decreased slightly by 2010. According to the 2010 census , residents of metropolitan Jefferson County identified as
2714-728: Is in Birmingham and the second one is located in Bessemer. Certain elected county officials maintain offices in the Bessemer annex, such as the Assistant Tax Collector, the Assistant Tax Assessor, and the Assistant District Attorney. The local jails have a long history of abuse of prisoners. One former jailer, who started work for the Jefferson County Convict Department in 1919, described beatings,
2832-517: Is located within the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , with the highest point in the county being found at Shades Mountain , at an elevation of 1,150 ft. Another significant mountain located within the county is Red Mountain , which runs to the south of downtown Birmingham and separates the city from the suburb of Homewood . Many other mountains and valleys make up the majority of the county's diverse geography. The county
2950-399: Is one of the eight counties in Alabama with a limited-form of home rule government. A 1973 Commission had recommended that all counties be granted home rule under the state constitution, but the state legislature has refused to give up its control over local affairs. In the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the county was underrepresented politically for decades into the 1960s because
3068-402: Is openly white nationalist or white separatist because "white nationalism and white separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups". Use of the term to self-identify has been criticized as a dishonest rhetorical ploy. The Anti-Defamation League argues that white supremacists use the phrase because they believe it has fewer negative connotations than
3186-574: Is similar to that of many Christian Identity groups because it believes in the antisemitic conspiracy theory that there is a "Jewish conspiracy" in control of governments, the banking industry and the media. Matthew F. Hale , founder of the World Church of the Creator, has published articles stating that all races other than white are "mud races", which is what the group's religion teaches. The white-supremacist ideology has become associated with
3304-513: Is their greatest enemy. Different groups of white supremacists identify various racial, ethnic, religious, and other enemies, most commonly those of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, Indigenous peoples of the Americas and Oceania, Asians , multiracial people , Middle Eastern people , Jews , Muslims , and LGBTQ+ people. In academic usage, particularly in critical race theory or intersectionality , "white supremacy" can also refer to
3422-462: The 2016 United States Presidential Election reflect ongoing challenges with white supremacy. Psychologist Janet Helms suggested that the normalizing behaviors of social institutions of education, government, and healthcare are organized around the "birthright of...the power to control society's resources and determine the rules for [those resources]". Educators, literary theorists, and other political experts have raised similar questions, connecting
3540-760: The Age of Enlightenment until the late 20th century (marked by decolonization and the abolition of apartheid in South Africa in 1991, followed by that country's first multiracial elections in 1994 ). White supremacy was dominant in the United States both before and after the American Civil War , and it persisted for decades after the Reconstruction Era . Prior to the Civil War, many wealthy white Americans owned slaves ; they tried to justify their economic exploitation of black people by creating
3658-552: The Christian Identity movement. In the United States, white supremacy is primarily associated with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), Aryan Nations , and the White American Resistance movement, all of which are also considered to be antisemitic . The Proud Boys , despite claiming non-association with white supremacy, have been described in academic contexts as being such. In recent years, websites such as Twitter (known as X since July 2023), Reddit , and Stormfront , and
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3776-639: The Dutch Empire . It continued when the British took over the Cape of Good Hope in 1795. Apartheid was introduced as an officially structured policy by the Afrikaner -dominated National Party after the general election of 1948 . Apartheid's legislation divided inhabitants into four racial groups — "black", "white", "coloured", and "Indian", with coloured divided into several sub-classifications. In 1970,
3894-601: The Nordic theory , which regarded Nordics as the "master race", superior to all others, including other Aryans (Indo-Europeans). Rosenberg got the racial term Untermensch from the title of Klansman Lothrop Stoddard 's 1922 book The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-man . It was later adopted by the Nazis from that book's German version Der Kulturumsturz: Die Drohung des Untermenschen (1925). Rosenberg
4012-556: The Rhodesian Bush War which was fought by African nationalists , Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith acceded to biracial political representation in 1978 and the state achieved recognition from the United Kingdom as Zimbabwe in 1980. Nazism promoted the idea of a superior Germanic people or Aryan race in Germany during the early 20th century. Notions of white supremacy and Aryan racial superiority were combined in
4130-662: The Scramble for Africa , Jim Crow laws in the United States, the activities of the Native Land Court in New Zealand, the White Australia policies from the 1890s to the mid-1970s, and apartheid in South Africa. This ideology is also today present among neo-Confederates . White supremacy underlies a spectrum of contemporary movements including white nationalism , white separatism, neo-Nazism , and
4248-428: The civil rights movement . In an analysis of American history textbooks, she highlights word choices that repetitively "normalize" slavery and the inhumane treatment of black people. She also notes the frequent showcasing of white abolitionists and actual exclusion of black abolitionists and the fact that black Americans had been mobilizing for abolition for centuries before the major white American push for abolition in
4366-956: The dog in the manger has the final right to the manger, though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to those people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race or at any rate a more worldly-wise race ... has come in and taken their place." British historian Richard Toye , author of Churchill's Empire , concluded that "Churchill did think that white people were superior." A number of Southern African nations experienced severe racial tension and conflict during global decolonization , particularly as white Africans of European ancestry fought to protect their preferential social and political status. Racial segregation in South Africa began in colonial times under
4484-502: The scapegoating of disenfranchised populations to white superiority. As of 2018, there were over 600 white-supremacist organizations recorded in the U.S. On July 23, 2019, Christopher A. Wray , the head of the FBI , said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that the agency had made around 100 domestic terrorism arrests since October 1, 2018, and that the majority of them were connected in some way with white supremacy. Wray said that
4602-401: The "Nordic peoples" to be a superior race. By the early 19th century, white supremacy was attached to emerging theories of racial hierarchy. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer attributed cultural primacy to the white race: The highest civilization and culture, apart from the ancient Hindus and Egyptians , are found exclusively among the white races; and even with many dark peoples,
4720-524: The "purity" of the Nordic or Germanic race. Gobineau's theories, which attracted a strong following in Germany, emphasized the existence of an irreconcilable polarity between Aryan or Germanic peoples and Jewish culture. As the Nazi Party 's chief racial theorist, Alfred Rosenberg oversaw the construction of a human racial "ladder" that justified Hitler's racial and ethnic policies . Rosenberg promoted
4838-489: The 1940s, became minority views within the white community by the mid-1970s, and continued to decline in 1990s' polls to a single-digit percentage. For sociologist Howard Winant , these shifts marked the end of "monolithic white supremacy" in the United States. After the mid-1960s, white supremacy remained an important ideology to the American far-right . According to Kathleen Belew , a historian of race and racism in
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4956-414: The 1950s KKK chapters bombed black-owned houses in Birmingham to discourage residents moving into new middle-class areas. In that period, the city was referred to as "Bombingham." In 1963 African Americans led a movement in the city seeking civil rights, including integration of public facilities. The Birmingham campaign was known for the violence the city police used against non-violent protesters. In
5074-473: The 1950s and 1960s. In a study of lynchings in the South from 1877 to 1950, Jefferson County is documented as having the highest number of lynchings of any county in Alabama. White mobs committed 29 lynchings in the county, most around the turn of the century at a time of widespread political suppression of blacks in the state. Notable incidents include 1889's lynching of George Meadows . Even after 1950, racial violence of whites against blacks continued. In
5192-414: The 19th century, Geography lessons contained teachings on a fixed racial hierarchy, which white people topped. Mills (1994) writes that history as it is taught is really the history of white people, and it is taught in a way that favors white Americans and white people in general. He states that the language used to tell history minimizes the violent acts committed by white people over the centuries, citing
5310-448: The 19th century, black Americans were consistently portrayed as lazy, immature, and intellectually and morally inferior to white Americans, and in many ways not deserving of equal participation in U.S. society. For example, a math problem in a 19th-century textbook read, "If 5 white men can do as much work as 7 negroes..." implying that white men are more industrious and competent than black men (p. 99). In addition, little to nothing
5428-592: The 19th century, with white supremacists maintaining the belief that white people were members of an Aryan " master race " that was superior to other races, particularly the Jews, who were described as the "Semitic race", Slavs , and Gypsies , who they associated with "cultural sterility". Arthur de Gobineau , a French racial theorist and aristocrat, blamed the fall of the ancien régime in France on racial degeneracy caused by racial intermixing, which he argued had destroyed
5546-399: The 19th century. She ultimately asserts the presence of a masternarrative that centers Europe and its associated peoples (white people) in school curriculum, particularly as it pertains to history. She writes that this masternarrative condenses history into only history that is relevant to, and to some extent beneficial for, white Americans. Elson (1964) provides detailed information about
5664-873: The 2012 annual report of Germany's interior intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution , at the time there were 26,000 right-wing extremists living in Germany, including 6,000 neo-Nazis . Fifty-one people died from two consecutive terrorist attacks at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre by an Australian white supremacist carried out on March 15, 2019. The terrorist attacks have been described by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as "One of New Zealand's darkest days". On August 27, 2020,
5782-537: The 20th century, based on heavy manufacturing in steel and iron, established its dominance. Jefferson County is the central county of the Birmingham-Hoover, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area . Jefferson County was established on December 13, 1819, by the Alabama Legislature . It was named in honor of former President Thomas Jefferson . The county is located in the north-central portion of
5900-480: The Afrikaner-run government abolished non-white political representation , and starting that year black people were deprived of South African citizenship. South Africa abolished apartheid in 1991. In Rhodesia a predominantly white government issued its own unilateral declaration of independence from the United Kingdom in 1965 during an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to avoid majority rule. Following
6018-687: The Blood Law. To preserve the Aryan or Nordic race , the Nazis introduced the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, which forbade sexual relations and marriages between Germans and Jews, and later between Germans and Romani and Slavs . The Nazis used the Mendelian inheritance theory to argue that social traits were innate, claiming that there was a racial nature associated with certain general traits, such as inventiveness or criminal behavior. According to
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#17328016449196136-463: The Bureau was "aggressively pursuing [domestic terrorism] using both counterterrorism resources and criminal investigative resources and partnering closely with our state and local partners," but said that it was focused on the violence itself and not on its ideological basis. A similar number of arrests had been made for instances of international terrorism. In the past, Wray has said that white supremacy
6254-556: The European-American population has Scots-Irish ancestry than residents identify with today. In addition, many African Americans have racially-mixed ancestry, often with some ancestors from the British Isles. Having been classified in the South as black under racial segregation, some of these families are beginning to use DNA tests to learn about and acknowledge European ancestors. Some identify as multiracial as
6372-626: The Holocaust . Christian Identity is another movement closely tied to white supremacy. Some white supremacists identify themselves as Odinists , although many Odinists reject white supremacy. Some white-supremacist groups, such as the South African Boeremag , conflate elements of Christianity and Odinism. Creativity (formerly known as "The World Church of the Creator") is atheistic and it denounces Christianity and other theistic religions . Aside from this, its ideology
6490-412: The Internet has led to a dramatic increase in white-supremacist websites. The Internet provides a venue for open expression of white-supremacist ideas at little social cost because people who post the information are able to remain anonymous. White separatism is a political and social movement that seeks the separation of white people from people of other races and ethnicities . This may include
6608-630: The Southern Reconstruction era that was the genesis of the Ku Klux Klan. Nazi Germany promulgated white supremacy based on the belief that the Aryan race , or the Germans, were the master race . It was combined with a eugenics programme that aimed for racial hygiene through compulsory sterilization of sick individuals and extermination of Untermenschen ("subhumans"): Slavs , Jews and Romani , which eventually culminated in
6726-590: The US, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . The median income for a household in the county was $ 36,868, and the median income for a family was $ 45,951. Males had a median income of $ 35,954 versus $ 26,631 for females. The per capita income for the county was $ 20,892. About 11.60% of families and 14.80% of the population were below the poverty line , including 20.20% of those under age 18 and 12.70% of those age 65 or over. Jefferson County
6844-523: The United States , white militancy shifted after the Vietnam War from supporting the existing racial order to a more radical position (self-described as " white power " or " white nationalism ") committed to overthrowing the United States government and establishing a white homeland. Such anti-government militia organizations are one of three major strands of violent right-wing movements in
6962-583: The United States, many people who were considered non-white were disenfranchised , barred from government office, and prevented from holding most government jobs well into the second half of the 20th century. Professor Leland T. Saito of the University of Southern California writes: "Throughout the history of the United States, race has been used by whites for legitimizing and creating difference and social, economic and political exclusion." The denial of social and political freedom to minorities continued into
7080-402: The United States, with white-supremacist groups (such as the Ku Klux Klan , neo-Nazi organizations, and racist skinheads ) and a religious fundamentalist movement (such as Christian Identity ) being the other two. Howard Winant writes that, "On the far right the cornerstone of white identity is belief in an ineluctable, unalterable racialized difference between whites and nonwhites." In
7198-495: The administration of laxatives, and confinement in a tiny two-by-three-foot cell, as well as beatings with rubber hoses. He said, "You can work a man pretty good with a piece of pipe and never mark him." Well into the 1950s, prisoners were regularly beaten and tortured by police to extract coerced "confessions" to crimes. In mid-2015, the Department of Justice announced an investigation of the conditions imposed on juveniles in
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#17328016449197316-478: The alt-right and people who have come in from the more traditional neo-Nazi world. We're in a very different world now." David Duke , a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan , wrote in 1999 that the Internet was going to create a "chain reaction of racial enlightenment that will shake the world." Daniels documents that racist groups see the Internet as a way to spread their ideologies, influence others and gain supporters. Legal scholar Richard Hasen describes
7434-487: The alt-right in college campus recruitment in 2017, an ironic co-optation because Captain America battled against Nazis in the comics, and was created by Jewish cartoonists. There has been debate whether Winston Churchill , who was voted "the greatest ever Briton" in 2002, was "a racist and white supremacist". In the context of rejecting the Arab wish to stop Jewish immigration to Palestine , he said: I do not admit that
7552-603: The approval of a bankruptcy plan by the United States bankruptcy court for the Northern District of Alabama , writing off more than $ 1.4 billion of the debt. According to the United States Census Bureau , the county has a total area of 1,124 square miles (2,910 km ), of which 1,111 square miles (2,880 km ) is land and 13 square miles (34 km ) (1.1%) is water. It is the fifth-largest county in Alabama by land area. The county
7670-555: The arts in their struggle with need, want and misery, which in their many forms were brought about by the climate. The eugenicist Madison Grant argued in his 1916 book, The Passing of the Great Race , that the Nordic race had been responsible for most of humanity's great achievements, and that admixture was "race suicide". In this book, Europeans who are not of Germanic origin but have Nordic characteristics such as blonde/red hair and blue/green/gray eyes, were considered to be
7788-469: The campaign and presidency of Donald Trump , have contributed to an increased activity and interest in white supremacy. Different forms of white supremacy have different conceptions of who is considered white (though the exemplar is generally light-skinned, blond-haired, and blue-eyed — traits most common in northern Europe and that are viewed pseudoscientifically as being traits of an Aryan race ), and not all white-supremacist organizations agree on who
7906-472: The city's rapid growth, for decades it was underrepresented in the legislature. Legislators from rural counties kept control of the legislature and, to avoid losing power, for decades refused to reapportion the seats or redistrict congressional districts. Birmingham could not get its urban needs addressed by the legislature. Nearby Bessemer, Alabama , located 16 miles by car to the southwest, also grew based on industrialization. It also attracted many workers. By
8024-504: The concept of preserving genetic purity, and do not focus solely on discrimination based on skin color. The KKK's reasons for supporting racial segregation are not primarily based on religious ideals, but some Klan groups are openly Protestant . The 1915 silent drama film The Birth of a Nation followed the rising racial, economic, political, and geographic tensions leading up to the Emancipation Proclamation and
8142-580: The cost so the county in 2011 had $ 3.2 billion outstanding. Carrington said one of the problems was that elected officials had welcomed scheduling with very low early payments so long as peak payments occurred after they left office. In 2011 the SEC awarded the county $ 75 million in compensation in relation to a judgment of "unlawful payments" against JP Morgan; in addition the company was penalized by having to forfeit $ 647 million of future fees. Jefferson County filed for bankruptcy on November 9, 2011. This action
8260-492: The county jail. It said that young people with mental illnesses were locked in solitary confinement for months at a time. Others were housed with adult prisoners who raped them. The Alabama Department of Corrections operates the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility , a prison for men, in unincorporated Jefferson County near Bessemer. The prison includes one of the two Alabama death rows for men. In 2010 statistics,
8378-450: The county that have established their own school systems are Gardendale , Bessemer , Fairfield , Midfield , Trussville , Homewood , Leeds , Hoover , Vestavia Hills , Tarrant , and Mountain Brook . The pattern of residential and economic segregation has occurred in many parts of the country, including economic segregation of poorer whites. In 2008 , Barack Obama carried Jefferson County with 166,121 votes (52.2 percent), although
8496-675: The county were still totally segregated. In 1969, public schools in the county became fully integrated. Except for cities such as Birmingham, that have established their own local school districts, all parts of Jefferson County are served by the Jefferson County Board of Education . Parts within Birmingham are served by Birmingham City Schools . Beginning in 1959, more wealthy towns, with predominately white populations, began to form their own school systems. Critics allege this served to stymie integration and financially starve schools that served mostly black populations. Cities in
8614-473: The damaged church. They entered politics in the city, county and state after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed. In the 1990s, the county authorized and financed a massive overhaul of the county-owned sewer system, beginning in 1996. Sewerage and water rates had increased more than 300% in the 15 years before 2011, causing severe problems for the poor in Birmingham and the county. Costs for
8732-570: The demographic mix in the U.S. as a result. With 38 U.S. states having banned interracial marriage through anti-miscegenation laws , the last 16 states had such laws in place until 1967 when they were invalidated by the Supreme Court of the United States ' decision in Loving v. Virginia . These mid-century gains had a major impact on white Americans' political views; segregation and white racial superiority, which had been publicly endorsed in
8850-401: The early decades of the 20th century, it had a majority-black population, but whites dominated politically and economically. Racial tensions increased in the cities and state in the late 19th century as whites worked to maintain white supremacy . The white-dominated legislature passed a new constitution in 1901 that disenfranchised most blacks and many poor whites, excluding them totally from
8968-559: The establishment of a white ethnostate by removing non-whites from existing communities or by forming new communities elsewhere. Most modern researchers do not view white separatism as distinct from white-supremacist beliefs. The Anti-Defamation League defines white separatism as "a form of white supremacy"; the Southern Poverty Law Center defines both white nationalism and white separatism as "ideologies based on white supremacy." Facebook has banned content that
9086-424: The extent of white-supremacist activity in the country, but nevertheless she and other experts see an increase in the number of hate crimes and amount of white-supremacist violence. In the latest wave of white supremacy, in the age of the Internet, Blee sees the movement as having become primarily a virtual one, in which divisions between groups become blurred: "[A]ll these various groups that get jumbled together as
9204-547: The following: As of the 2000 census , there were 662,047 people, 263,265 households, and 175,861 families residing in the county. The population density was 595 people per square mile (230 people/km ). There were 288,162 housing units at an average density of 259 units per square mile (100 units/km ). The racial makeup of the county was 58.10% White , 39.36% Black or African American , 0.21% Native American , 0.90% Asian , 0.03% Pacific Islander , 0.59% from other races , and 0.80% from two or more races. About 1.55% of
9322-673: The formation of the Confederate States of America . In an 1890 editorial about Native Americans and the American Indian Wars , author L. Frank Baum wrote: "The Whites, by law of conquest , by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians." The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U.S. citizenship to whites only. In some parts of
9440-401: The historic dissemination of simplistic and negative ideas about non-white races. Native Americans, who were subjected to attempts of cultural genocide by the U.S. government through the use of American Indian boarding schools , were characterized as homogenously "cruel," a violent menace toward white Americans, and lacking civilization or societal complexity (p. 74). For example, in
9558-504: The hosting of hate sites online, and encouraging counter-messages. In a 2020 article in The New York Times titled "How White Women Use Themselves as Instruments of Terror", columnist Charles M. Blow wrote: We often like to make white supremacy a testosterone-fueled masculine expression, but it is just as likely to wear heels as a hood. Indeed, untold numbers of lynchings were executed because white women had claimed that
9676-440: The image of Till's body in the casket, one hundred days after his murder Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. Sociologist Stephen Klineberg has stated that U.S. immigration laws prior to 1965 clearly "declared that Northern Europeans are a superior subspecies of the white race". The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 opened entry to the U.S. to non-Germanic groups, and significantly altered
9794-622: The immigration of physically unhealthy elements, and simply excludes the immigration of certain races." German praise for America's institutional racism, previously found in Hitler's Mein Kampf , was continuous throughout the early 1930s. Nazi lawyers were advocates of the use of American models. Race-based U.S. citizenship and anti-miscegenation laws directly inspired the Nazis' two principal Nuremberg racial laws —the Citizenship Law and
9912-795: The largest religious group in Jefferson County was the SBC Baptists with 185,650 members in 272 congregations, followed by 69,878 non-denominational adherents with 170 congregations, 67,313 NBC Baptists with 117 congregations, 55,083 Catholics in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama with 32 parishes, 43,422 UMC Methodists with 86 congregations, 15,899 CoG–Cleveland, Tennessee Pentecostals with 45 congregations, 14,025 TEC Episcopalians with 17 congregations, 11,267 CoC Christians with 69 congregations, 11,171 CoGiC Pentecostals with 16 congregations, and 9,472 AME Methodists with 42 congregations. Altogether, 83.9% of
10030-561: The late summer, city and business officials finally agreed in 1963 to integrate public facilities and hire more African Americans. This followed the civil rights campaign, which was based at the 16th Street Baptist Church , and an economic boycott of white stores that refused to hire blacks. Whites struck again: on a Sunday in September 1963, KKK members bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church , killing four young black girls and injuring many persons. The African-American community quickly rebuilt
10148-596: The legislative and executive duties for the county. The Commissioners are elected from single-member districts . Each county commissioner represents one of the five districts in the county, apportioned roughly equally by population. By votes in the commission, the commissioners are given executive responsibilities for the various county departments, which fall under the categories of "Roads and Transportation", "Community Development", "Environmental Services", "Health and Human Services", "Technology and Land Development", and "Finance and General Services". The County Commission elects
10266-422: The mid-20th century, resulting in the civil rights movement . The movement was spurred by the lynching of Emmett Till , a 14-year-old boy. David Jackson writes it was the image of the "murdered child's ravaged body, that forced the world to reckon with the brutality of American racism ." Vann R. Newkirk II wrote "the trial of his killers became a pageant illuminating the tyranny of white supremacy." Moved by
10384-534: The newly appointed president of the County Commission, about the risk of defaulting on bonds issued to finance "what could be the most expensive sewage system in history." Carrington said there was "no doubt that people from Wall Street offered bribes" and "have to take a huge responsibility for what happened." Wall Street investment banks, including JP Morgan and others, arranged complex financial deals using swaps . The fees and penalty charges increased
10502-476: The opposite effect, increasing the county's indebtedness to the point that it had to declare bankruptcy. The bond swaps were the focus of an investigation by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission . In late February 2008 Standard & Poor's lowered the rating of Jefferson County bonds to "junk" status. The likelihood of the county filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection
10620-501: The original (early 1900s) plats of the Valley View, Milner Heights, Altamont/Redmont Drives and Redmont Park subdivisions, all being "exclusive and upper middle class suburban neighboods". It is asserted to include the state's best examples of Tudor Revival , Spanish Revival , Chateauesque , Classical Revival , Dutch Revival and Colonial Revival architecture, as well as great landscape architecture. This article about
10738-439: The political system. While they were nominally still eligible in the mid-20th century for jury duty, they were overwhelmingly excluded by white administrators from juries into the 1950s. Economic competition among the new workers in the city also raised tensions. It was a rough environment of mill and mine workers in Birmingham and Bessemer, and the Ku Klux Klan was active in the 20th century, often with many police being members into
10856-707: The population was claimed as members by religious congregations, although members of historically African-American denominations were underrepresented due to incomplete information. In 2014, Jefferson County had 714 religious organizations, the 15th most out of all US counties. School districts in the county include: As a reaction to the US Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v Board of Education in 1954, that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, both state and local officials took steps to preserve de facto educational segregation. As late as 1965, schools in
10974-591: The population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. The largest self-reported European ancestries in Jefferson County, Alabama are English 9.7%(64,016), " American " 9.6%(63,015), Irish 8.6%(56,695), German 7.2%(47,690). Many Americans whose ancestors came from Britain or Ireland identify simply as American, because their immigrant ancestors arrived so long ago, in some cases in the 17th and 18th centuries. Demographers estimate that roughly 20–23% of people in Alabama are of predominantly English and related British Isles ancestry. Researchers believe that more of
11092-449: The project increased due to problems in the financial area. In addition, county officials, encouraged by bribes by financial services companies, made a series of risky bond-swap agreements. Two extremely controversial undertakings by county officials in the 2000s resulted in the county having debt of $ 4 billion. The county eventually declared bankruptcy in 2011. It was the largest municipal bankruptcy in United States history at that time. Both
11210-629: The public domain" and intensified the New Zealand head tax . In 1921, Massey wrote in the Evening Post : "New Zealanders are probably the purest Anglo-Saxon population in the British Empire. Nature intended New Zealand to be a white man's country, and it must be kept as such. The strain of Polynesian will be no detriment". This is one of many quotes attributed to him regarded as being openly racist. Supporters of Nordicism consider
11328-590: The ruling caste or race is fairer in colour than the rest and has, therefore, evidently immigrated, for example, the Brahmins , the Incas , and the rulers of the South Sea Islands . All this is due to the fact that necessity is the mother of invention because those tribes that emigrated early to the north, and there gradually became white, had to develop all their intellectual powers and invent and perfect all
11446-550: The rural-dominated state legislature refused to redistrict as population increased in urban counties. Changes to county representation in the state legislature did not take place until the state was required to incorporate the principle of one man, one vote from the US Supreme Court decision of Baker v. Carr (1964). It ruled that bicameral legislatures had to have both houses based on population districts, rather than geographic ones. The complexity of Birmingham and Jefferson County urban conditions required more local management, as it
11564-499: The same curriculum as white Americans because they supposedly were intellectually inferior, and Asian Americans, some of whom were prevented from learning much about their ancestral lands because they were deemed a threat to "American" culture, i.e. white culture, at the turn of the 20th century. With the emergence of Twitter in 2006, and platforms such as Stormfront , which was launched in 1996, an alt-right portal for white supremacists with similar beliefs, both adults and children,
11682-477: The sewer project and its financing were scrutinized by federal prosecutors. By 2011, "six of Jefferson County's former commissioners had been found guilty of corruption for accepting the bribes, along with 15 other officials." The controversial interest rate swaps, initiated in 2002 and 2003 by former Commission President Larry Langford (removed in 2011 as the mayor of Birmingham after his conviction at trial ), were intended to lower interest payments. But they had
11800-502: The shooter was sentenced to life without parole . In 2016, there was a rise in debate over the appropriateness of the naming of Massey University in Palmerston North after William Massey , whom many historians and critics have described as a white supremacist. Lecturer Steve Elers was a leading proponent of the idea that Massey was an avowed white supremacist, given Massey "made several anti-Chinese racist statements in
11918-399: The state voted for Republican candidate Senator John McCain by a double-digit majority. Obama carried the industrial, urbanized county by a larger majority in 2012 , winning with 52.5 percent. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton also carried the county in 2016 , with a majority of 51.5 percent. In 2020 , Joe Biden received 55.7% of the vote in Jefferson County, the best performance by
12036-684: The state, on the southernmost edge of the Appalachian Mountains . It is in the center of the (former) iron , coal , and limestone mining belt of the Southern United States . Most of the original settlers were migrants of English ancestry from the Carolinas. Jefferson County has a land area of about 1,119 square miles (2,900 km ). Early county seats were established first at Carrollsville (1819 – 21), then Elyton (1821 – 73). Founded around 1871, Birmingham
12154-470: The term white supremacist . Dobratz and Shanks-Meile reported that adherents usually reject marriage "outside the white race" . They argued for the existence of "a distinction between the white supremacist's desire to dominate (as in apartheid , slavery , or segregation ) and complete separation by race". They argued that this is a matter of pragmatism, because, while many white supremacists are also white separatists, contemporary white separatists reject
12272-553: The time and Jefferson County's was 2% in total. Some municipal sales taxes reach 4%. On March 16, 2011, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that Jefferson County's 2009 occupational tax law was passed unconstitutionally. This decision dealt a devastating financial blow to a county considering bankruptcy. Jefferson County is served by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department . The County Sheriff
12390-557: The use of the words, for example, "discovery," "colonization," and " New World " when describing what was ultimately a European conquest of the Western Hemisphere and its indigenous peoples . Swartz (1992) seconds this reading of modern history narratives when it comes to the experiences, resistances, and accomplishments of black Americans throughout the Middle Passage , slavery , Reconstruction , Jim Crow , and
12508-535: The view of philosopher Jason Stanley , white supremacy in the United States is an example of the fascist politics of hierarchy, in that it "demands and implies a perpetual hierarchy" in which whites dominate and control non-whites. The presidential campaign of Donald Trump led to a surge of interest in white supremacy and white nationalism in the United States, bringing increased media attention and new members to their movement; his campaign enjoyed their widespread support. Some academics argue that outcomes from
12626-401: The view that returning to a system of segregation is possible or desirable in the United States. The term white supremacy is used in some academic studies of racial power to denote a system of structural or societal racism which privileges white people over others, regardless of the presence or the absence of racial hatred. According to this definition, white racial advantages occur at both
12744-440: Was 2.45, and the average family size was 3.04. In the county, 24.80% of the population was under the age of 18, 9.60% from 18 to 24, 29.70% from 25 to 44, 22.30% from 45 to 64, and 13.60% was 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 89.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.50 males. In 2007 Jefferson County had the highest rate of syphilis cases per 100,000 in
12862-459: Was a key justification for European colonialism . As a political ideology , it imposes and maintains cultural, social , political , historical or institutional domination by white people and non-white supporters. In the past, this ideology had been put into effect through socioeconomic and legal structures such as the Atlantic slave trade , European colonial labor and social practices,
12980-434: Was a major industrial center. The county gained some home rule functions by 1944. It allows the county to set up a zoning system for land use, maintain the sanitary sewer , sewerage systems and highways , provide for garbage and trash disposal , and to enforce taxation (except for property taxes). Today the county has a type of council-manager form of government. It is governed by a five-member commission that combines
13098-473: Was a significant and "pervasive" threat to the U.S. On September 20, 2019, the acting Secretary of Homeland Security , Kevin McAleenan , announced his department's revised strategy for counter-terrorism, which included a new emphasis on the dangers inherent in the white-supremacy movement. McAleenan called white supremacy one of the most "potent ideologies" behind domestic terrorism-related violent acts. In
13216-482: Was debated in the press. In early March 2008, Moody's followed suit and indicated that it would also review the county's ability to meet other bond obligations. On March 7, 2008, Jefferson County failed to post $ 184 million collateral as required under its sewer bond agreements, thereby moving into technical default. In February 2011, Lesley Curwen of the BBC World Service interviewed David Carrington,
13334-400: Was implemented In January 2005, as a 1% sales tax to support funding for construction of needed education facilities. This additional 1% has resulted in some county municipalities, such as Fairfield , to have sales tax rates as high as 10%, while other municipalities and incorporated communities had an increase in their total sales tax rate from 8% to 9%. The state of Alabama sales tax was 4% at
13452-660: Was named for the industrial English city of the same name in Warwickshire . That city had long been a center of iron and steel production in Great Britain . Birmingham was formed by the merger of three towns, including Elyton. It has continued to grow by annexing neighboring towns and villages , including North Birmingham. As Birmingham industrialized, its growth accelerated, particularly after 1890. It attracted numerous rural migrants, both black and white, for its new jobs. It also attracted European immigrants. Despite
13570-399: Was provided in which they were given a way to connect. Jessie Daniels, of CUNY-Hunter College , discussed the emergence of other social media outlets such as 4chan and Reddit , which meant that the "spread of white nationalist symbols and ideas could be accelerated and amplified." Sociologist Kathleen Blee notes that the anonymity which the Internet provides can make it difficult to track
13688-457: Was taught about black Americans' contributions, or their histories before being brought to U.S. soil as slaves. According to Wayne (1972), this approach was taken especially much after the Civil War to maintain whites' hegemony over emancipated black Americans. Other racial groups have received oppressive treatment, including Mexican Americans , who temporarily were prevented from learning
13806-578: Was the leading Nazi who attributed the concept of the East-European "under man" to Stoddard. An advocate of the U.S. immigration laws that favored Northern Europeans, Stoddard wrote primarily on the alleged dangers posed by " colored " peoples to white civilization, and wrote The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy in 1920. In establishing a restrictive entry system for Germany in 1925, Hitler wrote of his admiration for America's immigration laws: "The American Union categorically refuses
13924-828: Was valued at $ 4.2 billion, with debts of $ 3.14 billion relating to sewer work; it was then the most costly municipal bankruptcy ever in the United States. In 2013, it was surpassed by the Detroit bankruptcy in Michigan. The County requested Chapter 9 relief under federal statute 11 U.S.C. §921. The case was filed in the Northern District of Alabama Bankruptcy Court as case number 11-05736. As of May 2012 , Jefferson County had slashed expenses and reduced employment of county government workers by more than 700. The county emerged from bankruptcy in December 2013, following
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