Farewell to the ‘Most Hated White Man in the South’

The Birmingham Buff ^

[vikk]

The first thing I noticed when arriving at Birmingham’s Bethel Baptist Church of Collegeville today for the “homegoing” service of the Rev. Lamar Weaver, 85, was the hearse from Poole’s Funeral Chapels, Inc.

How fitting since it was the Poole brothers, Ernest and John, who helped save Weaver’s life 56 years ago.

On March 6, 1957, a day after the Alabama Public Commission ruled that waiting rooms designated for interstate travel must remain segregated, Weaver met the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Birmingham’s formidable civil rights leader and Bethel’s pastor, and his wife, Ruby, at Terminal Station. The Shuttlesworths had bought tickets to Atlanta and sat in the whites-only waiting room in defiance of the ruling. Weaver, a white man, had come to the station to show his support. As the Shuttlesworths and Weaver waited for the train, a crowd of about 100 segregationists, led by “Dynamite Bob” Chambliss (one of the men responsible for bombing the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963), began to harass them. Before long, police ordered all those without tickets to leave the waiting room, and this included Weaver. In his 2001 autobiography, “Bury My Heart in Birmingham,” Weaver recounted that long walk to his car:

A police officer pushed me out on to the sidewalk and the door closed behind me. I was surrounded by this angry mob. I was terrified. I turned toward the area where my car was parked and started walking slowly to my car. The mob was so close to me; I could feel their hot breath on the back of my neck. I knew if I ran I would most certainly be killed much like a pack of wild dogs would do when they chase after prey. Then suddenly, someone hit me from behind with a suitcase and knocked me to the ground. Some of the persons in the mob began kicking me. I struggled back to my feet trying desperately to make it to my car. The mob followed me. The news media were there taking pictures. Thank God for those reporters. If they had not been there with their cameras, I’m sure I would have been killed. Getting to my car seemed like an eternity. Finally I made it and managed to somehow get inside.

The hostile crowd threw cement blocks and rocked the vehicle, attempting to flip it over. Weaver described Chambliss being at the front of his car, sneering and cursing while rocking it.

Weaver managed to back up but not before someone in the crowd opened the car door and began beating him. A reporter from a national media outlet pushed the man away and Weaver was able to speed off. However, the police charged Weaver with running a red light and reckless driving. He opted for an immediate trial and was able to stand before a city judge that day. The judge fined Weaver $25 and ordered him to leave town.

The Poole brothers paid Weaver’s fine, hid his car and drove him to the funeral home. Here’s Weaver’s account of what happened next:

I hid there for the rest of the day and that night. A Negro informant told the police that I was hiding at the Poole Funeral Home. When they couldn’t find me there, the mob continued their search for me throughout the city. At least twice during the late hours of the night, angry Whites came into the funeral home looking for me. [Three employees] of the Poole Funeral Home had hidden me in a casket.

According to Weaver, the next day, he was taken to the airport and flew to Washington, D.C. to testify before the U.S. Senate subcommittee on civil rights. (He had made his airplane reservations under the pseudonym James Bishop to remain hidden.) While waiting to testify, Weaver was told by his congressional representative, “Don’t ever go back to Birmingham. You’ll never be welcomed. You are a disgrace. You are the most hated white man in the south.” Weaver did not let the representative’s words deter him from testifying.

Weaver’s deeds were not without consequences. He had made many enemies, especially when he decided to run against Eugene “Bull” Connor for his seat on the Birmingham City Commission. During his campaign, a bullet was fired into his house, almost hitting one of his daughters. Soon after, his first wife divorced him and moved to north Alabama. Weaver also lost the election to Connor.

During today’s eulogy for Weaver, Bethel’s current pastor, the Rev. Thomas L. Wilder, Jr., asked, “Why would a white man in the middle of segregated Birmingham risk everything?” Wilder told the small group of mourners of an event that Weaver witnessed at a young age that may have been the impetus for his life’s work. In Weaver’s words:

I was about four years old and we were traveling down an old dirt road near [Centre], Alabama. I thought it must have been on the weekend because as we approached a crossroad I saw a large group of people standing around in a festive atmosphere. There were so many people that they were partially blocking the road. As we drew closer, I was not prepared for what I was about to see. I witnessed one of the most horrific things I have ever seen even to this day. What I witnessed was a horrible experience for me. As our car stopped, we saw some White men, some dressed in robes, standing on platform with a Negro boy who I think could have been anywhere from fifteen to eighteen years old. There he was standing stripped of his clothing and the Whites were savagely beating him. Then they brought out axes and they began hacking his body to pieces, killing him before our very eyes. It was like a slaughterhouse. Blood was everywhere. My father, mother and I watched in horror. I just sat there horrified. It was a sight I will remember for the rest of my life. Looking back now, that experience made an impact on my life that may have been the reason my life took the path that it did.

“Please for the rest of your life, remember Rev. Lamar Weaver. Remember those who risked it all for the sake of the cause,” Wilder admonished us.

Weaver’s son, Robert Lamar, also spoke at today’s service. He reminded everyone of the circular nature of life. Weaver, who had been living in Kennesaw, Ga., had once again returned to Birmingham, the city he loved and fought to change. “And today, with God’s plan, we will bury my father’s heart in Birmingham.”

[skinkinthegrass]

Then they brought out axes and they began hacking his body
to pieces, killing him before our very eyes. It was like a
slaughterhouse. Blood was everywhere.a death certificate, please.....
Or was this story published; just to sell newspapers?
Yes! (Democratic) Jim Crow states were racist/violent.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[Old Yeller]

When I read the headline, I thought Barry was leaving.

[dennisw]

Back when there was serious anti-black racism. Today it is anti-white racism perpetrated by blacks and others plus stupid white liberals. Affirmative action to the max. Many gov’t agencies (Federal and state) across America are much more black than 13% which is the black percentage in America

[virgil283]

Thanks for posting this vikk.....It only took a few to stir up violent hate in those turbulent times but Godly people were there...

[CPT Clay]

Ted Turner?

[Scoutmaster]

RIP, Rev. Weaver. Thank you for standing up for what was right.

[wardaddy]

Birminham proper is very dangerous but don’t let that rain on their self righteous parade Jim

Is there any limit to freeper ignorance on race or Dixie you think?

Probably not

Yankees here just live to look down on us from lily white lutefishlandia

Silly

Most decent sized cities in Dixie are more like Johannesburg in city proper than Boise or Bismarck today...in the bad old days they were safe and black famiies 4-500% percent more whole

The stupids will accept any outcome over ancient racism or discrimination or segregation.....as long as whites are now the victims

But since so many live immersed in a white Lutheran land they don’t realize we are still largely self segregated by race....or cash

And discrimination has only been turned on us and with a vengeance

The animosity towards whites and Christians in our nation today dwarfs.....totally any hatred I’ve seen in my nearly 60 here

So this is better how?

[Nifster]

May the angels sing him home.

I hope that this sad time in our history will continue to give us examples of people being willing to risk all to stand tall

[Nifster]

If you are trying to sneer at those who eat LUTEFISK you ought to at least spell it correctly.

And just as an aside, you are carrying one heavy load of anger…. not good for one’s soul.

I hope you have a merry Christmas and a blessed new year

[Jim Noble]

Yankees here just live to look down on us from lily white lutefishlandia

Well, the furthest South I've ever lived was central Brooklyn, NY, and I lived in NY or MA for 52 years before moving to Central NH, so I guess that makes me one of those Yankees here?

[robowombat]

So this is better how?

Amen

Baton Rouge, NOLA, Little Rock, Memphis all have large ‘Soweto’ type areas. Homicide rates among the blacks in these towns are incredible, yet the focus of the ‘black community’ is on Treyvon martin and the Henry Glover case. having lived in the South most of my life it appears that a lot of the black population have become soulless debased brutes. The collapse of the black family has a lot to do with this along with the toxic hate spewing that the black ‘leadership class’ constantly preaches to the underclass. During the civil rights struggle blacks regularly embarrassed white Southerners by conducting themselves in a far more dignified and civilized way than their opponents. Today what is obvious is a community that behaves in the worse way possible while being unabashed trashy materialists and debauchees.

[Doomonyou]

I thought this was about Tony Romo’s injury.

[wardaddy]

In my 13 years on this forum I’ve noticed very little if any of the non stop assault on White Southerners and our mixed legacy is self inflicted

It is a steady domain of 99% non southerners here who dine on the bones of our past carefully avoiding criticizing our current failures which they BTW had a determining hand in but bear none of the consequence.

Without Yankees none of this mostly failed social engineering would have been foisted on us as it continues

I will make 4 claims:

There are some Yankees I like ...a few in my family...my kids are drilled against anti Yankee talk at family dinners....two yankees are on my homepage and here in TN WE tend to get the good ones....Nashville metro is at least one third mid west Yankee now....their kids tend to pick up our ways a bit

I eat mullet ..fried or smoked....easier to spell or wear....I merit no stink fish high horse

Anger....hell yes....my culture is under attack and losing.....helluva thing to leave my 5 kids....it’ll never be the same......and then on top of that to watch so many act like its better now and take credit for it or rub salt in old wounds from before they were liklikely even born.....you think the war on Phil Robertson is from southerners?.....no one besides Morris Dees..... black or white.....even Cracker Barrel....who jumped in stupidly..no longer the domain of TN family but a collage of minority outsiders mostly non southern just pimping our schtick.... I know cause I know that company intimately

I lived up north...folks are less open and casually polite and mannered* and segregation is alive and well in yankee cities...8 years Manhattan
...northerners don’t know blacks like a mississippian like me does...or a south African would

*white trash in TN is plumbing new depths soon to become tobacco hued trash which serves neither race well

White liberals down south are rare....10% tops in Mississippi or Alabama

Up north....they are ubiquitous....at least a third of Whites....usually higher

Its culture dating back to origins of immigration and religion and you guys living in less racially diverse areas as a rule before auto industry took off and simply lacking real time experience from which to judge us

Of course that doesn’t stop folks

Noble....I cannot seeing you as a foe and apologize for being rude

Nifster....you must be young but I hope you have a merry Christmas or past due Channakuh or Kwaanza or Boxing Day etc

[Colonel_Flagg]

I wondered who would have called Weaver the most hated white man in the south, so I did a quick wiki.

I think (but am not sure) that Birmingham is in Alabama’s 7th CD, which has elected one Republican and one Whig since 1843.

In 1957, that district was represented by Carl Elliott, naturally a Democrat, who completed the hat trick of voting against the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960 and 1964. He received the first ever John F. Kennedy “Profile in Courage” award.

Democrats. Sigh.

[The Toll]

Support for Diversity is directly related to one’s distance from it.

[mrsmel]

Never fear wardaddy, Agenda 21 is going to give them (all except the present super-elite, who will be the only “elite” in the future, and the rest will be peons) a taste of what we already know. They are already being disarmed so that all but their “elite” have no protection.

[Nifster]

I am not young. I live in the south as does my daughter and her husband. We will have a merry Christmas. And believe it or don’t, there is much that you and I agree on.