?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(CIVIL RIGHTS.) Snapshots of the bomb-damaged home of activist Rev. Arthur Shores in Birmingham, Alabama. 4 Polaroid photographs, each 3¼ x 5¼ inches; minor wear and soiling. [Birmingham, AL], circa late August 1963
Arthur Davis Shores (1904-1996) of Birmingham, AL attended Talladega College and became one of the most prominent lawyers of the civil rights movement, arguing Lucy v Adams in the Supreme Court to successfully integrate the University of Alabama. His 1963 campaign to integrate the Birmingham public schools led to his Center Street home being firebombed twice, on 20 August and 4 September. The first blast killed a family dog, and the second injured Mrs. Shores. These incidents gave the neighborhood the nickname "Dynamite Hill."
These four photographs were taken from across the street of the home shortly after the first bombing. The shattered window frame above the garage is being removed and replaced, and a "Danger! Keep Out" sign can be seen hanging in front of the home. See the 2012 biography by his daughters Helen Shores Lee and Barbara S. Shores, "The Gentle Giant of Dynamite Hill" (copy included, signed and inscribed by the authors), which includes a Birmingham News exterior photograph of the house after this first bombing.
With--a blank mimeographed petition, "Protest Against Bombing." This was sent to all clergymen in the Birmingham area, to gather names for a published protest against the bombing. It is signed in facsimile by the Rev. J.L. Ware and Rev. C. Herbert Oliver.
