The Wales Window: A Silent Testimony from 4,000 Miles Away
Most people walking into Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church know the tragic story of the 1963 bombing that killed four young girls. But John Petts, a stained glass artist from Llansteffan in Wales, was sickened by the attack and moved to make a gesture of kindness to the church in the aftermath. Collecting donations from churches and chapels across his country, he crafted what is now known as the Wales Window. This remarkable act of international solidarity remains one of the most beautiful yet unknown gestures in civil rights history.
The window stands as proof that the struggle for justice in Alabama reached hearts thousands of miles away. An aspect of the incident that far fewer people are aware of, however, is how it inspired an incredible act of generosity from people 4,000 miles away from Alabama. Even today, visitors pass by this stunning memorial without knowing its extraordinary backstory of cross-continental compassion.
Lowndes County: The Birthplace of the Black Panther Symbol
The Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO), also known as the Lowndes County Freedom Party (LCFP) or Black Panther party, was an American political party founded during 1965 in Lowndes County, Alabama. The independent third party was formed by local African-American citizens led by John Hulett, and by staff members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael. This rural county, with its overwhelming Black population and complete white political control, became the unlikely birthplace of one of America’s most recognizable civil rights symbols.
The political symbol in Lowndes County when we went in there was for the white Democratic Party, The Dixiecrats, was a white rooster, and it had the motto around it that said, “White supremacy for the right.” They said, we need a mean black cat to run that white rooster out of this county. And that became the Black Panther. What many don’t realize is that they appropriated it from Clark College in Atlanta. It was their football mascot.
John Hulett: The Forgotten Sheriff Who Changed Everything
Lowndes County consists of a population of about 15,000 people. Out of these 15,000 people, 80 percent are Negroes, 20 percent white. The entire county is controlled entirely by whites. Into this environment stepped John Hulett, a local farmer who would become one of the most remarkable yet overlooked figures in civil rights history. It was 80 percent Black but only one eligible Black citizen out of 12,000 was registered to vote; he was Mr. John Hulett, who would help found LCFO…