Throughout the 2020-21 academic year, six Birmingham-Southern students and alumni studied the historical influence of Linn Park as Jefferson County Memorial Project Fellows. Lauren Barnett (economics), Ally Brinson ’21 (philosophy, history, and law), Driscoll Crabbe ’21 (political science), Lucas Lamb (history), Austin Lewter ’20 (political science), and Leo Proctor (English) all contributed research to the 2021 Fellow Report.

The Jefferson County Memorial Project is a grassroots coalition working to research and memorialize lynching victims, educate the public, and advocate for racial justice. Each year, JCMP selects undergraduate fellows from Birmingham-area colleges and universities to uncover new information and report on their findings as a group. Professor of History Dr. Mark Schantz served as this year’s BSC faculty advisor and helps recruit students to the project each year.

Recent graduate Ally Brinson discovered the opportunity in one of her classes with Schantz. Brinson – a philosophy, history, and law major – knew she wanted to serve as a fellow as soon as she learned more about JCMP and read the work of other history majors who were fellows in the past.

“Right now, we’re in a pivotal time in how we look at history,” she says. “Being able to tell the objective truth is so important.”

Each year, fellows divide up newspapers and decades to research Jefferson County terror lynching victims and tell – and in some cases rebuild – their stories. This year’s report, “Contested Terrain: A Historical Walk Through Birmingham’s Linn Park,” tracks the history of Linn Park in downtown Birmingham, following the Black Lives Matter protests in Birmingham and the dismantling of Linn Park’s Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in June 2020.

Ally Brinson ’21 will attend Cumberland School of Law in fall 2021.

Brinson was assigned 1900-1910 to investigate, which includes 1905, the year the monument was dedicated in Linn Park. Her research examines the celebratory unveiling of the completed monument in relation to the celebration of its removal more than 100 years later.

“This Confederate monument would watch as racial segregation took hold of Birmingham businesses,” Brinson wrote in her report. “This monument would look on as Civil Rights leaders’ homes were bombed. This monument would look on when four little girls were murdered in church. But this monument would not look on as protestors took the streets in May of 2020, demanding that no more Black lives be taken by police officers.”

Brinson’s humanities education at BSC – which also includes a minor in gender and women’s studies – helped her conduct her research and recognize the power of what JCMP is doing.

“You get to see how a memorial is so crucial to the way that we look at history,” Brinson says. “What we find as fellows a lot of time is heartbreaking and makes us angry. There’s a lot of emotion behind the research, but telling the truth no matter how you read it is something you can take away, and people can know exactly what happened.”

When Brinson came to BSC, she knew she wanted to go to law school but didn’t know exactly what she would study. She learned more about the philosophy, history, and law major and loved that professors hand-pick classes to prepare students for the LSAT and law school courses. Majors also choose either the philosophy or history track – Brinson chose history. Between her major and minor, she was able to take courses from most of BSC’s history professors, including a favorite, Dr. Victoria Ott.

“Dr. Ott is my hero, and the only woman in the history department” Brinson says. “I’ve never had a history class taught the way she taught, the way she shows how women’s roles are important.”

In the fall, Brinson will begin courses at Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law and hopes to pursue criminal law and defense work. She says not many law students around her want to become defense attorneys, but Brinson’s humanities studies and research experiences have inspired her to advocate for others.

“I want to be a voice in the legal process,” she says. “Everyone deserves to live within a fair and equal justice system. Every person is a person – being a voice for someone who is in a position to become a statistic is so important.”

This story was included in a special humanities edition of From the Hilltop, Birmingham-Southern’s alumni email newsletter.

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