The Alabama Motel Where Civil Rights Icons Plotted the End of Segregation

The A.G. Gaston Motel, Birmingham AL

The A.G. Gaston Motel in Birmingham wasn’t just another place to sleep.

During the 1960s, this modest two-story building became the unofficial headquarters for the Civil Rights Movement. Dr. King planned marches from room 30.

The place has been preserved as Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument since then, and here’s why it deserves the recognition.

Birmingham’s First Black Millionaire

Arthur George Gaston was born on July 4, 1892, in Demopolis, Alabama. His father Tom died when Arthur was a baby, so his mother Rosa McDonald Gaston and his grandparents Joseph and Idella Gaston raised him.

At 13, the family moved to Birmingham when the wealthy Loveman family hired his mother as their cook. Arthur finished 10th grade at Tuggle Institute, then his education ended.

He served in France during World War I, then worked at Tennessee Coal and Iron Company in nearby Fairfield, Alabama.

Building A Business Empire

Working in the mines, Arthur saw fellow workers couldn’t afford proper funerals for their families.

He started selling burial insurance to other miners for 25 cents a week in the early 1920s. This led him to found Booker T. Washington Insurance Company in 1923 with $500.

He also opened Smith and Gaston Funeral Home, then in 1939 he and his wife Minnie started a business school to train Black workers.

In the early 1950s, he founded Citizens Federal Savings and Loan, the first Black-owned bank in Birmingham in over 40 years.

By the 1960s, his businesses were worth $30-40 million.

A Safe Place During Hard Times

In 1951, Gaston learned a major Black church convention was coming to Birmingham in 1954, but lack visitors would have nowhere decent to stay in the segregated city.

He hired architect Stanley B. Echols and Steel City Construction Company to build a modern motel.

The building had things most Black travelers had never seen: air conditioning, phones in every room, and wall-to-wall carpet.

Famous guests like Aretha Franklin, Duke Ellington, and Harry Belafonte have all stayed at the Gaston Motel.

The Civil Rights Movement Moves In

In April 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference set up headquarters at the Gaston Motel.

They came to challenge Birmingham, one of America’s most segregated cities, through “Project C” (C for confrontation).

The first major march began in the motel’s courtyard on April 6, 1963. King stayed there with other leaders like Rev.

Fred Shuttlesworth and Rev. Ralph Abernathy while they planned boycotts, sit-ins, and marches. Room 30 became their “War Room” where they developed strategies.

TV news crews filmed their press conferences in the courtyard.

Gaston’s Mixed Feelings About Protests

A.G. Gaston felt torn about the civil rights movement. He wanted change but preferred negotiating with white business leaders rather than street protests.

Despite his doubts, Gaston actively supported the cause. Hehelped Tuskegee residents who faced foreclosure for joining voting boycotts.

During the Birmingham campaign, he gave activists cheap rooms and free meeting spaces.

King’s Big Decision

While staying in Room 30 during April 1963, Dr. King faced a tough choice.

Local authorities had gotten a court order banning demonstrations in Birmingham. King decided to break this law.

On Good Friday, April 12, 1963, police arrested King for marching anyway. From jail, he wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

King wanted to stay imprisoned to make a point, but other leaders worried about his safety.

Gaston paid $160,000 for King’s bond, much more than the $5,000 first reported. This let King continue leading the campaign.

The Peace Deal

After weeks of protests, arrests, and national news coverage, civil rights leaders and Birmingham’s business community made a deal.

On May 10, 1963, exactly one month after the campaign began, they announced the agreement at the Gaston Motel’s courtyard.

The deal promised to end segregation at lunch counters, fitting rooms, water fountains, and restrooms within 90 days.

Business owners agreed to hire Black employees for office and sales jobs. King called it “a great victory,” but Commissioner Bull Connor, who had used fire hoses and police dogs on protesters, rejected the agreement.

The Bomb Attack

Peace lasted one day. At 11:58 p.m. on May 11, 1963, attackers threw a bomb from a car that exploded beneath Room 30, where King had been staying.

The blast tore a door-sized hole in the west wall. King and Abernathy had left earlier and weren’t hurt, though four people got minor injuries.

That same night, bombers hit Rev. A.D. King’s home. Most people believed Ku Klux Klan members did both attacks to wreck the peace deal and scare civil rights workers.

Violence and Change

The bombings triggered riots across 28 blocks of Birmingham as years of anger exploded.

Alabama state troopers on horses with machine guns stopped the uprising. Over 50 people were injured.

President John F. Kennedy met with King and Gaston after the crisis. The shocking images of police dogs and fire hoses used on peaceful protesters, including children, upset Americans nationwide.

The Birmingham campaign helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed segregation everywhere.

Hard Times and Coming Back

Gaston expanded the motel in 1968, adding a supper club. But business declined in the 1970s as integration gave Black travelers more hotel choices.

In 1982, Gaston turned the motel into housing for elderly people until 1996, after which the building sat empty for over 20 years.

In 2015, preservationists named it one of America’s most historic places. Birmingham invested $10 million starting in 2019 to restore it, while the Mellon Foundation added $1.1 million for the coffee shop and exhibit space.

Visiting the A.G. Gaston Motel

The A.G. Gaston Motel is at 1510 5th Avenue North in Birmingham’s Civil Rights District.

The motel is open Thursday through Saturday from 10am to 4pm. Admission fees apply (contact the motel for current pricing as fees began in late 2023).

You can explore the historic courtyard where Dr. King held press conferences, see Room 30 (the “War Room” where civil rights strategies were planned), and view exhibits about A.G. Gaston’s life and legacy.

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