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AHA receives emergency Mellon funding

April 29, 2025 — Today, the Mellon Foundation announced a $15 million emergency funding commitment to the Federation of State Humanities Councils in response to federal funding cuts that have devastated state humanities councils, including the Alabama Humanities Alliance here. This emergency funding will help provide up to support to all 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils across the United States.

AHA will receive an immediate $200,000 gift courtesy of the Federation of State Humanities Councils, with support from the Mellon Foundation. Plus, AHA has an opportunity to access an additional $50,000 in a “Humanities100” challenge grant. Any donations that AHA receives, starting today, will count as matching funds to unlock that additional support. Individuals, corporations, and foundations can donate to AHA now by visiting alabamahumanities.org/support.

“For more than 50 years, humanities councils have served as the backbone of American cultural life, connecting people through programs that illuminate, honor, and celebrate our shared history at the local level,” said Phillip Brian Harper, Mellon’s program director for higher learning. “The work of these councils touches every aspect of communities across our country. This grant ensures that these irreplaceable institutions can continue their mission.”

Mellon’s investment comes at a critical moment when $65 million in federal support for state humanities councils has been eliminated as a result of cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) — cuts enacted by the Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.

On April 2, each humanities council nationwide, including AHA, received notice that all grant funding through the NEH had been cancelled, effective immediately — a local loss of $1.2 million here in Alabama. The loss represents two-thirds of AHA’s annual budget and has a trickle-down impact on AHA’s grantees and partners — local libraries, museums, historic sites, historical societies, colleges and universities, arts and culture organizations, literary and literacy groups, towns and chambers of commerce, and more statewide.

What does this emergency support mean for the Alabama Humanities Alliance?

“This generous donation from our friends at the Federation and the Mellon Foundation keeps the lights on here at AHA,” says Chuck Holmes, executive director of the Alabama Humanities Alliance. “Combined with donations from AHA’s supporters in all corners of the state, we can look at programming we might be able to reactivate this year, too.

“This investment isn’t a silver bullet for our long-term viability. But it does buy us precious time to continue advocating for the restoration of our federal funding, and to seek out new sources for sustainable, year-over-year operational support.”

This is not the first time the Mellon Foundation’s philanthropy has supported AHA’s efforts here in Alabama. Mellon’s other contributions include a recent grant to fund Democracy and the Informed Citizen, a podcast series produced by AHA.

That series explored community journalism in rural Alabama, and highlighted how citizen-produced newspapers can help build community, preserve local history, and strengthen our democracy. Project partners included Alabama A&M’s WJAB-FM, PACERS Rural Community News Network, Auburn University’s School of Communication and Journalism, the University of Alabama’s College of Communication and Information Sciences, Auburn University’s Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities, and the David Mathews Center for Civic Life.

 

Help AHA unlock the Humanities100 matching gift:

All new donations made to the Alabama Humanities Alliance will be generously matched 1:1 by the Federation of State Humanities Councils with support from the Mellon Foundation, up to $50,000. Donate today at alabamahumanities.org/support. 

 

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance has served as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we promote lifelong learning and impactful storytelling that lifts up our state. We believe the humanities can bring our communities together and help us all see each other as fully human. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

About the Federation of State Humanities Councils
Founded in 1977, the Federation of State Humanities Councils (Federation) is the membership organization of the 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils. The Federation supports, connects, and amplifies the work and voices of our members, demonstrating councils’ value for communities and their collective impact on civic health and cultural vibrancy. The Federation envisions a fully resourced, inclusive, and thriving humanities council network.

About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. We believe that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty and empowerment that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and guided by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive.

Culverhouse extends $250,000 donation to AHA

April 28, 2025 — The Alabama Humanities Alliance has received a record-setting matching gift opportunity from Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr., an Alabama native and noted attorney and philanthropist. The $250,000 donation is set up as a matching gift opportunity, which will help AHA raise an additional $250,000 from other donors to match Culverhouse’s contribution.

“This is an invaluable gift in a moment of crisis for the humanities in Alabama,” says AHA Executive Director Chuck Holmes. “We are grateful to Hugh for his generosity, and for his recognition of how vital the humanities are to the cultural fabric of our state and to the economic vitality of the communities we call home.”

This gift is the largest individual donation in AHA’s half-century history. And it indeed comes at a critical juncture for Alabama Humanities. On April 2, the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency terminated the Alabama Humanities Alliance’s 50-year partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities — and, with it, two-thirds of AHA’s funding.

As a result, AHA had to suspend its statewide grantmaking that Alabama nonprofits rely on for locally created public programming. Last year, for example, AHA awarded $380,000 in funding that made possible local storytelling festivals, public history projects, cultural celebrations, civics education, book clubs, art talks, documentaries, and much more. AHA has also had to pause some of its original programming, including its Road Scholars Speakers Bureau. This program provides scholar-storytellers who give fascinating talks at local libraries, senior citizen centers, historical societies, and more statewide.

Culverhouse’s gift gives the Alabama Humanities Alliance greater flexibility as it searches for sustainable, long-term funding to fill the $1.2 million gap left by DOGE’s cuts. Once fully realized, Culverhouse’s gift — in tandem with support from Alabamians across the state — could also help AHA preserve and restore beloved programming.

“The Alabama Humanities Alliance does the work that makes us all better, more informed citizens,” Culverhouse says. “They support learning about history, civics, and jurisprudence. They help us explore what we have in common so that we can come together, not apart. We need more of the humanities in our communities right now, not less.”

Culverhouse has a long history of supporting causes related to education, civic engagement, and public health, both here in his native Alabama and his current home of Florida. His father, Hugh Culverhouse Sr., was also a prominent philanthropist and a member of the Alabama Business Hall of Fame.

To help match this generous donation, Alabamians are encouraged to contribute directly at alabamahumanities.org/support.

 

Founded in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance has served as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we promote lifelong learning and impactful storytelling that lifts up our state. We believe the humanities can bring our communities together and help us all see each other as fully human. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

Alabama impact of NEH cuts

April 2, 2025 — Alabamians stand to lose local programs that provide important lifelong learning and civic engagement opportunities as a result of newly mandated federal cuts of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

The federal Department of Government Efficiency this week ordered the NEH to make deep reductions in its staffing and budget, including to its grantmaking. These cuts would severely limit the ability of the Alabama Humanities Alliance, an NEH affiliate, to support statewide humanities efforts in communities large and small — efforts such as local history projects, storytelling festivals, community cultural celebrations, and humanities-focused podcasts and documentaries.

AHA is suspending its grantmaking in the state because of this financial uncertainty. The decision includes a pause in AHA’s monthly Mini Grants, Spring round of Major Grants, and its annual Media Grants, which were planned for this summer. AHA will also halt further bookings of its popular Road Scholars Speakers Bureau, which provides scholars and storytellers who give presentations at libraries, historical societies, and senior citizen centers across the state.

“The potential gutting of a federal agency might feel far away from many of us here in Alabama,” says Chuck Holmes, executive director of the Alabama Humanities Alliance. “But what’s at stake is very much of local concern — hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for local nonprofits to serve people in towns and cities across Alabama. These AHA grants are decided here in Alabama — not Washington, D.C. — and they support programming that enriches local communities.”

The impact of NEH cuts, if fully implemented, would be acutely felt in Alabama. For more than 50 years, AHA has served as a nonprofit and nonpartisan state affiliate of the NEH. During that time, Alabama Humanities has received congressionally appropriated federal funding to distribute nearly $13 million in support of humanities-rich programming in towns and cities across Alabama.

In 2024 alone, AHA distributed $380,000 to nonprofits statewide, supporting efforts like local storytelling festivals, oral history projects, conferences on AI and the humanities, art talks and book clubs, documentaries and podcasts, and public convenings that seek to bridge divides and find common ground. Grant recipients include community cornerstones such as local museums, historical societies, universities, libraries, arts and culture groups, literacy and educational organizations, municipalities and chambers of commerce.

Critically, there are no other statewide organizations that provide the type of funding AHA does. In AHA’s 2024 survey, 90% of all grant recipients stated that their public programming would not have been possible without their grant from the Alabama Humanities Alliance.

NEH funding also covers AHA’s operational costs and enables AHA to leverage state, corporate, foundation, and individual support. This non-federal funding supplements AHA’s other original programming, including:

In total in 2024, AHA and its partners reached about 250,000 Alabamians with 1,790 events and public projects.

“Ultimately, what these proposed cuts threaten is our ability to inspire a lifelong love of learning here in Alabama,” Holmes says. “And when we lose that, we lose much more than funding. We lose our ability to understand each other. We miss opportunities to strengthen our communities, as well as our economy. And we fail to make Alabama an ever more vibrant place to live, to work, and to visit.”

For those who wish to support the Alabama Humanities Alliance, visit alabamahumanities.org/support.

 

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we promote lifelong learning and impactful storytelling that lifts up our state. We believe the humanities can bring our communities together and help us all see each other as fully human. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

Alabama History Day 2025

On April 11, around 200 students from middle schools and high schools across the state will converge on Troy University’s campus in Montgomery for Alabama History Day. This annual statewide contest, presented by the Alabama Humanities Alliance (AHA), enables students to engage in robust and creative historical research.

“The beauty of History Day is that students choose to research topics in history that interest them,” says Idrissa N. Snider, Ph.D., AHA’s Alabama History Day coordinator. “They’re encouraged to be creative storytellers in sharing their findings — as artists, performers, designers, filmmakers, and authors. When students immerse themselves in this process, their confidence grows, academically and socially.”

This is the first time the state contest has been hosted at Troy University’s Montgomery campus. Participating students will present their work in downtown venues, including at the Rosa Parks Museum and the historic Davis Theatre. Volunteer judges will provide feedback and encouragement. These judges include historians, educators, lawyers, and more from around the state, including professors from Troy University.

“A number of Troy’s historians have enjoyed serving as judges for Alabama History Day over the years, and members of the History Department were really excited to learn that the event has found a new home at Troy University’s Montgomery campus,” says Allen Jones, Ph.D., chair of the History Department. “Not only will most of our historians participate as judges in Montgomery this year, around 20 Troy students majoring in history — and members of the university’s History Club — will make the trek to assist in the event and share their delight for studying history with the competitors.”

“We are thrilled to partner with Troy University to provide an exciting and dynamic experience for our Alabama History Day students in such a historic slice of our state’s capital,” says Chuck Holmes, executive director of the Alabama Humanities Alliance. “Troy has long been an outstanding friend of ours and we are grateful for their partnership in elevating the Alabama History Day state contest.”

State winners advance to National History Day, which is held each summer at the University of Maryland and Washington, D.C. Students also have the chance to win special awards from sponsors such as the Alabama Historical Association, Friends of the Alabama Archives, the Alabama Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and many more.

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The Alabama History Day state contest marks the culmination of months of work by Alabama students, as well as their teachers. Far more than a single day, this year-long program provides teachers with a dynamic, project-based learning tool they can incorporate into the classroom — and offers students a creative way to engage with history and civics.

Each spring, classrooms, schools, and districts host local competitions and showcases of students’ work. The biggest single competition leading up to this year’s statewide contest took place on February 21 in Mobile. There, nearly 200 students gathered for the South Alabama Regional Competition, a day filled with fun, photos, food, and fascinating History Day projects.

In Mobile, this year’s History Day theme, “Rights & Responsibilities in History,” generated student research on national topics ranging from America’s World War II workforce to the eradication of smallpox. Student projects of regional interest included Mobile’s Africatown community, the history of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians, and an exploration of the invasive lionfish population along the Gulf Coast.

Matt Spivey is the academic supervisor for social studies at Mobile County Public Schools, and a partner in organizing the South Alabama regional. He noted that the History Day program has obvious immediate impacts in terms of helping students build critical thinking skills, and in vetting and analyzing sources — “and in all those elements that will benefit our students in their classes, in those high-stakes tests that we use to measure their progress.”

But Spivey also sees a much broader, long-lasting positive impact with Alabama History Day:

“When you’re building those kinds of skills, you’re also building critical thinkers who will benefit our communities in who knows how many ways down the line,” Spivey says. “They’ll be able to analyze complex situations, to vet and source information, to figure out what’s accurate and trustworthy. The critical thinking skills they’re getting will help them address problems in our communities in ways that we’ll never fully know the impact of.”

To learn more about Alabama History Day, visit alabamahumanities.org/alabama-history-day.


About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we promote lifelong learning and impactful storytelling that lifts up our state. We believe the humanities can bring our communities together and help us better understand this dynamic and complex state we all call home. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

About Troy University
Troy University is a public, historic, international university with more than 14,000 students and 175,000 alumni. Students choose TROY for its quality academic programs, reasonable costs and availability of financial aid, outstanding faculty, and flexible in-class and online class offerings. Students on the Troy, Ala., campus enjoy a traditional college experience, while adult students are the centers of attention at campuses in Dothan, Montgomery and Phenix City, Ala., as well as at locations around the world and online.

Troy University’s Montgomery campus with historic Davis Theatre.

 

 

AHA awards $380K in ’24 grants

In 2024, the Alabama Humanities Alliance awarded $379,063 to 65 nonprofits statewide. This funding made it possible for more than 200,000 Alabamians to come together and learn together. Communities from Florence to Spanish Fort, Camden to Ozark — and everywhere in between — created their own local programming that highlights Alabama’s rich history, literature, art, law, culture, and more.

 

Meet our 2024 grant recipients

 

Community cornerstones and education-focused nonprofits rely on AHA as the state’s primary source of funding for humanities programming. Recipients often include local libraries, museums, historic sites, universities, arts and literary organizations, chambers of commerce, archives, historical societies, literacy groups, and many other community-based nonprofits. Artists, filmmakers, and media producers often rely on AHA grants, too, for producing Alabama-focused documentaries, podcasts, and other digital media.

“AHA support allows amazing events to take place which otherwise would not happen,” says Mike Bunn, director of Historic Blakeley State Park, one of AHA’s 2024 grant recipients. “AHA inspires and supports projects for which there are few other available funding options.”

In 2024, public programming created by AHA-funded grantees reached at least 222,360 Alabamians across all 67 counties. This impact doesn’t include the additional programs that AHA provides directly, such as Alabama History Day, the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street traveling exhibits program, Road Scholar speakers, Healing History initiative, teacher workshops and scholarships, the Alabama Colloquium series, and much more.

 

Fifty years of grantmaking impact

The year 2024 marked AHA’s 50th anniversary. Over the past half-century, the Alabama Humanities Alliance has provided $12.9 million in grant funding to support at least 2,247 public humanities projects across the state. All funding for AHA’s grants program comes from an affiliate partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities, and thanks to steadfast support from Alabama’s elected officials in the U.S. Congress.

“We are grateful that decision-makers recognize the value in what these grants offer to communities around our state, especially since there’s no other funding stream that offers statewide, humanities-focused funding,” says Chuck Holmes, AHA’s executive director. “These grants help local communities bring the past to life, highlight our vibrant culture, connect us to each other, and help us better understand this dynamic and complex state we all call home.”

A brief sampling of AHA-funded grantee projects, below, reveals a wide variety of topics and communities reached in 2024.

 

2024: Grant-funded project examples

Alabama Authors Day
Historic Blakeley Authority | Spanish Fort
Alabama Authors Day offers an annual celebration of the literary arts and our shared cultural and natural heritage. This program highlights recent works by accomplished Alabama authors and provokes discussion about important topics addressed in their writing.

 

Alabama Hip Hop 101
Southern Music Research Center | Statewide

This oral history project documents the history and growth of hip hop music and culture in Alabama; the project features a series of videos and interviews shared via the Southern Music Research Center’s podcast and website.

 

Brick and Barn
Sand Mountain Cooperative Education Center | Guntersville + Birmingham 

Brick and Barn aims to bridge Alabama’s urban-rural divide through a speaker series, offering talks on topics from energy and isolation to literature and migration — fostering dialogue and understanding between historically separated communities.

 

Exploring the Relationship Between the Human Condition and Artificial Intelligence
U.S. Space & Rocket Center Education Foundation | Huntsville

AHA funding enables this national AI Symposium to include conversations about the human condition within broader discussions about artificial intelligence — including how to incorporate history, philosophy, ethics, and law in AI decision-making.

 

Memphis and Charleston Railroad Bridge: Connecting the Shoals
University of North Alabama | Florence

The traveling exhibit explores how The Old Railroad Bridge has long connected towns and shaped lives in the Shoals; the exhibit traveled to four public libraries, offering talks by historians and authors in Florence, Sheffield, Tuscumbia, and Muscle Shoals.

 

Preserving the Lived Experiences of Senator Richard C. Shelby
The University of Alabama | Tuscaloosa

Senator Shelby, who retired after 36 years in the U.S. Senate, was one of the longest-serving senators in U.S. history; this oral history video project by the Shelby Institute for Policy and Leadership documents his life in Alabama and beyond.

 

About AHA’s grants

The Alabama Humanities Alliance offers a variety of grants to meet local needs:

Mini Grants
Up to $2,500
Offered monthly
No cost-share matches

Major Grants
Up to $10,000
Offered 3x a year
1:1 cost-share match

Media Grants
Up to $15,000
Offered annually
2:1 cost-share match

 

Upcoming 2025 grant deadlines:

 

Learn more about AHA’s grants offerings — including eligibility guidelines, types of projects funded, and how to apply — at alabamahumanities.org/grants.

 

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we promote lifelong learning and impactful storytelling that lifts up our state. We believe the humanities can bring our communities together and help us all see each other as fully human. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

AHA welcomes nine new board members  

The new year brings new faces to the Alabama Humanities Alliance’s statewide board of directors. Seven board members saw their terms expire at the end of 2024, with nine new members following in their footsteps in 2025.

AHA’s newest board members come from seven different counties, representing Alabama’s rich geographic and cultural diversity. They come from academia, business, law, government, history, and nonprofit leadership.

“I am so grateful that each member of AHA’s board is committed to helping provide opportunities for storytelling, lifelong learning and community engagement across every county of this state,” says Chuck Holmes, AHA’s executive director. “We see over and over how the arts and humanities bring Alabamians together, and help us all better understand each other and these vibrant, complex communities we call home.”

Meet AHA’s full board of directors.

 

2025 board leadership
Robbie McGhee

Robbie McGhee, of Atmore, will serve as the new chair of AHA’s board of directors in 2025-2026. McGhee is an enrolled member of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and has been an advocate for Native American issues at all levels of government. He is in his fifth term on the Poarch Band of Creek Indians Tribal Council.

The rest of AHA’s 2025 board’s leadership includes:

Chandra Brown Stewart, Vice Chair (Mobile): Executive Director, Lifelines Counseling Services

Clay Loftin, Secretary (Montgomery): Manager of Governmental Affairs, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama

Bob Barnett, Treasurer (Pell City): Structural Engineer and Adjunct Professor

Ed Mizzell, Immediate Past Chair (Birmingham): Managing Director, Luckie & Company

Diane Clouse, At-Large (Ozark): Retired Educator and Performing Arts Choreographer

Susan Yvette Price, J.D., At-Large (Montgomery): Senior Vice Chancellor and Chief of Staff, Alabama Community College System

  

Welcome to the new class

AHA’s newest board members come from across the state and bring a variety of strengths and experience to the Alabama Humanities Alliance. Read each member’s full bio. 

Darrell Ezell, Ph.D. (Huntsville): Social Scientist, Professor, and CEO of Heritage Solutions

Markell Heilbron (Birmingham): Director of Corporate Responsibility, Alabama Power

Jason Isbell (Pike Road): Senior Vice President, State Government Affairs and Economic Development, Regions Bank

Joseph Messina, Ph.D. (Tuscaloosa): Professor of Geography; Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, University of Alabama

Alan Miller, J.D. (Chelsea): President and CEO, American Village Citizenship Trust, Montevallo. 

Sidney James Nakhjavan (Auburn): Retired Executive Director, Cary Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies, Auburn University

Chris Robinson (Huntsville): Senior Technical Advisor, U.S. Department of the Treasury

Sam Todd, J.D. (Birmingham): Director of business development, Vulcan Materials Company

Roger Williams (Florence): Certified Public Accountant; President, Patterson, Prince, and Associates, P.C.

 

Saying thank you

AHA’s outgoing board members have helped move the organization forward in substantial ways  commitment helped us move the organization forward in substantial ways. Thank you to Darren Hicks (Birmingham), Dorothy Huston, Ph.D. (Huntsville), Mark Nelson, Ph.D. (Tuscaloosa/Birmingham), Brett Shaffer (Birmingham), Sheryl Threadgill-Matthews (Camden), R.B. Walker (Birmingham), and Andy Weil (Montgomery).  

Among many other accomplishments, these members helped shepherd AHA through a year of reflections, planning, and celebrations in 2024, the Alliance’s 50th anniversary.

 

National role for AHA board member
Susan Price

Also of note, Susan Yvette Price, J.D., an at-large member of the board’s executive committee, has also been elected to the board of the Federation of State Humanities Councils. Her appointment took place January 1.

The Federation is the national association of the Alabama Humanities Alliance and 54 other state and territorial humanities councils that promote humanities-rich programming across the United States. The D.C.-based Federation’s chief role is to advocate for increased investment in state humanities councils. It also nurtures the national network of state councils and other allies of the humanities and arts in efforts to amplify the meaning and importance of our work.

“Susan’s new volunteer role as a Federation board member is an important extension of her volunteer role for AHA,” Holmes says. “I am grateful to her for taking on this responsibility, which is a win-win. The Federation is the beneficiary of her extraordinary talents, energy, and expertise. AHA is the beneficiary with an Alabama voice at the table on important national conversations and policy decisions about the humanities and its role in American life.”

 

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we connect Alabamians to impactful storytelling, lifelong learning, and civic engagement. We believe the humanities can bring our communities together and help us all see each other as fully human. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

Celebrating AHA at 50

On December 2, the Alabama Humanities Alliance capped its 50th anniversary with a year-end celebration of the humanities. The Alabama Colloquium in Birmingham highlighted the power of sharing our stories with each other. To underscore the point, AHA bestowed its greatest honor upon two of Alabama finest storytellers, author Rick Bragg and humorist Roy Wood Jr.

The evening was a memorable one for many reasons. There was Bragg reciting the visceral and heartbreaking opening page of his memoir, All Over But the Shoutin’. Wood Jr. revealing his aim to film a one-man show in Birmingham and illustrate just how much his hometown means to him. A welcome from Mayor Randall Woodfin that highlighted Bragg’s ability to “open hearts and minds” and Wood’s to “use humor not only to entertain but to enlighten the world.”

There were surprise video messages from award-winning author Ron Rash and former Daily Show anchor Trevor Noah. Heartfelt tributes from author Cassandra King, to Bragg, and from educator and literacy advocate Devon Frazier, to Wood. There was even an errant fire alarm that briefly forced an evacuation of the Alys Stephens Center — sending attendees out into the cold and leading many to joke that Birmingham’s erstwhile prankster Roy Wood Jr. might be to blame.

But the highlight of the evening was the hilarious and heartfelt conversation between Bragg and Wood on stage, moderated by journalist Sid Evans. Evans’ first question asked each man what it meant to be honored as an Alabama Humanities Fellow. Tongue firmly in cheek, Bragg responded first: “With all due respect to Roy, I think they just kinda worked their way down to us.” Once the laughter had subsided, Bragg clarified: “You know when someone passes you the popcorn at the movie theatre and all that’s left is seeds and grease?”

Once the laughter died down again, Bragg copped to the truth: “No, you reach a point in your life when these things mean a whole lot more to you. Just think of what it took to put this thing on. Good people and a good organization. This means a lot to me. I’m honored to get to do it.”

Wood agreed: “It’s one thing to be honored. But to have people who know what your life was before this, to be able to come and celebrate you, it’s humbling. I’m trying not to cry. It means a lot.”

To see and hear more from the event:

To get a feel for our 50th anniversary, check out this Year in Review graphic.

Other highlights
Honorees Guin Robinson (left) and Julian Butler.

 

 

 

 

The Birmingham event was the final in a two-part Alabama Colloquium series for 2024. The first event, held in August in Huntsville, honored a pair of acclaimed songwriters and musicians from North Alabama: Brittany Howard and Jason Isbell. Howard and Isbell also joined in a conversation, followed by a pair of songs. Their conversation, and closing songs, are also available to view online.

The 2024 Alabama Colloquium series was made possible by the support of dozens of sponsors and partners, and by the 2,000-plus folks who attended. Presenting sponsors of the series included Regions Bank, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, Huntsville Utilities, and the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham.

 

A (50th) year to remember

Thanks to the support and involvement of Alabamians statewide, the Alabama Colloquium series was just one among many highlights from 2024.

Over the course of its 50th anniversary, the Alabama Humanities Alliance:

Awarded roughly $380,000 in grants to help dozens of nonprofits put on humanities-rich public programming statewide. (Applications now open for 2025 grants)

Turned our Healing History pilot into a long-term initiative to bridge divides and bring Alabamians together through conversation.

Brought a Smithsonian traveling exhibit, Crossroads, to five rural communities statewide, enabling nearly 5,000 Alabamians to share their small-town stories.

Grew AHA’s Alabama History Day program with our first official regional contest, in Mobile, and our first-ever AHD for incarcerated youth, at Mt. Meigs.

Reached nearly 2,500 Alabamians in 20-plus counties through our Road Scholars, who delivered 79 fascinating talks in community libraries, schools, historic sites, and more.

Considered our past, present, and future through a 50th anniversary issue of Mosaic magazine. (Sign up for Mosaic)

Explored the essence of Alabama through the lens of some of our state’s compelling writers, artists, and thinkers. Read our My Alabama Story series.

And there’s much more already scheduled for 2025: Expanded opportunities to engage with Healing History; our next Smithsonian traveling exhibit, Spark!; a new home for our Alabama History Day state contest at Troy University in Montgomery; a weeklong Stony the Road teacher institute exploring Alabama’s civil rights legacy; double the award funding for teachers named 2025 Riley Scholars, and a fall 2025 Alabama Colloquium in Mobile.

None of this is possible without the support of Alabamians across the state. Thank you for helping us share our collective stories. The stories of our hometowns, our neighbors, ourselves. The stories that help us understand where we come from and who we are. And bring us ever closer toward one another.

If you’d like to support AHA’s next 50 years, consider making a year-end gift. 

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we connect Alabamians to impactful storytelling, lifelong learning, and civic engagement. We believe the humanities can bring our communities together and help us all see each other as fully human. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

AHA names two new Riley Scholars

The Alabama Humanities Alliance has named Madison County educators Shatia Howard and Alana McNeil as AHA’s 2024 Riley Scholars. The competitive Jenice Riley Memorial Scholarship is awarded annually to K-8 educators who excel in teaching history, civics, and geography. Since its origins, Riley Scholars have received funding to support creative history- and civics-related classroom projects.

Funded through the W. Edgar Welden Fund for Education, this scholarship is a tribute to the late Jenice Riley — a passionate educator and daughter of former Alabama governor and first lady Bob and Patsy Riley. Edgar Welden is a former AHA board member and a steadfast supporter of educational initiatives in Alabama. Since 2003, the Alabama Humanities Alliance has named 106 Riley Scholars and funded more than $100,000 in teacher scholarships.

Applications are now being accepted for AHA’s 2025 Jenice Riley Memorial Scholarships. Alabama educators are encouraged to apply by April 30, 2025.

More info

Riley Scholars flyer

Application form for 2025

 

About our 2024 Jenice Riley Scholars
AHA Executive Director Chuck Holmes presents educator Shatia Howard with her Riley Scholarship, at Lakewood Elementary in Huntsville. 

 

Shatia Howard, Lakewood Elementary School
Huntsville City Schools | Kindergarten

Project: Diverse Friends, Happy Hearts

Student enrichment through promoting a deeper appreciation for diversity through literature. By introducing students to a range of cultures and backgrounds, students will enhance their social-emotional learning, empowering them to become more empathetic and compassionate individuals. By cultivating empathy, Howard aims to shape a more harmonious and inclusive future adult. Funding will help support purchasing books, supplies, and a buddy bench.

 

Alana McNeil, Farley Elementary School
Huntsville City Schools | 3rd Grade

Map reading is an essential life skill that modern students may need help with. In this project, students will learn how to read and use maps. Participants will integrate their math, reading, language, cooperative learning, and critical thinking skills. Funding will help support the purchase of maps, learning center supplies, and map puzzles.

 

Help us award more Riley Scholarships

Beginning in 2025, AHA will double the scholarship amount that Riley Scholars receive to support their efforts in the classroom and beyond. If you’d like to help us reward excellent Alabama educators, consider making a gift to AHA.

Learn more about AHA’s Riley Scholarships. Or contact Laura Anderson, AHA director of partnerships and outcomes: landerson@alabamahumanities.org or 205.558.3992.

 

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we connect Alabamians to impactful storytelling, lifelong learning, and civic engagement. We believe the humanities can bring our communities together and help us all see each other as fully human. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

History Day at Mt. Meigs

“Alabama History Day has given me light in this dark part of my life. It gave me an example of how throughout history, people have made a way in spite of hard times.” 
—G.M., a student at L.B. Wallace School for adjudicated youth, Mt. Meigs, Alabama 

 

G.M. was one of 30 students at the L.B. Wallace School who participated in a first-of-its-kind Alabama History Day program. Students had the chance to research topics of their own choosing — and then creatively share their findings — just as all other Alabama students do at school, regional, and statewide History Day contests each year.

This barrier-breaking program for adjudicated youth at Mt. Meigs — an Alabama Department of Youth Services (DYS) campus mostly comprised of 16-to-19-year-old boys — was the result of a collaboration between the Alabama Humanities Alliance, the Alabama Writers’ Forum, and DYS.

Over a 10-week program this school year, students at Mt. Meigs participated in a Writing Our Histories program, led by Susan R. DuBose, Ph.D., a leading historian and educator in Alabama. Dr. DuBose and the school’s teachers helped students learn the core principles of primary research and how to develop speaking skills to present their research to a panel of judges.

“The dedicated DYS teachers and staff, along with Dr. DuBose, created an environment where our students could connect with history and learn in ways they had never experienced before this program,” says Tracy Smitherman, Ed.D., superintendent of the Alabama DYS School District. “The students enjoyed it, the exceptional teachers and staff loved it, and as the superintendent, I love that this program inspired them to love learning.”

The Alabama Humanities Alliance and Alabama Writers’ Forum collaboratively developed the Writing Our Histories curriculum — building on the AWF’s well-established Writing Our Stories program, which also takes place on DYS youth campuses. Over the program’s first 25 years, 63 anthologies and 19 chapbooks have been published, showcasing the work of approximately 1,500 students.

The 10-week Writing Our Histories pilot program culminated in an Alabama History Day contest on October 4, on the Mt. Meigs campus. Students presented their research as exhibits that colorfully highlighted what they’d learned on topics ranging from World War II and the Civil War to Alabama athletes and the civil rights movement. Students confidently and enthusiastically talked about what they’d learned, answering questions from Alabama History Day judges who work professionally as educators, historians, and authors. Teachers from other DYS campuses also attended to observe and bring the experience back to their own classrooms.

“Alabama History Day has brought me to the perception to always move forward and to keep your focus on the right opportunity,” one student, K.M., shared. “As Franklin D. Roosevelt said, ’The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’ These words hold true through all times, for there have been occasions when good things during hard times have been accomplished through perseverance and hope. I want to thank everyone for providing me with a chance to advance my growth as an independent individual.”

Alabama History Day will “move forward” at Mt. Meigs, too. The pilot program had such a significant and positive impact on participating youth this fall that an agreement is already in place to carry Alabama History Day into 2025 and beyond with the Alabama Department of Youth Services.

Idrissa N. Snider, Ph.D., at the Awards Ceremony for Alabama History Day 2024 at Mt. Meigs.

“We take great joy in offering programs that empower all Alabamians to be storytellers and humanities champions, at every stage in life,” says Idrissa N. Snider, Ph.D., Alabama History Day coordinator at the Alabama Humanities Alliance. “We want every child to succeed, no matter their circumstances, and we have seen firsthand how empowering and transformational the History Day program can be to students from different backgrounds and parts of our state.”

Alabama History Day is the state contest of National History Day, a history competition that engages middle school and high school students in robust and creative historical research. To learn more about History Day — and how your school, classroom, or student can participate, visit alabamahumanities.org/alabama-history-day.

Learn more about the partnering organizations for Alabama History Day at Mt. Meigs:

AHA to honor Rick Bragg, Roy Wood Jr.

On December 2 in Birmingham, the Alabama Humanities Alliance (AHA) will recognize writer Rick Bragg and humorist Roy Wood Jr. as 2024 Alabama Humanities Fellows — the highest humanities honor in the state.

The two will be honored during a ticketed event at UAB’s Alys Stephens Center. The evening will feature an in-depth conversation between Bragg and Wood Jr., two of Alabama’s finest, and funniest, writers and storytellers. The event will also see additional individuals receive awards for supporting the humanities in Alabama, as well as a celebration of AHA’s 50th anniversary.

Additional special guests include:

 

EVENT DETAILS:

Note: Copies of Rick Bragg’s books will be available for sale in the Alys Stephens Center lobby, thanks to our friends at Thank You Books.

 

ABOUT THE HONOREES:

While they utilize different mediums and styles, Bragg and Wood Jr. share something at their core: They are insightful storytellers who challenge us all to think, to empathize, and to explore what it means to be human.

Rick Bragg has long been lauded as one of the most distinct, illustrative storytellers in American literature. He’s authored more than a dozen books, but it’s his first, All Over but the Shoutin’, that became a sort of anthem for the people of the mountain South — and it is that regard, more than any award he has won, that Bragg holds most dear.

Still, the native of Possum Trot, Alabama, has won awards aplenty, including a Pulitzer Prize for reporting, as well as a James Beard Award, the Harper Lee Award for Alabama’s Distinguished Writer, and the Fitzgerald Literary Prize. For the past two decades, Bragg has also served as the Clarence Cason Professor of Writing at the University of Alabama

In an essay for AHA’s Mosaic magazine, the author Cassandra King — and Alabama Humanities Fellow herself — had this to say about Rick Bragg:

Rick’s works aren’t just important, they’re the essence of why we need the bond of storytelling today more than ever.

King also noted something that applies as much to Wood Jr. as it does to Bragg: “There is a commonality in our stories,” King wrote, “in the way the past has formed who we are and how we got here. No Southern storyteller can truly tell the tales of his or her life without delving into the past.”

 

Roy Wood Jr. mines both past and present for his material as a comedian, writer, and producer. The Birmingham native got his feet wet at 95.7 JAMZ-WBHJ before launching a career as a stand-up comic. He has released three specials, with a fourth due out in 2025, and became a nationally known satirist thanks to his eight-year-run on the Emmy-winning “The Daily Show.”

Wood Jr.’s father was the renowned civil rights journalist, Roy Wood Sr., and it’s no surprise the son’s humor intersects often with history, news, and civic engagement.

In 2021, Wood Jr. produced the Emmy-nominated documentary, The Neutral Ground. In 2023, he headlined the White House Correspondents Dinner. And just this fall, he has begun hosting a new show on CNN, “Have I Got News For You.”

Wood Jr. has also returned often for projects in his beloved Alabama, including: filming a TV project in Birmingham; narrating Alabama Public Television’s Alabama at 200 documentary; serving as an ambassador and correspondent for the MLB at Rickwood game in 2024, and hosting the “Road to Rickwood” podcast on the field’s baseball and civil rights history.

In an essay for AHA’s Mosaic magazine, the UA American Studies professor Jeffrey Melton, Ph.D., noted that Wood Jr.’s work covers a lot of the same terrain his father did, albeit with humor:

Wood Jr.’s method is clear: ‘If I can get you to laugh at it, then I can get you to listen.’

 

For more info: alabamahumanities.org/honors-bhm

For tickets: my.alysstephens.org/3382

This event is offered as part of AHA’s Alabama Colloquium series. Earlier this year, the Alabama Humanities Alliance honored musicians Brittany Howard and Jason Isbell in a similar event in Huntsville.

The Alabama Colloquium series is made possible due to the support of presenting sponsors Regions Bank, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, Huntsville Utilities, and the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. All proceeds from the series support AHA programming that helps Alabamians connect with each other, our shared history, and the vibrant, complex communities we call home. 

 

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded 50 years ago, in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. AHA promotes impactful storytelling, lifelong learning and civic engagement. Through our programs and grantmaking, we provide Alabamians with opportunities to connect with each other, with our shared history, and with the vibrant and complex communities we call home. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

About the Alabama Colloquium
Each year, the Alabama Humanities Alliance presents the Alabama Colloquium to celebrate how the humanities lift up our state and bring Alabamians together. We also bestow the title of Alabama Humanities Fellow on individuals whose outstanding work in the humanities has positively impacted our state, nation, and world. Honorees include the likes of Harper Lee, Bryan Stevenson, E.O. Wilson, Odessa Woolfolk, W. Kamau Bell, Wayne Flynt, and more. alabamahumanities.org/honors