Tuscaloosa To Rename Street For Local Civil Rights Icon Maxie Thomas

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The City of Tuscaloosa on Friday will honor a living legend and local foot soldier of the Civil Rights movement on the eve of Black History Month in February and an important anniversary coming up this summer.

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In an event planned for 9 a.m. at Hunter Chapel AME Zion Church, city leaders will officially rename 11th Street — from Nick's Kids Avenue to 20th Avenue — in honor of Maxie Thomas, who was also recently honored in December by Whatley Health Services, where he has been a longtime board member.

Still active and widely celebrated in his hometown of Tuscaloosa, Thomas is best known for being one of hundreds of young people who were attacked, beaten and jailed in the horrifying events of June 9, 1964.

The brutal chapter in the city's history would become known as "Bloody Tuesday" and actually saw more people injured and jailed than the more famous events of "Bloody Sunday" in Selma the following year.

The violence of that hot summer day in Tuscaloosa began over protests of segregated accommodations in the newly opened Tuscaloosa County Courthouse, which was viewed by Civil Rights activists and the Black community as a broken promise after initially being told the brand new skyscraper courthouse would be fully integrated.

Thomas was one of the marchers who planned to protest the slight by going to the courthouse and entering Whites-only bathrooms and drinking from Whites-only water fountains in the new county courthouse.

Born in Tuscaloosa, Thomas said in an interview a few years ago that he had tried three different times to leave the segregated South in the hopes of providing a better life for his three children.

At one point, like so many others at the the time, Thomas moved his family to Chicago.

"Tuscaloosa had left a bitter taste in my mouth because of the way we was treated," Thomas said. "I remember leaving here going through Northport and we hit [Highway] 82 and going over to Columbus, [Mississippi] and on up to Chicago. Once I crossed the bridge in Northport, it kinda hit me: I'm finally getting out of this place. I'm leaving and I'm never coming back."

But following the death of his young wife, Thomas and his small children returned to his hometown in Alabama to live with his mother.

ALSO READ: Ghosts Of Bloody Tuesday: Remembering 'Tuscaloosa's Freedom Summer'

Thomas recalled the fears of what would become of his mother and kids if something were to happen to him during the march to the courthouse, but ultimately told his mother nothing of his plans as he left the house the morning of June 9, 1964.

"I decided that I was going to march anyway," Thomas said. "At that point, I was really praying and after prayer, the Rev. [T.Y.] Rogers led us out the church ... I was at peace with myself. I didn't have any fear at that point."

But as Rogers was leading what one attendee told Patch was a kind of pre-march "pep rally" inside of First African Baptist Church, a large police presence outside was joined by a swelling White mob as officials hoped intimidation would stop the unauthorized march to the courthouse.

Exactly how the violence kicked off is still debated to this day, but nevertheless, chaos erupted on the street after Rogers was arrested by Tuscaloosa Police Chief W.M. "Bill" Marable.

In the mayhem that ensued, reporter Sylvester Leaks commented on the destruction and pain of that day in the Nation of Islam's publication "Muhammed Speaks."

The coverage included a now-famous photo of Thomas sporting a white bandage over his injured right eye after being struck with some kind of blunt wooden weapon.

"Right at the corner of the church, I had a lady on my left and we was taught that if you have a female with you, you take her down, cover her up and protect her best you can," Thomas recalled. "At that time I heard a shout from the White folks. I don't know where it came from, but someone said 'get them niggers' and they charged us."

As Thomas tried to get the woman on his left to go to the ground, he recalled looking up and being met with the sight of either a baseball bat or a wooden nightstick slicing through the humid air.

"Whatever it was hit and hit me right there and it just split that all the way back to here," Thomas said in a past interview, pointing gingerly to his right eyebrow and forehead. "I was laying there and I heard a voice that said, 'gimme one in here' and I could barely see, but I saw the tear gas canister when it hit the stained glass window in the church and that tear gas canister exploded in the church and in fact, one of the ladies in the church was hit."

Pouring blood and nearly blind from the trauma, Thomas was thrown into a "paddy wagon" and taken to jail with scores of other peaceful protestors who were only allowed to be released by posting a property bond. A Black property owner from Romulus posted bond for Thomas and he was eventually released after initially being denied medical care.

In newspaper accounts of the day, there was not a single mention of injuries or criminal charges against any members of the White mob that attacked demonstrators on "Bloody Tuesday."

And in a stunning example of how the event was interpreted by city leaders at the time, Tuscaloosa Mayor George Van Tassel said in the days that followed Bloody Tuesday "I no longer consider the Rev. Rogers a responsible leader of the Negro population in Tuscaloosa. In fact, I consider his leadership irresponsible."

But with the 60th anniversary of Bloody Tuesday approaching in June, poetic irony will be in celebrated abundance Friday as two Black elected officials — councilors Matthew Wilson and Raevan Howard — and Van Tassel's successor, Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox, unveil the street renamed for the iconic Civil Rights foot soldier and beloved community activist.

The street will then be known as "Maxie Thomas Way."

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