1956

1956 was the 85th year after the founding of the City of Birmingham.

Events

• Frank P. Samford, Jr commissioned a bronze replica of the Statue of Liberty for the Liberty National Building.
• The Woodlawn High School debate team won the inaugural Barkley Forum tournament in Atlanta.
• Bull Connor began his second term as Commissioner of Public Safety.
• The Birmingham Symphony Orchestra debuted as a fully professional ensemble.
• April 15: An F4 tornado killed 25 and injured 200 along a 20 mile path through Pleasant Grove, McDonald Chapel and Trussville.
• May 3: The Birmingham Amateur Radio Club is incorporated with Layton Dorman, president.

Civil Rights Movement

• February 1: Autherine Lucy enrolled at the University of Alabama. She was expelled a week later for causing disruption.
• April 10: Kenneth Adams, E. L. Vinson & Willis Vinson assaulted singer Nat King Cole on stage during a performance at Municipal Auditorium. They were each sentenced to 180 days in jail.
• June 1: A Montgomery judge banned the NAACP from operating in Alabama.
• June 5: The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights was founded by Fred Shuttlesworth at Sardis Baptist Church.
• December 25: Fred Shuttlesworth's home and church were bombed.
• December 26: Fred Shuttlesworth boarded a Birmingham bus, 6 days after the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that Montgomery buses must integrate. He and other Civil Rights Leaders attended a City Commission meeting the same day.

Sports

• February 15: Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City A's forced to cancel exhibition at Rickwood Field due to segregation ordinances.
• The Birmingham Black Barons played their first season in the new Negro American League.
• December 1: Auburn defeated the Alabama 34-7 in the 1956 Iron Bowl at Legion Field.
• Alabama's men's basketball team is SEC champion with a 14-0 league record (21-3 overall).
• October 20: Howard College's final homecoming game at its East Lake campus was won 25-6 by Carson-Newman under steady rain. Viola Beard reigns as queen.