Little Korea
Little Korea, also called Newmongo, was an early district north of 8th Avenue North, between 15th and 17th Streets in what is now Fountain Heights. The four-block neighborhood housed many African-Americans and was considered one of the poorest in Birmingham.
Writing in the Montgomery-based The Southern Courier, Don Gregg described the enclave as "a trap," where the houses were "small frame structures or piles of concrete blocks." Photographer Jim Peppler documented Little Korea, including a business called the Dream Flower & Card shop.
Reverend Johnny Burrell offered a ministry to the children of Little Korea at Congregation Church Number 2, near Legion Field. Burrell ran a one-man carpool from Little Korea to his makeshift church, sometimes making five trips each Sunday.
The neighborhood was one of two locations where the Alabama Black Liberation Front kept offices in 1970 and 1971.
In 2014 columnist John Archibald suggested that the name "Little Korea" originated as a reference to the Korean War, "because the gunfire too often doesn't even get reported."
References
- Gregg, Don (June 11-12, 1965) Little Korea Is a Trap for People Without Hope"
- Booker, Washington III, in Huntley, Horace and John W. McKerley, eds. (2009) Foot Soldiers for Democracy: The Men, Women, and Children of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement. Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press ISBN 9780252076688, p. 197
- Archibald, John (August 31, 2014) "Mayor William Bell tries to calm the world -- and Ferguson, Missouri -- but what about Birmingham?" The Birmingham News