"Ralph 'Shug' Jordan: A Quiet Heroism" by Leah Rawls Atkins by Alabama Heritage

S I X D OLL A R S

NUMBER 122, FA L L 2016

Alabama Heritage Coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan

PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA, THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM, AND THE ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF ARCHIVES AND HISTOR Y

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Alabama Heritage is grateful to Blue Cross and Blue Shield for giving the magazine to every school in the state. Alabama Heritage wishes to thank the following for their generous support: Alabama Power Company Hanna Steel Corporation Phifer Incorporated Protective Life Corporation Vulcan Materials Company YellaWood A corporate-level gift has been made in honor of Scott M. Phelps Alabama Heritage (ISSN 0887-493X) is a nonprofit educational quarterly published by the University of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Entire contents, copyright 2016 by the University of Alabama. All rights reserved. Alabama Heritage disclaims responsibility for all statements of fact or opinion expressed in signed contributions to the magazine. The editors will give careful consideration to all unsolicited materials but cannot assume responsibility for their safety; return postage is requested. Writer’s Guidelines are available at www. AlabamaHeritage.com.

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Published by the University of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Alabama Department of Archives and History The University of Alabama Stuart R. Bell, President Kevin W. Whitaker, Interim Provost Jennifer D. Greer, Associate Provost The University of Alabama at Birmingham Ray L. Watts, MD, President Tom Brannan, Interim Vice President, Development, Alumni and External Relations Linda C. Lucas, Provost Alabama Department of Archives and History George P. Evans, Chairman, Board of Trustees Shirley Dowling McCrary, Vice Chairman, Board of Trustees Steve Murray, Director The Alabama Heritage Foundation Board of Directors President: Cathy Randall, Tuscaloosa • Vice President: Gordon Martin, Birmingham Edwin C. Bridges, Montgomery; Judy Bonner, Starkville, Mississippi; Lella Bromberg, Birmingham; Paul W. Bryant Jr., Tuscaloosa; H. E. Cauthen Jr., Montgomery; Priscilla Hancock Cooper, Birmingham; Gillian Goodrich, Birmingham; Charles Graffeo, Huntsville; Elmer B. Harris, Birmingham; Ralph Hobbs, Selma; Marian Loftin, Dothan; Betsy Lowe, Huntsville; D. D. Martin, Courtland, Gaylon McCollough, Gulf Shores (emeritus); Jane McDonald, Union Grove; D. Joseph McInnes, Montgomery; Thomas McMillan, Brewton; Vanzetta Penn McPherson, Montgomery; Tennant S. McWilliams, Birmingham (emeritus); Emmett Meyer, Tuscaloosa (emeritus); Vaughan Morrissette, Mobile; Beverly Phifer, Tuscaloosa; John Scott, Montgomery; Barrett C. Shelton Jr., Decatur; Finis St. John IV, Cullman; Neal Travis, Birmingham (emeritus); Neal Wade, Montgomery; Steve Williams, Birmingham; Suzanne Wolfe, Charleston, South Carolina (emerita). Changing your address? Please notify Alabama Heritage as soon as possible; the post office does not forward bulk mail. Rates, postpaid in the United States: One year (four issues) $18.95; two years (eight issues) $32.95; single copies $6.00 plus $2.00 for postage and handling. All correspondence regarding subscriptions, donations, or manuscripts should be directed to: Alabama Heritage, University of Alabama, Box 870342, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0342, (205) 348-7467. Toll-free (orders only): 877-925-2323. Visit us online at www.AlabamaHeritage.com. A L A B A M A

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Table of Contents FEATURES THE CREEKS TAKE NEW YORK BY KATHRYN H. BRAUND

In late summer 1790, an impressive delegation of leading Creek headmen made one of the most momentous journeys in American history. The treaty they negotiated, the first to be ratified under the Constitution, shaped federal Indian policy and the history of the Early Republic. Cover: Auburn University head football coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan. See article, page 22. (Auburn University Libraries Special Collections and Archives)

DEPARTMENTS 4 Alabama Makers Scott McQueen and Fayette’s Artistic Legacy 54 Alabama Governors Hugh McVay (August–November 1837)

RALPH “SHUG” JORDAN: A QUIET HEROISM BY LEAH RAWLS ATKINS

62 Adventures in Genealogy Alabama Family History and Heritage Project 64 Reading the Southern Past A Tale of Two Tribes www.AlabamaHeritage.com

Before becoming Auburn’s legendary football coach, Capt. Ralph “Shug” Jordan trained and led men onto the shores of Normandy on D-Day, coming home with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star.

THE SEARCH FOR JOHN LEHMAN BY JOEY BRACKNER

Art historians work to uncover the life story of one of Alabama’s most famous potters.

56 From the Archives Vietnam: The Alabama Experience

60 Portraits & Landscapes The University of Alabama Reserve Officer Training Corps: 100-Year Anniversary

VIOLA JEFFERSON GOODE LIDDELL AND THE WILCOX ROUND TABLE BY TENNANT McWILLIAMS

An Alabama woman created her own literary salon in Wilcox County.

PLACES IN PERIL 2016: ALABAMA’S ENDANGERED HISTORIC LANDMARKS BY MICHAEL W. PANHORST

This year’s list of historic places in need of restoration and preservation includes a number of compelling sites throughout the state. A L A B A M A

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Right: Detail of Coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan from the sculpture Partners with Bear and Shug by Mark Hopkins, which stands outside the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in Birmingham. (Robin McDonald) Opposite page: “Shug” Jordan was the head coach of the Auburn Tigers from 1951 to 1975. (Alabama Department of Archives and History) Background: US troops disembark from a landing craft during the D-Day invasion, June 6, 1944. (Library of Congress)

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RALPH “SHUG” JORDAN

A QUIET HEROISM

Before becoming Auburn’s legendary football coach, Capt. Ralph “Shug” Jordan trained and led men onto the shores of Normandy on D-Day, coming home with a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. By LEAH RAWLS ATKINS

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alph “Shug” Jordan was a legendary Auburn football coach (1951–1975), especially acclaimed for coaching a 1957 national championship team and a 1971 Heisman Trophy winner. Those who played for him recalled his pre-game and halftime talks, sprinkled with references to discipline, challenges, perseverance, and stories of bravery under fire. For Coach Jordan, getting ready to play a football game was like preparing for battle. He seemed to have a new inspirational story for every challenging game and crisis situation. He often quoted Winston Churchill, Gen. George Patton, William Shakespeare, and the Bible. Those players who heard him ran from the dressing room, eager for the competition to begin. Most never knew why their coach had so many good stories, but over time the players learned that Coach Jordan was a student of history, especially military history, and had been

a soldier in World War II, a common experience shared by many Americans after 1945. James Ralph Jordan was born on September 25, 1910, in Selma, Alabama. His father was a railroad engineer and was often away from home, and as a child Jordan often helped his mother around the house. The family was Irish, and Jordan attended St. Andrews, a Catholic school that only offered classes until seventh grade. After completing his schooling at St. Andrews, Jordan transferred to a Selma public school. Below: Coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan drew on his love of history and his leadership experiences in World War II for the stories that he told to inspire his players before games. Opposite page: Jordan lettered in basketball and football at Auburn, playing center on the football team. (Both Auburn University Libraries Special Collections and Archives)

For Coach Jordan, getting ready to play a football game was like preparing for battle. He seemed to have a new inspirational story for every challenging game and crisis situation.

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His interest in athletics came from his participation in the YMCA’s youth programs and camps, which were under the direction of a legendary Alabama youth leader, Paul M. Grist. Jordan earned the nickname “Shug” because of his love of sugar cane. Grist often reminisced that he would “never forget the day that a little tow-headed boy in overalls drug a stalk of sugar cane in the front door of the YMCA, and told me, ‘I want to play basketball.’” As a high school student, Jordan held the state track record in the shot put and played football, basketball, and baseball, but he was offered no college athletic scholarship. After working for a year following his high school graduation to earn money for college, he entered Alabama Polytechnic Institute (API) in 1928. Formally named API, most people, including Jordan, referred to the school as Auburn, though the name would not change to Auburn University until 1960. Jordan paid his college expenses at Auburn by waiting on tables in boarding houses and doing odd jobs around town. When the Great Depression brought hard times to the nation and especially to the South, a strong work ethic kept him in college. Jordan probably loved basketball more than football, though he lettered in both sports at Auburn. He played center on the football team, and his basketball “left-handed pass work” was a problem for Auburn’s opponents. Jordan graduated in the spring of 1932 with a degree in education. After a northern Alabama board of education negated its offer of a high school coaching position to Jordan upon learning he was Catholic, Auburn head football coach Chet Wynne, who played at Notre Dame, kept Jordan on his staff at Auburn. Jordan coached both football and basketball. Jordan’s military career began soon after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, which brought the United States into World War II. He had earned his military commission in 1932, when he graduated from Auburn. At that time all Auburn male students were required to participate in the ROTC program, and upon graduation, he received a commission. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Jordan activated his commission and entered the Army as an officer in the United States Army Corp of Engineers. Jordan had been a history student of Dr. George Petrie, and the professor had a lifelong influence on him. Jordan

read and studied history the rest of his life. In the 1920s and 1930s, Dr. Petrie offered public lectures on international affairs at Langdon Hall to large gatherings of Auburn students, faculty, and townspeople. Most of his talks were broadcast across the state over the college AM station, WAPI. Jordan attended many of these lectures, and he was not surprised when Nazi Germany invaded Poland and World War II began in Europe in September 1939. Within a month of the Japanese attack on Hawaii, Jordan was headed to Camp Edwards, originally a US Coast Guard facility on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The base served as an amphibious warfare army training facility and a place of embarkation for soldiers headed to Europe. Jordan was eventually assigned to the First Engineer Amphibian Brigade, later renamed the First Engineer Special Brigade. His responsibilities were generally the same—to be involved in planning amphibious invasions and the logistics of setting up areas for reserve ammunition and supply dumps on shore. Jordan was therefore on what the Allies called the “bigot list,” a World War II term that meant the person knew the secret information of when and where a particular invasion was planned to take place. Jordan would use pre-war maps, secret aerial photographs of the beaches, and other information gathered, perhaps, from spy operations to determine the best place to establish an ammunition supply dump site well beyond high water levels. He also needed to know the roads, bridges, canals, rivers, or backwater areas beyond the beach that might impede troop movement inland. Despite maps and meticulous planning, the actual landings were often off target, and the troops were delivered to the beach amid mass confusion. At one time Jordan and his troops were issued heavy white jackets and boots, indicating they were headed to cold Norway. German troops had occupied Norway in 1940 in order to protect German access to iron ore fields in Sweden and to deny the British Navy free use of the Baltic Sea. Jordan, however, had been given the tide variations, and they were two feet. He believed the American troops were actually headed further south, probably to North Africa. The landing came at Oran, in French North Africa (present day Algeria), a somewhat controversial decision made by the Allies for various A L A B A M A

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reasons, especially that should Russia fall to Hitler, it would give the Allies a toehold on the Mediterranean. When they determined that they were headed to North Africa, Jordan and the Americans were concerned over whether the French North Africans would fight with the Free French or remain with the Germans, but Operation Torch on November 8, 1942, was a success, despite problems with communications and boat operations. Sam Pershing Daugherty, who was a captain with Jordan in the First Engineer Amphibian Brigade and who was with Jordan throughout the war, dedicated his World War II remembrance, On Hostile Shores (1st Book Library, 2003), to Jordan. They shared the experience of the North African invasion. Daugherty recalled a time when Jordan, who had been dealing with complaints about army food, drove up in a jeep with a huge fish in the seat beside him, suggesting that the army cooks needed to buy fresh fish from the local fishermen. Daugherty was with Jordan for the invasion of Sicily under the leadership of Gen. George S. Patton and off shore at the landing on the European mainland at Salerno, Italy, in September 1943. Jordan’s sense of humor is evident in a Left: Jordan participated in four invasions during World War II, the first being Operation Torch in North Africa in 1942. (Ralph Jordan Jr.) Above: Jordan was in charge of a landing boat brigade like this one, practicing on the English coast in the final rehearsal for D-Day. (Library of Congress) story he often told after the war. On a ship off the coast of Naples, Jordan watched as the Italian volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted and afterwards enjoyed relating the story of a Texas soldier who had bored the brigade with his constant stories of how everything in Texas was bigger and better than anywhere else on earth. Watching Vesuvius, Jordan turned to the Texan and remarked: “I’ll bet you don’t have anything like that in Texas.” The Texan replied, “No, but we sure have a Fire Department in Dallas that could put it out!” In his memoir Daugherty recalled that the brigade was composed of civil engineers, almost half from Clemson and the other half from Auburn, with another few, including Daugherty, from Ohio State. According to him, the brigade spent down-time discussing inter-service rivalry, telling Army vs. Navy stories, fighting about the American Civil War, and looking for a “good stiff drink.” The First Engineer Amphibian Brigade was transferred from the Mediterranean area to England in the spring of

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“This time they told us to pack all our personal possessions in our footlockers and put the name and address of our next of kin on the top. No one ever told us to do that before.” 1944. The men liked England better than North Africa. The food was better, whiskey easier to find, and language less of a problem, though accents and British words were a challenge. Jordan was closely involved in the planning and preparation of his brigade’s part in the ultimate battle, the great invasion of the European continent that would come to be known as D-Day. The actual site of the landing and the date were top secret, but anyone living in southern England knew it was coming soon. Military equipment, tanks, trucks, and artillery were parked along roads in the south of England, hidden from the sky by trees and camouflage. Jordan was in charge of training a landing boat brigade off the stormy seas of Devon near Slapton Sands, a location selected because of its close geographical match to the beaches at Normandy. They were called Force “U”—for Utah—and practiced maneuvering their boats in the rolling waters and landing them on the gravel beaches. Daugherty remembered that the dress rehearsal for D-Day was

called Exercise Tiger. When Jordan was interviewed in the 1970s about his experiences in World War II, he detailed the preparations and practice runs of Exercise Tiger, then remarked, “We left for the invasion.” When asked how they knew this was the real invasion, he smiled and replied, “This time they told us to pack all our personal possessions in our footlockers and put the name and address of our next of kin on the top.” He added, “No one ever told us to do that before.” He knew there would be no more practice runs for the Normandy Invasion, which was called Operation Overlord so that a German spy who might hear this would not know the exact location of the invasion. When Captain Jordan boarded his LST (Landing Ship, Tank) on that stormy night, June 5, 1944, he had on him, hidden perhaps in his wallet or boot, a small clipping that someone had sent to him. It was a copy of the statement about what it meant to be an Auburn person, published in the January 21, 1944, Auburn Plainsman. Written by his A L A B A M A

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THE AUBURN CREED

I believe that this is a practical world and that I can count only on what I earn. Therefore, I believe in work, hard work. I believe in education, which gives me the knowledge to work wisely and trains my mind and my hands to work skillfully. I believe in honesty and truthfulness, without which I cannot win the respect and confidence of my fellow men. I believe in a sound mind, in a sound body and a spirit that is not afraid, and in clean sports that develop these qualities. I believe in obedience to law because it protects the rights of all. I believe in the human touch, which cultivates sympathy with my fellow men and mutual helpfulness and brings happiness for all. I believe in my Country, because it is a land of freedom and because it is my own home, and that I can best serve that country by “doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with my God.” And because Auburn men and women believe in these things, I believe in Auburn and love it. George Petrie, Auburn Plainsman, January 1944 (Permission to reprint granted by Auburn University.)

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favorite history professor, Dr. Petrie, it later became known as “The Auburn Creed.” Jordan was one of the 2,876,000 American, British, and Canadian soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen involved in Operation Overlord. Soldiers bound for the coast of France were crowded into specially designed ships in the largest armada in history. That night the English Channel was rough and the skies stormy. The weather caused Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to delay the landing for a day, leaving the men at sea on their ships for another twenty-four hours. Jordan remembered the rocking ship and the putrid odors of fuel, vomit, and backed-up toilets. He recalled the silence. Despite so many men packed together, no one was talking. There were no lights on the ships, and the night was very dark. When dawn came, he was amazed to see hundreds of ships Left: Dr. George Petrie in 1905, author of “The Auburn Creed” and father of Auburn athletics. (Auburn University Libraries Special Collections and Archives) Below: Jordan was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for his service in World War II. (Ralph Jordan Jr.) Opposite page: A bird’s-eye view of the D-Day invasion. (Library of Congress)

Jordan was one of 2,876,000 American, British, and Canadian soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen involved in Operation Overlord. far to the horizon. He remembered being grateful that he was not invading Normandy alone. Smaller destroyers, called LCMs (Landing Craft Mechanized), came alongside the larger LCI (Landing Craft Infantry) ships to load and take the soldiers to shore. When telling his story, Jordan paused, then added, “I never saw an atheist or an agnostic when it came time to hit the beach.” Jordan went ashore on Utah Beach on June 6, 1944, at H-plus two hours. Daugherty wrote in his memoir that there was an “orderly confusion” because the troops did not land exactly where they were supposed to come ashore. But when the brigade finally reached the beach, there was already a barbed wire fence containing German prisoners. Medics were attending the wounded and administering plasma bags hung from rifle butts with bayonets buried in the sand. Bulldozers were working on destroying the concrete barriers that prevented movement from the beach. Yet the Germans were still shelling the beaches from their feared 88mm anti-tank, anti-aircraft artillery.

During the afternoon of Jordan’s arrival on French soil, he was hit on his left upper arm and shoulder by shrapnel from a German 88mm. Henry K. McHarg was there with him and witnessed his pain and fever and the “quiet type of heroism” Jordan showed. There were so many more seriously wounded men that Jordan had to wait until later in the day to be treated by the medics operating on the beach. Without any sleep for thirty hours, Jordan was looking forward to a deep sleep from the ether while the doctor dug out the metal and stitched his wound. But it did not happen that way. The doctor, who recognized Jordan’s southern accent and name, told his assistant to just give him a local anesthetic so they could talk Georgia–Auburn football. One year later, on June 6, 1945, during the commemoration of the first anniversary of the D-Day invasions, Col. Eugene M. Caffey, who had commanded the officers and men of the First Engineer Brigade at Utah Beach, spoke of his men and their D-Day in Normandy. As part of his talk, Caffey listed the A L A B A M A

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extensive Japanese Islands. Originally part of the Ryukyu Islands, Okinawa was close to the mainland islands of Japan, but it had only been annexed by Japan in 1879. Historically, there were tensions between the Japanese culture and the Ryukyu culture of Okinawa. It seemed the best place to organize the invasion of the Japanese home islands, for it had multiple airfields and adequate harbors for ships. During these weeks of planning for the assault on Japan, Captain Jordan believed that he had been very lucky to engage in so many invasions and battles and to come away alive with a Purple Heart for only a shoulder injury. Jordan had a premonition that he would not live through the invasion of Japan. But before that invasion could come, the United States dropped two atomic bombs, and Japan surrendered. Jordan always believed that the bombs and the end of the war saved his life. He was promoted to major, then discharged from his military duties of coaching young soldiers at war. Jordan returned to his family—wife Evelyn and two daughters, Susan and Darby. A son, Ralph Jr., was born in brigade’s duties that day, which were to destroy obstacles along the water, to breach the sea wall using explosives, to take out the flame throwers along the sea wall, to neutralize the mine fields beyond the dunes, and to drag the dead and wounded from the surf. During this celebration, only Colonel Caffey was present to represent the brigade. The men were absent, gone, already in the Pacific theater on the island of Okinawa. After Normandy, Jordan had enjoyed his time at home on furlough and thought his days of war were over, but he soon received orders to proceed to the West Coast to embark for the Pacific. After a long, slow trip, Jordan finally arrived in Okinawa. The US Army Corp of Engineers First Amphibian Brigade sometimes joked among themselves that they were there to teach the Marines how to do a beach landing. The Okinawa landings occurred on April Fool’s Day in 1945 with little Japanese resistance. The First Engineer Special Brigade Headquarters, which, according to Daugherty, did not move inland to the bloody battles, quickly assumed “responsibility for operation of all the unloading and out loading (wounded and POWs) as well as all of the US main supply dumps and depots on Okinawa with three shifts, seven day operations.” Once again Jordan was closely involved with developing plans for another invasion—that of Japan. The US military assumed the Japanese would fight to the last man to defend the Japanese mainland islands. The United States had targeted Okinawa as the first place to invade the

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Left: Jordan takes a moment from the war to relax with a Superman comic. (Ralph Jordan Jr.) Opposite page and below: Jordan is the winningest coach in Auburn football history, compiling a career record of 176-83-6. (Both Auburn University Libraries Special Collections and Archives)

Coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan was the quintessential Auburn man. He understood the university, the traditions, the stories. 1947. Jordan resumed coaching basketball at Auburn in 1945–1946, but the new football regime had no place for him. He left Auburn to join the staff of a new professional football team, the Miami Seahawks. After that team folded, he joined Coach Wally Butts and his staff at the University of Georgia as head basketball coach and football line coach. In February 1951, after the Auburn football team failed to win a game the previous fall, Jordan accepted the head football coaching position at Auburn and the challenge of rebuilding the program. He had come home. After twenty-five years as head football coach at Auburn, Jordan retired. In his history of Auburn football, 1892–2007, David Housel noted that in Jordan’s career that spanned 1951–1975, Jordan had 176 victories. Coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan was the quintessential Auburn man. He understood

the university, the traditions, the stories. The highlights of those years were the national football championship in 1957 and the October 6, 1973, dedication of the Auburn football stadium as Jordan-Hare Stadium. Housel called Jordan “a gentleman coach” and “the consummate Auburn man.” Jordan’s biographer, Rich Donnell, noted that a “large part of Auburn University died with Jordan,” and “southern culture had suffered a major setback.” At Jordan’s death almost four decades had passed since the beginning of World War II. The tough, heroic role that Jordan had played in that war for his country had been forgotten, and he was memorialized for his role in leading young men to victory in a game played on familiar fields instead of on lands far from home, where life and death literally ah hung in the balance. A L A B A M A

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Contributors THE CREEKS TAKE NEW YORK BY KATHRYN H. BRAUND Kathryn H. Braund is Hollifield Professor of Southern History at Auburn University. She has authored or edited numerous books relating to the Creek Indians. Her first book, Deerskins and Duffels: The Creek Indian Trade with Anglo-America, 1685–1815 (University of Nebraska Press, 1993), was the first to examine the impact of the deerskin trade on all aspects of Creek society. Braund has also published scholarly articles on the southeastern Indians during the American Revolution, Creek gender and work roles, Creek women during the Red Stick war, and slavery among the Creeks. She has edited and annotated the works of three well-known eighteenth-century writers: William Bartram, James Adair, and Bernard Romans. She is also the editor of two collections of essays: Fields of Vision: Essays on the Travels of William Bartram (University of Alabama Press, 2010) and Tohopeka: Rethinking the Creek War (Pebble Hill Books, 2012). She is currently working on a book about the Creek War of 1813–1814.

VIOLA JEFFERSON GOODE LIDDELL AND THE WILCOX ROUND TABLE BY TENNANT McWILLIAMS Tennant McWilliams, professor of history and dean, emeritus, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has been teaching from time to time at Samford University. His most recent book is The Chaplain’s Conflict: Good and Evil in a War Hospital (Texas A&M University Press, 2012). He lives in Fairhope, Alabama.

football at Auburn for Coach Ralph “Shug” Jordan and was an assistant coach under his leadership for sixteen years. She also had many opportunities to spend time with Jordan. When she was teaching at Samford, she developed a course on World War II, where she used interviews with Jordan on his World War II experiences. Jordan was a student of Prof. George Petrie, who gave him an appreciation for history. He took a special interest in Atkins when she was in graduate school studying history. Atkins is a coauthor of Alabama: The History of a Deep South State with Wayne Flynt, William W. Rogers, and David Ward. The University of Alabama Press will be releasing a revised, updated Bicentennial Edition in late 2016.

THE SEARCH FOR JOHN LEHMAN BY JOEY BRACKNER Joey Brackner has been a folklorist with the Alabama State Council on the Arts since 1985 and since 2003 the director of the agency’s Alabama Center for Traditional Culture. He is the author of Alabama Folk Pottery (2006) published by the University of Alabama Press. Starting in 2013, he has been the host and co-producer of the Alabama Public Television series Journey Proud. Brackner is a native of Fairfield, Alabama. He received a BA in anthropology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1977 and a MA in anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1981. He was Humanities Scholar in Residence at the Birmingham Museum of Art prior to being hired as state folklorist in 1985.

PLACES IN PERIL 2016: ALABAMA’S ENDANGERED HISTORIC LANDMARKS

RALPH “SHUG” JORDAN: A QUIET HEROISM

BY MICHAEL W. PANHORST

BY LEAH RAWLS ATKINS

Michael W. Panhorst, PhD, is a is a board member of the Alabama Trust, a statewide membership organization devoted to the protection and promotion of Alabama’s historic architecture, and the coordinator since 2014 of the Trust’s Places in Peril program. In June 2016 he authored a white paper, “Mount Vernon Arsenal and Searcy Hospital: The State of Alabama’s National Treasure at Risk,” at www.alabamatrust.info.

Leah Rawls Atkins, a native of Birmingham, taught history at Auburn University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Samford University, and retired as director of the Auburn University Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities in 1995. Her husband, George, played

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