It was the coming-of-age experience during the turmoil of the civil rights movement in the 1960s that inspired University of Alabama professor of geography Bobby Wilson to pursue a career of social justice and anti-racist scholarship in his field.
After more than forty years of service, Wilson will be awarded the American Association of Geographers Presidential Achievement Award by the Association of American Geographers at their annual meeting in Los Angeles in April.
“Wilson was very active during the civil rights movement and laid some of the groundwork for some of the initiatives that we are using today,” said Patricia Solis, director of outreach and strategic initiatives for the AAG. “He’s been a fixture in our community for so many years, and I think there was just a thought among the association that he needed to be recognized.”
He was born in a small town in North Carolina – a town he said was brimming 50 years ago with regular demonstrations of anti-segregationist sentiment from the local black community. Wilson’s grandfather was an active member of the NAACP at the time and encouraged him to become involved.
“[My grandfather] would come around and take all the grandchildren to the demonstrations,” Wilson said. “I was actually arrested one time for demonstrating at a local drugstore.”
He became fascinated with Birmingham, the city that this year will see the 50th anniversary of events like the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing and protests ended by fire hoses and police dogs. After finishing graduate school, he moved there in 1974 and decided upon his research agenda. While sitting in a downtown Birmingham library, Wilson noticed a canvas map on the wall displaying the city’s racially zoned areas. After further research, he began searching for a connection between Birmingham’s industrial history and its significance to the civil rights movement.
“Birmingham was considered to be the Pittsburg of the South because of its coal and iron production,” Wilson said. “What happened in Birmingham attracted large proportions of blacks, many from the black belt region, who came to work in the mines.”
His research led him to write two volumes, “America’s Johannesburg: Industrialization and Racial Transformation in Birmingham,” and “Race and Place in Birmingham: The Civil Rights and Neighborhood Movements,” in 2000.
After spending the bulk of his academic career at The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Wilson came to Tuscaloosa in 2002 and continued to incorporate anti-racist scholarship in his teaching. Though he has only taught one course that was centered on race, he considers it a relevant and imperative topic for students.
“Today you have to be a little bit more sensitive,” Wilson said. “The form, function and face of race and racism changes over time, but race still matters in America, and we still constantly have to work at it.”
Wilson said he was surprised to be named the recipient of the 2012 AAG Presidential Award, but he thinks much of his award reflects the success of “America’s Johannesburg.”
“Dr. Wilson is committed to his work,” said Douglas Sherman, chair of the UA Department of Geography. “He recognized that social change requires the long-term effort he devoted. This award does not represent his accomplishments over a few years but rather over several decades.”
