Hidden History

     This Sunday on CBS-8 in Montgomery, an exclusive report on the historic treasures that have been uncovered in the old Municipal Auditorium inside City Hall.

       The space had been used as a records storage room for decades, but is now being renovated into an active meeting space for the City Council.

      Veteran Civil Rights attorney Fred Gray talks with us about the discovery, and Mayor Strange discussed an appropriate display. 5:30 and 10:00pm Sunday, only on CBS-8.

More Municipal Auditorium Photos

     Although the auditorium is being renovated, it is not being restored.

     The cost of the plaster work seen in the top photo is one of the reasons. Just too expensive right now. But the work is being done with future potential restoration in mind.

     Hank Williams funeral was held in the space. You can see the words City Auditorium carved above the old (and future) main entrance.

     The balcony area shown above will not be used when the hall reopens late in the year, but the original seats, stored all these years in the sub-basement of City Hall, are being restored for use.

     Least I sound a touch too warm and fuzzy about the hall, let's remember that when it was built, and for decades afterwards, the auditorium was at the very least segregated---I have yet to find documentation of the policy, but I do know that on January 12, 1956, 1,200 members of The White Citizen's Council held a rally against the bus boycott in the auditorium. Police Commissioner Clyde Sellers played a very active role in that rally, writes Taylor Branch in Parting The Waters. And the May, 1960 issue of Ebony Magazine includes an ad by a Human Rights group that says the auditorium was segregated.