Richard Arrington

Courtney English
Book Review
July 2, 2012

There’s Hope for the World: the Memoir of Birmingham, Alabama’s First African American Mayor
Richard Arrington Jr. was born October 19th, 1934 in Livingston, Alabama. When his father was offered a job at U.S. Steel, the Arrington family moved to Birmingham and settled in a community near Miles College. Arrington attended Fairfield High School and earned his way through Miles College by working in a dry-cleaning business before going on to earn advanced degrees in biology and zoology at the University of Detroit and the University of Oklahoma. Upon his return to Alabama, Arrington seemed destined for an academic or scientific career, teaching at Miles College and serving there as Academic Dean before becoming director of the Alabama Center for Higher Education and holding the rank of associate professor of biology at University of Alabama in Birmingham. However, Arrington’s career took a turn for the politics when he ran for a city council position, where he served from 1971 to 1979 before setting his sights on the mayoral election of 1979. Arrington won the election and was inaugurated in 1980, becoming the first African-American mayor of what Dr. Martin Luther King once designated “the most segregated city in America.” He went on to be re-elected to five terms, leaving office on the 16th of July, 1999, shortly before the end of his fifth term.
Richard Arrington holds a Ph.D. in zoology and biochemistry and did postdoctoral work in higher education administration at Harvard University and the University of Michigan.  During his two decades as Birmingham’s mayor, he served on dozens of community service boards and the Executive Committee of the Alabama Democratic Party and chair of the National Democratic Party’s Platform Committee for the 1980 Convention. Richard Arrington's view of his years on the Birmingham City Council, as well as his 20 years as Mayor of the largest city in Alabama (Birmingham), is powerful and...