USA Stallworth Lecture on Bankhead Family Dynasty

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Posted on October 8, 2024

Logan Gatlin

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The University of South Alabama’s speaker for the 2024 N. Jack Stallworth Lecture will be Dr. Kari Frederickson, professor of history at the University of Alabama. She will speak on Alabama’s Bankhead family dynasty on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m. at the Laidlaw Performing Arts Center. 

"We are very excited to welcome Dr. Frederickson to the University of South Alabama,” said Associate Professor of History Dr. Timothy Lombardo. “Her talk at the annual Stallworth Lecture, on the Bankhead Family of Alabama, will offer a fascinating examination of both local and regional history.”

Frederickson received her Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 1996. She is the author of several publications including her most recent biography, “Deep South Dynasty: The Bankheads of Alabama,” which explores more than 80 years of history.

“I call the Bankheads the most important and forgotten political family in Southern and perhaps U.S. history,” Frederickson said. “The Bankheads had their hands in some of the most important developments of that era including the creation of the convict leasing system, the development of a modern infrastructure system, disenfranchisement of Black voters, women’s suffrage and the New Deal. Collectively, the Bankheads created the political, economic, social and cultural framework of the twentieth-century South.”

The Stallworth Lecture is an annual event named after N. Jack Stallworth. He was a Mobile native who operated several business ventures in the area and helped found Distinguished Young Women, the Mobile Chapter of the English-Speaking Union and the Camellia Ball. He was also known as Mr. Mardi Gras.

Stallworth funded two scholarships for South students majoring in history with a focus on Southern history. The Stallworth family home and its contents were left to the USA Foundation to be used in teaching Southern history and to support USA programs. The USA Foundation supports this annual event. 

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