Thirteen Loops: Race, Violence, and the Last Lynching in America

Second Loop: A Challenge - Tuscaloosa, August–October 1933

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-001 A MOTEL SWIMMING POOL Birmingham, November 29, 1979 My name is Robert. November 29, 1979, was an unseasonably cold day in Birmingham, Alabama. A high of thirty-eight degrees left the city shivering; men and women walking hastily down the sidewalks, burrowing their hands in their pockets. For most, Birmingham represented a Southern hub of industry—particularly iron and steel—though for Josephus Anderson, who had arrived days before, it was just another heist. At 3:30 p.m., thirty-seven-year-old Josephus Anderson—dressed in blue jeans, a blue-and-white-striped sweater, a jacket, and a wool cap— strolled into the Jefferson Federal Savings and Loan on Fifth Avenue and shoved a .38-caliber revolver directly into bank teller Shannon Hill’s face. “Money,” he whispered. “Now.” Hill was struggling with the safe when branch manager Jill Tapscott stumbled onto the scene. Anderson redirected his gun. “You. Over here with her.” 

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-001 The tellers handed over $1,000 in cash, though Anderson replied, “That’s not enough.” For the next few minutes, Tapscott stood within arm’s length of Anderson ’s revolver, watching helplessly as her employee emptied her drawer. Hill handed over rolls of change, $150 in marked bills, as well as over $13,000 in traveler’s checks. Forced to stare down the same barrel , Jane Baird, another employee, offered the cash from her drawer as well. Tapscott handed over traveler’s checks in an attempt to appease him. Anderson slipped the checks and cash into a yellow bag and left without firing a shot. The bank employees estimated that Anderson exited the bank approximately six minutes after entering. He left on foot, converging with the other pedestrians on the busy city street. Officer Frank Erwin was the first to arrive on the scene. After taking Tapscott’s description of the robber, he immediately spread word across police radios—they were looking for a stocky black male about six feet tall wearing a three-quarter-length brown coat and a matching colored hat. At 3:55 p.m., Officer Charles Newfield—who had been working a shift at a nearby Sears department store—stepped outside to observe a man who matched the description. Officer Newfield watched as the suspect turnedontoSecondAlley,andwhilehestartedafter him, brushing past people on the sidewalk, he soon lost visual contact. However, the gunshots that erupted just moments later quickly put him back on the trail. A few blocks away, Officer R. E. Middleton, a plainclothes police officer, spotted Anderson and shouted, “Halt! Police!” to no avail. Anderson sprinted toward the Southern Motor Inn Motel, his yellow bag swinging behind him, and upon reaching for his gun, Middleton and his partner opened fire. Anderson returned fire, and after spotting the squad car squealing to a halt just before him, he fired again. The officers in the squad car traded shots as well, downing Anderson directly "
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 beside the motel pool, his pockets overflowing with rolls of coins and traveler’s checks, his yellow bag crumpled beside him. The Birmingham Police had apprehended their suspect with swift efficiency. It would have been deemed good police work, if it weren’t for the officer who lost his life in the process. t Always a team player, Sergeant Albert Eugene Ballard (“Gene” to his friends) agreed to take the temporary position as patrol sergeant to help offset the number of patrolmen who had been transferred to work the anticrime task force. Trading in his administrative position for police cruiser 117, Gene had begun patrolling the downtown beat earlier that day. A husband and father of two, Gene was known around the force as being trustworthy and dependable. Police Chief Bill R. Myers called Gene “one of the finest police officers we have” and a “morally good man.” Just minutes after leaving the bank, Josephus Anderson spotted Sergeant Ballard’s police car on the 200 block of 19th Street. Ballard called to him, motioning him over, and the man carrying the yellow bag obediently leaned into the patrol car as if to engage in friendly conversation . Ballard opened his mouth to speak when Anderson pulled his gun, firing three times into Ballard’s chest at point-black range. t Josephus Anderson was no stranger to the law. At nineteen, he was first arrested for defrauding a hotel, and in the eighteen years leading up to the Birmingham bank robbery...