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The People Behind the Stories
Profiles, essays, and stories from 13 people across Northeast Alabama and the American South. These are the voices that make up Southern Legends.
Places · Anniston, Alabama
The Anniston Star
A small Alabama city had a paper too big for it. Then the family that spent a century building The Anniston Star arranged to give it away, so no one could ever sell it.
Places · Anniston, Alabama
2nd Chance, Inc.
For more than forty years, 2nd Chance, Inc. has answered the phone in the middle of the night in Anniston. Two shelters, a 24/7 crisis line, court advocates, counselors, every service free. This is the story of an organization measured not in grants but in the number of times somebody stayed.
People · Anniston, Alabama
Michele Hornsby
In 2017, Michele Hornsby's son Justin died by suicide at 26. The spot where he died on their property became the seed of Redbird Willow Farm — a 501(c)(3) nonprofit healing farm with 120 animals that has become a place where grieving people come to breathe.
Architecture & Civic Life · Anniston, Alabama
He Bought Flowers Every Week
Jay Jenkins designed buildings, served on Anniston's city council for fifteen years, and chaired the hospital board through its hardest stretch. Every Saturday, he came to the farmers market and bought flowers. This is what he was doing with them.
Food · Anniston, Alabama
Jean Ellison
Jean Ellison is a classically trained soprano, co-founder of The Music Box, licensed caterer, jazz vocalist, and cookbook author. She is building a hot pink empire in Anniston. She is building it with the specific knowledge of what it feels like when the walls start to move.
Place · Anniston to Piedmont, Alabama
Chief Ladiga Trail
I used to call it 'la-dee-ga.' I didn't know how else to say it. I also didn't know whose land I was running on.
People · Anniston, Alabama
Shannon Jenkins
Shannon Jenkins has run United Way of East Central Alabama for twenty-two years. I knew who he was but didn't feel I should take up space. He stopped and asked my name anyway.
People · Anniston, Alabama
Lewis Downing
Lewis Downing runs Downing and Sons on Gurnee Avenue in downtown Anniston. His family has kept the building since his grandfather bought it in 1963. We were each other's customers for a few years, back when Heather and I had the flower farm. He asked about it, years later, not knowing it was gone.
Agriculture · Anniston, Alabama
Aquality Farms
Samuel and John Mark Sawyer turned their family's old produce warehouse in downtown Anniston into a 6,000-square-foot hydroponic urban farm growing 24,000 heads of lettuce and 300 pounds of gourmet mushrooms a week. They supply over 35,000 students through the Alabama Farm to School Program and sell wellness products from their storefront on Wilmer Avenue. Samuel also runs Chaha Outdoors, an outdoor wellness initiative for the Calhoun County community.
Places · Gadsden, Alabama
Noccalula Falls Park
A 90-foot waterfall plunging into a Black Creek gorge, a bronze statue of a Cherokee woman mid-leap, and 250 acres of trails, caves, and Civil War carvings.
Places · Anniston, Alabama
Freedom Riders National Monument
On Mother's Day 1961, a Greyhound bus carrying Freedom Riders was firebombed outside Anniston. The attack shocked the nation and became a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement. Today, the Freedom Riders National Monument preserves two sites where it happened, and forces a city to reckon with the hardest chapter in its history.
Places · Anniston, Alabama
Interfaith Ministries of Calhoun County
Since 1975, Interfaith Ministries of Calhoun County has brought together congregations across denominations (Protestant, Catholic, Jewish) to meet needs no single church could handle alone. From emergency rent assistance to free dental care to hot meals delivered to homebound neighbors, it's the safety net that catches people when everything else falls through.
Places · Anniston, Alabama
Anniston Museums & Gardens
Tucked into the ridgeline above Anniston, a natural history museum, a spy museum, and 15 acres of botanical gardens offer a world-class experience that most people in Alabama don't even know exists.
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