
James Armstrong
Born in 1923 to farmers with no more than a sixth-grade education, James Armstrong graduated from a segregated high school, then entered the draft and served in World War II. Armstrong famously carried the American flag during the 1965 March from Selma to Montgomery, known as Bloody Sunday. There, Alabama state troopers violently attacked the peaceful demonstrators in an attempt to stop the march for voting rights.
Armstrong also participated in other anti-segregation demonstrations and was jailed for his activism. In 1957, he filed a lawsuit that led to his two sons enrolling as the first black students at Graymont Elementary in 1963. He also served as a board member and voting rights education teacher at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute—in addition to establishing and managing a successful downtown barbershop for 50 years.