Sam Rumore

Sam Rumore

Sam Rumore earned a history degree from Notre Dame, a law degree from the University of Alabama, and a Masters Degree in Library Studies from University of Alabama. He has practiced law in Birmingham for 40 years. His law partner was Nina Miglionico, a member of the 1963 Birmingham City Council. In the Spring 2014 edition of Alabama Heritage, Mr. Rumore published an article about the attempted bombing of Ms. Miglionico’s home. He has written more than 85 articles on the courthouses of Alabama and other topics for the Alabama Lawyer Magazine. Mr. Rumore served as President of the Alabama State Bar in 2000-2001 and is chairman of the Alabama Lawyers’ Hall of Fame selection committee. He serves on the board of the Birmingham Public Library, the Alabama Bench and Bar Historical Society, and the Birmingham History Center.

A hot month

In May 1963, I was 14 years old and preparing to graduate from the 8th grade at St. Paul’s School in downtown Birmingham. Most of our class would go on to attend John Carroll Catholic High School in the fall of 1963.

The first memory that comes back to me is that May 1963, was one of the warmest months for attending school in Birmingham that I can remember. The temperature reached 90 degrees for most of that month. St. Paul’s had an old school building dating from the 1920s and it was not air conditioned.  So the warmth and discomfort in our classroom reflected the heated emotion of the demonstrations downtown.

The next thing I recall is that we were physically close to the demonstration activities but did not actually see them.