L to F: Dr. Yolanda Paige, President of Stillman College, John Haywood III, Sharon Harrison, Weaver-Bolden Librarian, George Haywood, and Marti Ball, Library staff member

Two brothers, George and John Haywood, recently visited the Weaver Bolden Library in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The library is named for their maternal grandfather, George Weaver, who was the first Black doctor in Tuscaloosa, who operated the Stillman Hospital for
Black people.

This was their first visit to Alabama, although they often heard stories about the family’s ancestral home at the dinner table when they were growing up. At his death, Weaver left his collection of books to establish a library for Black people on the west side of Tuscaloosa. Librarian Ruth Bolden, resigned from her job with the school system to establish the library in the 1940’s, which later became a part of the Tuscaloosa Public Library system.

The brother’s mother was Marie Weaver Haywood, who taught at Lincoln School in Marion and Stillman College in Tuscaloosa before marrying and moving to the Washington D. C. area. When she was teaching at the Lincoln School, their mother taught Coretta Scott (King) in the eighth grade.

John Haywood III (78) spent additional days visiting civil rights movement sites in Greene, Sumter, Dallas, Hale and Montgomery counties.