The A.G. Gaston Motel. The Nation's Newest & Finest Motel - 1510 Fifth Avenue North, Birmingham 2, Alabama [Original multi-fold promotional leaflet]

[Chicago: Curteich], N.d. [ca. 1958]. Single sheet, 14" x 5-1/2", printed in color both sides, folded to post-card size (3-1/2" x 5-1/2"); opens to make eight panels. Postally used, with postmark dated September, 1958. A few small spots of soil, still Very Good.

Scarce advertising leaflet for this historically important hotel, founded by Birmingham's most prominent African-American businessman A.G. Gaston in 1954. The Gaston Motel was one of very few "first class" accomodations for African-American travelers in the deep south, and became an important organizing center for the Civil Rights movement, hosting Martin Luther King, Fred Shuttlesworth, (truncated) Ralph Abernathy and others during the desegregation battles of the early Sixties. In 1963, in an apparent assassination attempt on King, the motel was bombed by local white supremacists. Since 2017, the motel has been designated as part of the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument. (Inventory #: 84897)