This is an opinion column

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Today’s guest columnist is Frank McPhillips.

Charles Zukoski, Jr was Mountain Brook’s first mayor, elected in 1942, weeks after the City was incorporated.

He also was, without doubt, among the most brilliant and creative public servants in Mountain Brook’s history, lauded by the Birmingham Post-Herald as the City’s Thomas Jefferson “who established its law and precept [and] brought light and order to its human relations.”

Zukoski also harbored a secret that wasn’t revealed until after he left office.

A native of St. Louis and graduate of Harvard College and Law School, Charles Zukoski, Jr. was recruited by Oscar Wells, President of First National Bank of Birmingham to build a trust department for his growing bank on 20th Street.

The year was 1926 and Zukoski was just 27 years old. The Bank directors who approved Zukoski’s hiring included such titans of the business community as Crawford Johnson, Pascal Shook, Erskine Ramsay, E.H. Cabaniss and Robert Jemison, Jr.

When Zukoski left the Bank 34 years later, he had built a trust department from nothing to a half billion dollars in assets, making it one of the largest trust departments in the Southeast.

Zukoski faced many challenges during his tenure, including a panic that led to closure of many banks during the Depression. Zukoski’s salary was cut nearly in half during those days, requiring him to sell his Southwood Road house in the Mountain Brook Estates for less than half what it cost to build it. In 1938, Charles and Bernadine Zukoski built a more modest house on Old Leeds Road near Crestline, where they raised their two young sons.

Zukoski quickly became known as a man of action. He led an informal group of community leaders in the ‘30′s which lobbied the State Legislature on ways to promote economic recovery. This group, known as the “Zukoski Committee”, included such men as James Simpson, Mervyn Sterne, Rucker Agee and Hugh Kaul.

During the late ‘30′s, Zukoski’s attention shifted to matters closer to home. By 1940, 3,500 people resided in the area surrounding Mountain Brook Estates, yet the area lacked many essential services, including adequate police and fire protection.

Voluntary dues proved to be insufficient, so Zukoski organized a group to study whether to request annexation into Birmingham or seek to incorporate a new city. At an election held on March 24, 1942, the vote was 263 in favor of incorporation and 67 against. Two months later, he was elected mayor and then re-elected in 1944, 1948 and 1952 by substantial majorities.

There is no doubt that Charles Zukoski left his mark on this new City of Mountain Brook. Despite wartime restrictions during his first term, he oversaw the formation of its departments, the hiring of its first employees, the adoption of its zoning, planning and subdivision controls.

He established the policy that the mayor and city council shall serve without compensation, a policy that continues today. He implemented the first city manager system in Alabama.

After World War II ended, residential and business construction in Mountain Brook exploded and the villages expanded. When Zukoski left office in 1955, the city had nearly tripled in size, both in geography and population, and the city budget had quadrupled.

Zukoski was later asked what was the catalyst for that growth and he responded, “We established all of the basic principles of good government that the city has enjoyed ever since.”

Zukoski’s secret

The end of the war also was a watershed moment in American race relations, especially in the South. Zukoski was determined to speak his mind on the subject, but he faced a dilemma. In his position at the First National Bank, he knew that any public expression of his views on racial matters could be detrimental to the Bank and his career.

So, in 1948, he began writing under the pseudonym, “Button Gwinnett”. His friend George Watson published the opinion pieces in the Shades Valley Sun, maintaining the secret of its authorship. Thus began an extraordinary 10-year collaboration on a series of weekly columns penned by Zukoski.

Here’s what Zukoski wrote in October, 1948…

“The world is now demanding and the majority of our people now recognize the fundamental rightness of equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, color or creed.

These opportunities … stem from fundamental principles of justice which transcend even the Constitution and must appeal to us of the South as they do to men of every persuasion….

There are many things we Southerners can do … We can speed the day when a majority of our people will confess that there cannot be one bill of rights for the white man and another for the black.”

There is insufficient space in this column to delve into all the opinions of Button Gwinnett, which ranged from “States Rights & the 14th Amendment” (October 1948) to “Negro Education in Alabama” (August 1949) to “The Smithfield Bombings” (June 1949) to a 5-part series on Brown vs Board of Education (December 1952 to June 1955). Each of these letters advanced positions that presaged future civil rights battles.

Zukoski attacks segregation and supports Birmingham consolidation

After Zukoski’s retirement from city government in 1955, Button Gwinnett picked up the pace of his writing, including a compelling attack on Birmingham’s segregation ordinances.

No longer constrained by his mayoralty, Zukoski expressed his support for the movement to consolidate Birmingham’s satellite cities into one great city.

In one column published on November 3, 1955, Button Gwinnett noted his concern for “… a decline in the quality of participation at the hub in the democratic process … to the disadvantage of those in the outlying areas whose life is dependent on the character of the central city.”

Zukoski forced into retirement

By late 1957, many people suspected that Zukoski was Button Gwinnett, which led to threats against Zukoski and complaints against the Bank. Ordered to do so under threat of termination, Zukoski published his final column as Button Gwinnett on December 12, 1957.

Even so, continuing fallout from the Button Gwinnett letters resulted in his forced retirement from First National Bank in early 1962.

That wasn’t the end of Charles Zukoski, however. He continued to advocate publicly for desegregation, including one September 30, 1963 Letter to the Editor of the Birmingham News, co-authored with James A. Head, former President of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Rotary Club, which advocated the hiring of Black policemen in Birmingham and the desegregation of public facilities. That letter was published just two weeks after the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.

In the 1960′s and ‘70′s, Charles and Bernadine Zukoski traveled the world on behalf of the Boston-based Pathfinder Fund, a leading international reproductive health nonprofit organization.

Charles also joined the Berkowitz, Lefkovits law firm with his friend David Vann, perhaps the most vocal advocate of the “one great city” movement who served the City of Birmingham as its mayor from 1975 to 1979.

Frank McPhillips is a retired attorney, devoted husband, and father of three adult sons. After graduating from Harvard College and the University of Virginia Law School with honors, Frank served as a law clerk to Hon. Sam C. Pointer, Jr. He then participated in the founding of the Maynard, Cooper & Gale law firm and practiced there for over 35 years.

In retirement, Frank has authored a popular Covid newsletter, and currently enjoys writing on matters of contemporary and historical interest. Frank is a dedicated volunteer for nonprofits, including Advent Episcopal School Impact America, and MB Listens.

David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).

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