William Hooper Councill

He and his mother and brothers were sold as enslaved people from the auction block at Green Bottom Inn to Judge David Campbell Humphreys.

They attended, on a part-time basis, the Freedmen's Bureau school opened by northerners in Stevenson, Alabama in 1865, where Councill remained until 1867 when he began teaching.

He was the first person to teach a school for black students outside of a city in northern Alabama – a position that drew opposition from the Ku Klux Klan.

[5] In 1887, Councill attracted wide attention when he complained to the Interstate Commerce Commission of harsh treatment on the Alabama railroad.

That experience may have helped alter his position on the proper role for a Black man to play in the Southern United States during that era because afterward, he advocated accommodation and acceptance of his "unctuous sycophancy", which prompted Washington to characterize him as "simply toadying to White people.

[11] Councill is celebrated every May at AAMU on Founder's Day, which includes events honoring his contributions to the university and African American education.

"[16] The Memorial will include a new structure erected at the current gravesite, with the eternal flame set in the center of a walkway.