"We grow old by deserting our ideals." Sam Ullman

I think I would have liked Sam Ullman if I'd had the opportunity to know him in 19th century Birmingham. His progressive work and independent spirit live on in the spirit of the Southside today. His home, preserved and historically designated through UAB, serves as a reminder of the inspiration the living man gave to Birmingham and the world.

One of my customers is a retired teacher who over several years has told me several stories about the old Ullman High School, named after Sam Ullman. This was one of the few high schools that educated Blacks in Birmingham beginning in 1937 and continuing until 1970. The building still stands on UAB's campus near the football field and track on 6th Avenue South. A few weeks ago I came across the poem that has contributed as much as anything to make Ullman's name known worldwide, "Youth". Reading it I get a sense of the way the man thought and perhaps a window into the unique character that lives on the Southside of Birmingham in particular and perhaps in the new residents and businesses creating Intown in general. I'm including the first two paragraphs of the poem but you can read the full poem here.

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a body of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.