Late Tuscaloosa barber and minister leaves legacy, civil rights collection to go on display

TUSCALOOSA, Ala, (WBRC) - Tuscaloosa’s very own Reverend Thomas Linton, who was also a barber, died nearly two years ago but his impressive collection of all things civil rights lives on. The artifacts will soon come out of storage and housed in his barbershop that will eventually become a museum.

According to project coordinator Tom Wilson, there are some 5,000 artifacts ranging from old newspaper clippings to a 1954 poll tax receipt, all coming to a museum.

Tom Wilson gazes at what used to Thomas Linton’s old barbershop and visualizes what this will be one day in the not-too-distant future.

“I think it’s the hope and dream of many people,” said Wilson.

The Reverend Thomas Linton died in March of 2020. He was 88 years old.

“He was a very caring man,” said Wilson.

The museum that will contain the entire collection of anything and practically everything civil rights related. The things he gathered and posted in his barbershop reflected the changes he witnessed and remembered.

“Amazing stories he lived through and with others around,” he said.

The city of Tuscaloosa bought the property and it’s people like Tom Wilson who are donating their time and energy cataloging boxes and boxes of civil rights memorabilia.

“What we envision at this point is part of it being a museum and the reconstruction of the barbershop,” Tom Wilson said.

The slow, methodical labeling is taking place at another location in town. Linton never turned his back on collecting something he saw had value.

“Shaving mugs, spittoons and things of that sort,” he said.

And that in turn Tom Wilson hopes will mean something to someone when they visit the museum.

“Well, someone interested in Tuscaloosa history,” he said.

Opening the museum could take awhile because the building is in dire need of repairs, so there is no definitive date to open.

Until that time volunteers like Tom Wilson will step back in time and focus on one overriding goal; bring history a little closer to home.

When it does open the museum will become part of the 18-stop Tuscaloosa Civil Rights Trail.

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