The Elmore Bolling Foundation
Taking the Spirit of Elmore Bolling across the Edmond Pettus Bridge, 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday, March 2015. Picture taken by Carolyn Foster.
The Penalty for Success Book Tour
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Elmore Bolling was a native of Lowndes County, Alabama. By the 1940's, he was a well-to-do farmer, entrepreneur and small business owner. Due to his success, he became a philanthropist, aiding less fortunate residents of the county. Soon he became a community organizer and assisted many of the local residents in becoming self-sufficient through profiting from their use of their own animal stocks by providing milk and other goods to the nearby township of Montgomery. As a Negro community leader, his success drew negative attention and he was lynched in 1947. NAACP investigators discovered that Bolling's wealth was the motive behind the slaying. He was "too prosperous as a negro farmer." Yet, sixty-three years later, his community deeds are still remembered and honored. His legacy of achievement and giving are still being shared inter-generationally. As a result of his tireless labor to help individuals succeed, a Historical Marker was erected in his honor in December 2007.