Alabama NewsCenter — A.G. Gaston remains an iconic presence in Birmingham

By Mark Kelly

Arthur George Gaston was born on the Fourth of July, in a log cabin where he lived for most of his childhood. If that sounds like the beginning of a quintessentially American success story, it is. From his humble beginnings, A.G. Gaston became a successful entrepreneur and businessman, a millionaire many times over. But the circumstances of his life and his path to wealth and influence were far from ordinary.

Born in 1892, in Demopolis, Alabama, Gaston was the grandson of Joe and Idella Gaston, who had been enslaved. His father, Tom, was a railroad worker who died when “Art” was young – “I could scarcely remember him,” Gaston later wrote – and his mother, Rosie, had to move to Greensboro, then a distant 25 miles away, to find work, leaving Art in the care of his grandparents for most of his childhood.

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