September 18, 2006

Gee’s Bend Ferry returned to service in Camden after being shut down for more than 40 years. The ferry, which provides critical access across the Alabama River, was shut down in 1962 in what was viewed as an attempt to make it more difficult for African-American residents to travel to the county seat of Camden to register to vote. After Congress allocated money in the 1990s, the Alabama Department of Transportation commissioned a new ferry, which was put into service. The ferry is being converted to an all-electric version this year.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Unidentified man, almost 80, who has been running a ferry across river from Camden to Gee’s Bend for almost 48 years, 1939. (Photograph by Marion Post Wolcott, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

Project manager’s truck coming across on ferry from Camden to Gees Bend, 1939. (Photograph by Marion Post Wolcott, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

Gee’s Bend family, 1937. (Photograph by Arthur Rothstein, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

In 1937, in response to the economic hardships brought on by the Great Depression, the federal government established a cooperative land program in which Gee’s Bend residents were given the opportunity for the first time to purchase and control the land they farmed. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Library of Congress)

A cooperative store in Gee’s Bend, Wilcox County, in a 1939 photograph for the Farm Security Administration. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Library of Congress)

In this 1937 image by Farm Security Administration photographer Arthur Rothstein, Gee’s Bend quilter Jorena Pettway sews a quilt as two young girls hold the fabric for her. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Library of Congress)

Rehearsing the maypole dance for May Day, health day exercises, 1939. (Photograph by Marion Post Wolcott, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

The original ferry between Gee’s Bend and Camden, the Wilcox County seat, ran on cables, as shown in this 1939 image by Farm Security Administration photographer Marion Post Wolcott. The ferry was shut down in 1962 by Wilcox County officials as part of the effort to keep African Americans from registering to vote during the civil rights movement. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of The Birmingham News)

Cable ferry from Camden to Gee’s Bend, 1939. (Photograph by Marion Post Wolcott, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

The ferry between Camden and Gee’s Bend was shut down in 1962 by Wilcox County officials, a move believed by some to be aimed at preventing African Americans from registering to vote. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of The Birmingham News)

Gee’s Bend, 2010. The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

The Gee’s Bend Ferry returned to service Sept. 18, 2006, after being shut down for more than 40 years. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of The Birmingham News)

The Gee’s Bend Ferry runs between Gee’s Bend and Camden, the county seat of Wilcox County. In the 1960s ferry service was discontinued to keep African-Americans from reaching Camden to register to vote. The ferry service was reactivated in 2006. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Alabama Tourism Department)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.