The family of former Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford has released the final arrangements for the former mayor.
Langford’s body will lie in repose and be available for public visitation at the Bill Harris Arena at CrossPlex, 2337 Bessemer Road in Birmingham on Sunday, January 13 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
A funeral mass will be held at St. Mary’s Catholic Church at 6101 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive in Fairfield on Monday, January 14 at 12:00 noon.
Langford was a U.S. Air Force veteran, a UAB graduate, and one of the first Black TV reporters in Birmingham. Langford served on the Birmingham City Council, went on to become the first Black Mayor in the history of Fairfield, the Chairman of the Jefferson County Commission, and eventually the Mayor of Birmingham.
Langford died in a hospital in Birmingham after a long illness.
Birmingham’s current Mayor, Randall Woodfin said in a statement:
“Larry Langford’s hope expressed itself in ideas for making Birmingham bigger and better, for overcoming our checkered past and building a big-league future. You can agree or disagree with specific ideas and actions of his, and you can say what you want about his career and how and where it wound up. But let there be no doubt that Larry’s hopes and dreams were never for himself. They were for the city he loved. Larry’s hopes for Birmingham were so powerful that they inspired hope in others. His love for his city was contagious, to the extent that, nearly a decade after he left the mayor’s office, we continue to see ample evidence of it. Witnessing the outpouring of support for his release from prison to spend his final days in the company of his beloved Melva and other family and friends, and the expressions of love and appreciation that have come his way in recent weeks from all quarters of our community, my thought has been that these things are, at the most basic level, Larry’s deep and abiding love of Birmingham being reflected back to him. With these things in mind, my hope for Birmingham is that we, individually and collectively, will draw inspiration from Larry Langford’s vision for the city he loved. He wanted Birmingham to be its best self, to achieve greatness on its own terms. As a proud citizen of this city, I want these same things, and as mayor, I am committed to leading us to the heights my predecessor Mayor Langford envisioned.”
To read Mayor Woodfin’s full statement in the Birmingham Times:
Mayor Randall Woodfin: Remembering Larry Langford and his vision
