The Japan-America Society of Alabama (JASA) initiated the Samuel Ullman Award in 1992 to recognize those who have made significant contributions toward the advancement of the relationship between Japan and Alabama. This award was named in honor of Samuel Ullman, who lived most of his 84 years in Birmingham.
Samuel Ullman BioSamuel Ullman was born in Germany in 1840. At the age of eleven, he and his family moved to the United States and settled in Mississippi. In 1884, Ullman moved to the young city of Birmingham, Alabama, and was immediately placed on the city's first board of education. During his eighteen years of service, he advocated educational benefits for black children similar to those provided for whites. In addition to his numerous community activities, Ullman also served as president and then lay rabbi of the city's reform congregation at Temple Emanu-El. In his retirement, he wrote a poetic essay entitled “Youth.” It was General Douglas MacArthur who facilitated Ullman's popularity as a poet - he hung a framed copy of a version of Ullman's poem "Youth" on the wall of his office in Tokyo and often quoted from the poem in his speeches. Through MacArthur's influence, the people of Japan discovered "Youth" and became curious about the poem's author.
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The Samuel Ullman Museum is located at 2150 15th Avenue South, Birmingham, Alabama, where Ullman spent the last 17 years of his life and penned his most significant work. In 1992, Mr. Kenji (Ken) Awakura, then First Vice President of The Japan-America Society of Alabama (JASA), finding that the house had fallen into disrepair, was inspired with a vision of what the house could become if restored and operated as a museum. He spearheaded a JASA-led fund raising effort in Japan and the United States, resulting in corporate and personal contributions which were used to purchase and restore the property.
The property was presented to The UAB Educational Foundation by JASA in 1993, and the Ullman Museum, displaying materials, artifacts, and furniture donated by members of the Ullman family, officially opened on March 21, 1994. Additional generous gifts to JASA by the Alabama Power Foundation and Mr. Wyatt Rushton Haskell, a prominent Birmingham attorney and Ullman devotee, were invested to ensure the ongoing maintenance and improvements of the museum.
Read more about the Samuel Ullman Museum here.