How Alabama’s First Family of Film Plans to Renovate Bessemer’s Lincoln Theatre

The Lincoln Theatre in Bessemer first opened in 1948 as a cinema or “picture house” to show first-run movies for African American audiences. It closed sometime in the
late 1970s or early 1980s. (Barnett Wright, The Birmingham Times)
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By Javacia Harris Bowser | For The Birmingham Times

With an impressive resume the includes more than a dozen films, including the Academy Award-winning “Moonlight,” television series like “The Knick” and “The Big Cigar,” and a production of “Othello” at Shakespeare’s Globe in London, England, Andre Holland believes his greatest impact could be in his hometown.

The Bessemer, Alabama, native wants to give children and adults in the Marvel City and surrounding areas the tools they need to make their own artistic dreams come true. That’s why, in 2017, Holland purchased the historic Lincoln Theatre, in downtown Bessemer, and began making plans to restore it as a public event space and cultural asset.

“It’s important that we have something in our community, in Bessemer, that people, young people and adults, can come to and experience what it is to make art and learn how to do it and also see themselves,” Holland told The Birmingham Times during a recent interview.

Bessemer native André Holland stars in “Exhibiting Forgiveness” which opens in theaters on October 18. (Reginald Allen, For The Birmingham Times)

Leading Role

Holland’s latest film “Exhibiting Forgiveness” hits theaters across the nation on October 18. In it, he takes on the leading role as a Black artist poised for success but grappling with his past as his estranged father comes back into his life seeking reconciliation.

The critically acclaimed actor has also played a leading role in restoring the Lincoln Theatre, which first opened in 1948 as a cinema, or “picture house,” to show first-run movies for African American audiences who, at the time, were prohibited from other theaters in Bessemer and Birmingham.

For many years, the theater drew large crowds in Bessemer. Unfortunately, as the number of moviegoers declined, the Lincoln Theatre had to shut its doors sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s. Despite being repurposed by various businesses, including as storage for a nearby clothing store, the theater gradually fell into disrepair over the years.

Soon after Holland purchased the Lincoln Theatre, the owner of the nearby the Albano Pharmacy offered to donate that building to help with Holland’s mission to enrich the community with the arts.

Holland’s vision is to restore the Lincoln Theatre to single-screen cinema that will show classic and contemporary films, as well as host educational programming and hands-on workshops for young people about acting, filmmaking, and other genres of the arts.

He dreams of turning the old Albano Pharmacy building into a community center and gallery space and wants to build out a few apartments for visiting artists who will teach workshops to the community.

“The only reason I’m an actor today is because my mom and dad brought me [to Birmingham] to the Town and Gown Theatre, [now the Virginia Samford Theatre], to take summer acting classes,” Holland said. “But there was no such thing that existed in Bessemer and the neighborhoods that were around it.”

Holland, 44, is determined to change that.

Mary Holland, mother of actor Andre Holland, is part of a group looking to restore the Lincoln Theatre in Bessemer which first opened in 1948 as a cinema or “picture house” to show first-run movies for African American audiences. (Barnett Wright, The Birmingham Times)

A Family Affair

Knowing he couldn’t do this alone, Holland turned to his family for help. Together with his parents, Mary and Donald, and his sister, Natalie, he formed the nonprofit The Holland Project. Following Donald Holland’s passing in 2022, the family’s dedication to restoring the Lincoln Theatre grew even stronger.

Holland’s father would take André to a barbershop next to the Lincoln Theatre when he was a kid. Curious about the boarded-up building, young André learned from this father just how important the theater was to Black residents. His father even shared that he had his first dates at the theater. André has been fascinated with the building ever since.

“That building has been working on him his whole life” said Glenny Brock, a project consultant for The Holland Project.

Brock can relate to the emotional pull Holland feels for the Lincoln Theatre. She had a similar drive that made her instrumental in the restoration of Birmingham’s Lyric Theatre, which reopened in 2016—102 years after its debut.

“I thought I was one and done with the Lyric,” Brock said. “I was not looking for another historic theater in my life.”

But after one meeting with the Holland family, she knew she wanted to be part of the project.

“André has a big vision because, through the arts, has seen a lot of the world,” Brock said. “André has had a pretty remarkable amount of professional, creative, and financial success, and I don’t know of anybody else who, after all, that, would buy an abandoned theater in downtown Bessemer, Alabama.”

Now Brock works closely with Holland’s mother, Mary, on a regular basis. “I admire and respect André, and I have learned a lot from André, but I am deeply invested in this because of Mary,” Brock said.

Before retiring, Mary Holland was a business planner for U.S. Steel, where she worked for 36 years. Those organizational skills are coming in handy as she helps shepherd The Holland Project—but she knows her limits.

“Of all the things I know, one thing I know that I don’t know is fundraising,” Mary Holland said. “I tell people, ‘I could not ask you for five dollars for a Happy Meal if I was about to starve to death.’”

The Holland Project team has partnered with Swell Fundraising for help with its capital campaign. Brock has been helping them write grants, too.

“Mary describes herself all the time as a worker bee,” Brock said of Mary Holland. “She is very direct and focused and loving and very into work. She’s not interested in having a title.”

Mary Holland’s goal is simple: she just wants to bring her son’s vision to life.

“André has a passion, and he wants to expose young people to the arts. It’s a very worthy project, and we want to do it for the community. At 76, the number of movies I will see in the rest of my time on Earth is probably limited,” Mary Holland said candidly.

This project is not for her—it’s for Bessemer.

Even though The Holland Project started because of André Holland’s investment into the Lincoln Theatre, Brock believes none of this would be possible without Mary Holland.

“She has a vision, too, and I think part of that is really changing this idea of Bessemer as an arts desert,” Brock said. “I think, in some ways, André’s path into the arts was totally driven by Mary wanting her kids to have access to everything. And to me the Lincoln is an extension of that. André’s vision for Bessemer is that people like him should have access to the arts in their ZIP code.”

To learn more about the Lincoln Theatre and The Holland Project visit alabamalincoln.com.

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