Portal:Alabama

The Alabama Portal

Alabama (/ˌæləˈbæmə/ ^ⓘ, AL-ə-BAM-ə) is a state in the Southeastern and Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama is the 30th largest by area, and the 24th-most populous of the 50 U.S. states.

Alabama is nicknamed the Yellowhammer State, after the state bird. Alabama is also known as the "Heart of Dixie" and the "Cotton State". The state has diverse geography, with the north dominated by the mountainous Tennessee Valley and the south by Mobile Bay. Alabama's capital is Montgomery, and its largest city by population and area is Huntsville. Its oldest city is Mobile, founded by French colonists (Alabama Creoles) in 1702 as the capital of French Louisiana. Greater Birmingham is Alabama's largest metropolitan area and its economic center. Politically, as part of the Deep South, or "Bible Belt", Alabama is a predominantly conservative state and is known for its Southern culture. American football, particularly at the college level, is part of the state's culture.

Originally the area of Alabama was home to many native tribes such as the Cherokee, an Iroquoian language people; and the Muskogean-speaking Alabama (Alibamu), Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Koasati. It was a Spanish territory from the 16th century until the French acquired it in the early 18th century. The British won the territory in 1763 until losing it in the American Revolutionary War. Spain held Mobile as part of Spanish West Florida until 1813. In December 1819, Alabama was recognized as a state. During the antebellum period, Alabama was a major producer of cotton and widely used African American slave labor. In 1861, the state seceded from the United States to become part of the Confederate States of America, with Montgomery acting as its first capital. Alabama rejoined the Union in 1868. Following the American Civil War, it would suffer decades of economic hardship, in part due to agriculture and a few cash crops being the main driver of the state's economy. Similar to other former slave states, Alabamian legislators employed Jim Crow laws from the late 19th century until the 1960s. High-profile events such as the Selma to Montgomery marches made the state a focal point of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. (Full article...)

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Fitzgerald in 1923

Zelda Fitzgerald (née Sayre; July 24, 1900 – March 10, 1948) was an American novelist, painter, writer, and socialite. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, to a wealthy Southern family, she became locally famous for her beauty and high spirits. In 1920, she married writer F. Scott Fitzgerald after the popular success of his debut novel, This Side of Paradise. The novel catapulted the young couple into the public eye, and she became known in the national press as the first American flapper. Because of their wild antics and incessant partying, she and her husband became regarded in the newspapers as the enfants terribles of the Jazz Age. Alleged infidelity and bitter recriminations soon undermined their marriage. After Zelda traveled abroad to Europe, her mental health deteriorated, and she had suicidal and homicidal tendencies, which required psychiatric care. Her doctors diagnosed her with schizophrenia, although later posthumous diagnoses posit bipolar disorder.

While institutionalized at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, she authored the 1932 novel Save Me the Waltz, a semi-autobiographical account of her early life in the American South during the Jim Crow era and her marriage to F. Scott Fitzgerald. Upon its publication by Scribner's, the novel garnered mostly negative reviews and experienced poor sales. The critical and commercial failure of Save Me the Waltz disappointed Zelda and led her to pursue her other interests as a playwright and a painter. In the fall of 1932, she completed a stage play titled Scandalabra, but Broadway producers unanimously declined to produce it. Disheartened, Zelda next attempted to paint watercolors, but, when her husband arranged their exhibition in 1934, the critical response proved equally disappointing. (Full article...)

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The history of the land now known as Alabama reaches back thousands of years ago when it was inhabited solely by indigenous peoples. The Woodland period spanned from around 1000 BC to 1000 AD and was marked by the development of the Eastern Agricultural Complex. This was followed by the Mississippian culture of Native Americans, which lasted to around the 1600 AD. The first Europeans to make contact with Alabama were the Spanish, with the first permanent European settlement being Mobile, established by the French in 1702.

After being a part of the Mississippi Territory (1798–1817) and then the Alabama Territory (1817–1819), Congress admitted Alabama as a state on December 14, 1819. After Indian Removal forcibly displaced most Southeast tribes to west of the Mississippi River to what was then called Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), European Americans arrived in large numbers, with some of them bringing or buying African Americans in the domestic slave trade. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various Alabama-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The Space Shuttle Enterprise being tested at Marshall Space Flight Center in 1978 (from Alabama)
Image 2The Riverchase Galleria in Hoover, one of the largest shopping centers in the southeast (from Alabama)
Image 3Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama in Montgomery in 2010 (from Alabama)
Image 4Artist's conception of the Taskigi Site, a fortified mound and village near Wetumpka, Alabama (from History of Alabama)
Image 5Interstate 59 (co-signed with Interstate 20) approaching Interstate 65 in downtown Birmingham (from Alabama)
Image 6Airbus Mobile Engineering Center at the Brookley Aeroplex in Mobile (from Alabama)
Image 7The Heflin-Torbert Judicial Building in Montgomery. It houses the Supreme Court of Alabama, Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, and Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. (from Alabama)
Image 8A stand of Cahaba lilies (Hymenocallis coronaria) in the Cahaba River, within the Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge (from Alabama)
Image 9The developing skyline of Birmingham, 1915 (from Alabama)
Image 10The Moundville Archaeological Site in Hale County. It was occupied by Native Americans of the Mississippian culture from 1000 to 1450 CE. (from Alabama)
Image 11Vestavia Hills High School in the suburbs of Birmingham (from Alabama)
Image 12Mississippi Territory changes 1798–1817. (from History of Alabama)
Image 13Von Braun Center in Huntsville (from Alabama)
Image 141823 Map of Alabama (from History of Alabama)
Image 15Regions-Harbert Plaza, Regions Center, and Wells Fargo Tower in Birmingham's financial district (from Alabama)
Image 161725 map of Mobile, Alabama's first permanent European settlement (from History of Alabama)
Image 17Mercedes-Benz U.S. International in Tuscaloosa County was the first automotive facility to locate within the state. (from Alabama)
Image 18The Natural Bridge Rock in Winston County is the longest natural bridge east of the Rockies. (from Alabama)
Image 19Alabama's population density, 2020 (from Alabama)
Image 20Cliffs at the rim of the Wetumpka meteorite crater (from Alabama)

Map of counties in Alabama by racial plurality, per the 2020 census

Legend

;Non-Hispanic White

40–50%

50–60%

60–70%

70–80%

80–90%

90%+

;Black or African American

40–50%

50–60%

70–80%

80–90%

(from Alabama)

Image 22Terminal at the Montgomery Regional Airport in Montgomery (from Alabama)
Image 23Regions Field in Birmingham (from Alabama)
Image 24The Islamic Center of Tuscaloosa (from Alabama)
Image 25Ono Island in Baldwin County (from Alabama)
Image 26Members of the Alabama state legislature on the steps of the Capitol in Montgomery during Reconstruction (1872) (from History of Alabama)
Image 27Birmingham–Jefferson Convention Complex in Birmingham (from Alabama)
Image 28Bryant–Denny Stadium at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa (from Alabama)
Image 29Monte Sano State Park in Huntsville (from Alabama)
Image 30Reconstruction of the major Mississippian polities in Alabama (from History of Alabama)
Image 31William J. Samford Hall at Auburn University (from Alabama)
Image 32Alabama municipalities (from Alabama)
Image 33Governor Kay Ivey (from Alabama)
Image 34Alabama's beaches are one of the state's major tourist destinations. (from Alabama)
Image 35George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, 2017 (from Alabama)
Image 36Cathedral Caverns in Marshall County (from Alabama)
Image 37Blast furnaces such as the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company's Ensley Works made Birmingham an important center for iron production in the early 20th century. (from History of Alabama)
Image 38Union Army troops occupying Courthouse Square in Huntsville, following its capture and occupation by federal forces in 1864 (from Alabama)
Image 39The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail has a large economic impact on the state. (from Alabama)
Image 40Mobile is the birthplace of Mardi Gras in the U.S. (from Alabama)
Image 41The former Mount Sinai School in rural Autauga County, completed in 1919. It was one of the 387 Rosenwald Schools built in the state. (from Alabama)
Image 42Highlands United Methodist Church in Birmingham, part of the Five Points South Historic District (from Alabama)
Image 43Temple B'Nai Sholom in Huntsville, established in 1876. It is the oldest synagogue building in continuous use in the state. (from Alabama)
Image 44A large tornado in downtown Cullman during the April 27, 2011, tornado outbreak, the largest in recorded history (from Alabama)
Image 45The Mobile Centinel (from History of Alabama)
Image 46Shelby Hall, School of Computing, at the University of South Alabama in Mobile (from Alabama)
Image 47Aerial view of the port of Mobile (from Alabama)
Image 48Artists conception of Moundville, a Mississippian culture site on the Black Warrior River in Hale County (from History of Alabama)
Image 49The main house, built in 1833, at Thornhill in Greene County. It is a former Black Belt plantation. (from Alabama)
Image 50Senator Doug Jones won a special election in 2017. (from Alabama)

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... that Ronald Pickard signed onto the Alabama A&M University swim team, but could not attend for the first three weeks as he was participating in the 1988 Summer Olympics?
... that future Alabama judge Helen Shores Lee's house was bombed twice within two weeks?
... that a steam plant in Alabama complied with emissions regulations simply by building a taller smokestack?
... that the two varieties of Alabama croton are separated by more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles)?
... that an Alabama TV station deemed "The Puppy Episode" unsuitable for family viewing?
... that a 2004 ballot measure to repeal Jim Crow laws in Alabama failed after opponents claimed that taxes would spike?

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