Editing Montgomery, Alabama (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Montgomery, Alabama}}
{{For timeline}}

Prior to European colonization, the east bank of the [[Alabama River]] was inhabited by the [[Alabama (people)|Alibamu tribe]] of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]]. The Alibamu and the [[Coushatta]], who lived on the west side of the river, were descended from the [[Mississippian culture]]. This civilization had numerous chiefdoms throughout the Midwest and South along the Mississippi and its tributaries, and had built massive [[earthworks (archaeology)|earthwork]] [[mound]]s as part of their society about 950–1250 AD. Its largest location was at [[Cahokia]], in present-day [[Illinois]] east of [[St. Louis]].

The historic tribes spoke mutually intelligible [[Muskogean language]]s, which were closely related. Present-day Montgomery is built on the site of two Alibamu towns: ''Ikanatchati'' (Ekanchattee or Ecunchatty or Econachatee), meaning "red earth;" and ''Towassa'', built on a [[Beach ridge|bluff]] called ''Chunnaanaauga Chatty.''<ref name="Gump County History">{{citation |url=http://www.mc-ala.org/Home/About%20Your%20County/History/History.htm |title=Montgomery County, Alabama History |publisher=[[Montgomery County, Alabama]] |access-date=January 23, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070222235358/http://www.mc-ala.org/Home/About+Your+County/History/History.htm |archive-date=February 22, 2007}}</ref> The first Europeans to travel through central Alabama were [[Hernando de Soto]] and his expedition, who in 1540 recorded going through Ikanatchati and camping for one week in Towassa.

The next recorded European encounter occurred more than a century later, when an English expedition from [[Province of Carolina|Carolina]] went down the Alabama River in 1697. The first permanent European settler in the Montgomery area was [[James McQueen (pioneer)|James McQueen]], a [[Scottish people|Scots]] trader who settled there in 1716.<ref name="Owen 1037">{{citation |last1=Owen |first1=Thomas McAdory |last2=Owen |first2=Marie Bankhead |year=1921 |title=History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography |edition=De luxe supplement |volume=II |place=Chicago |publisher=S. J. Clarke |page=1037 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r0kUAAAAYAAJ |access-date=January 17, 2009 |ref=refOwen}}</ref> He married a high-status woman in the Coushatta or Alabama tribe. Their [[mixed-race]] children were considered Muskogean, as both tribes had a [[matrilineal]] system of property and descent. The children were always considered born into their mother's [[clan]], and gained their status from her people.

In 1785, Abraham Mordecai, a war veteran from a [[Sephardic Jewish]] family of [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania, established a [[trading post]].<ref name="ISJL"/> The Coushatta and Alabama had gradually moved south and west in the tidal plain. After the French were defeated by the British in 1763 in the [[French and Indian War|Seven Years' War]] and ceded control of their lands, these Native American peoples moved to parts of present-day Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, then [[New Spain|areas of Spanish rule]], which they thought more favorable than British-held areas. By the time Mordecai arrived, [[Creek people|Creek]] had migrated into and settled in the area, as they were moving away from [[Cherokee]] and Iroquois warfare to the north. Mordecai married a Creek woman. When her people had to cede most of their lands after the 1813-14 [[Creek War]], she joined them in removal to Indian Territory. Mordecai brought the first [[cotton gin]] to Alabama.<ref name="ISJL">{{citation |url=http://www.isjl.org/history/archive/al/montgomery.html |title=Montgomery, Alabama |work=Goldring / Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life |access-date=January 31, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120121154936/http://www.isjl.org/history/archive/al/montgomery.html |archive-date=January 21, 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:View of the Capitol, Montgomery, Alabama.jpg|thumb|View of the Capitol, an engraving published in 1857]]

The Upper Creek were able to discourage most white immigration until after the conclusion of the [[Creek War]]. Following their defeat by General [[Andrew Jackson]] in August 1814, the Creek tribes were forced to cede 23 million acres to the United States, including remaining land in today's Georgia and most of today's central and southern Alabama. In 1816, the [[Mississippi Territory]] (1798–1817) organized [[Montgomery County, Alabama|Montgomery County]]. Its former Creek lands were sold off the next year at the [[Federal government of the United States|federal]] land office in [[Milledgeville, Georgia]].

The first group of white settlers to come to the Montgomery area was headed by General [[John Scott (Alabama)|John Scott]]. This group founded Alabama Town about {{convert|2|mi|km|0}} downstream on the [[Alabama River]] from present-day downtown Montgomery. In June 1818, county courts were moved from [[Fort Jackson (Alabama)|Fort Jackson]] to Alabama Town. Alabama was admitted to the Union in December 1819.

Soon after, [[Andrew Dexter Jr.]] founded New Philadelphia, the present-day eastern part of downtown. He envisioned a prominent future for his town; he set aside a hilltop known as "Goat Hill" as the future site of the state capitol building. New Philadelphia soon prospered, and Scott and his associates built a new town adjacent, calling it East Alabama Town. Originally rivals, the towns merged on December 3, 1819, and were incorporated as the town of Montgomery,<ref name="al-legislative-incorporation-1819">[http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/history/acts_and_journals/Acts_Oct_Dec_1819/Page12_pg101-110.html An act to incorporate the town of Montgomery in the county of Montgomery. ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021129171155/http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/history/acts_and_journals/Acts_Oct_Dec_1819/Page12_pg101-110.html |date=November 29, 2002}} Approved December 3, 1819. Alabama Legislative Acts. Annual Session, Oct – Dec 1819. Pages 110-112. Access Date: January 5, 2014.</ref><ref name="EoA Gump County">{{citation |last=Lewis |first=Herbert J. |contribution=Montgomery County |title=Encyclopedia of Alabama |date=August 31, 2007 |contribution-url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1336 |access-date=January 31, 2009 |title-link=Encyclopedia of Alabama |archive-date=June 21, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100621200520/http://encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1336 |url-status=dead}}</ref> named for [[Richard Montgomery]], an [[American Revolutionary War]] general.
[[File:Montgomery 1887.jpg|thumb|1887 bird's eye illustration of Montgomery]]

Slave traders used the Alabama River to deliver enslaved laborers to planters, to work the [[cotton]]. Buoyed by the revenues of the cotton trade at a time of high market demand, the newly united Montgomery grew quickly. In 1822, the city was designated as the county seat. A new courthouse was built at the present location of Court Square, at the foot of Market Street (now Dexter Avenue).<ref name="Owen 1038">[[#refOwen|Owen]], p. 1038</ref> Court Square had one of the largest slave markets in the South. The state capital was moved from [[Tuscaloosa, Alabama|Tuscaloosa]] to Montgomery, on January 28, 1846.<ref name="EoA Montgomery">{{citation |last=Neeley |first=Mary Ann Oglesby |contribution=Montgomery |title=Encyclopedia of Alabama |date=November 6, 2008 |contribution-url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1833 |access-date=May 2, 2009 |title-link=Encyclopedia of Alabama |archive-date=January 23, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150123152954/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1833 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

As state capital, Montgomery began to influence state politics, and it would also play a prominent role on the national stage. Beginning February 4, 1861, representatives from Alabama, [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], Florida, [[Louisiana]], [[Mississippi]], and [[South Carolina]] [[Montgomery Convention|met in Montgomery]], host of the {{anchor|Southern Convention}}''Southern Convention'',<ref>Brown, Russel K. (1994). [https://books.google.com/books?id=VYFDfy-YX8EC&dq=George+walker+crawford+elected+to+secession+convention&pg=PA86 ''To The Manner Born: The Life Of General William H. T. Walker''] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113183855/https://books.google.com/books?id=VYFDfy-YX8EC&pg=PA86&lpg=PA86&dq=George+walker+crawford+elected+to+secession+convention&source=bl&ots=HGpnE-k7Bk&sig=mL8kzVlZ9RQYKnHnt9H91wJCj_8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xx7pUbb-NJGY9QTpn4C4Bg&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAjgK#v=onepage&q=George%20walker%20crawford%20elected%20to%20secession%20convention&f=false |date=January 13, 2016 }}. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. {{ISBN|9780865549449}}. Retrieved July 22, 2013.</ref> to form the [[Confederate States of America]]. Montgomery was named the first capital of the nation, and [[Jefferson Davis]] was inaugurated as president on the steps of the [[Alabama State Capitol|State Capitol]]. The capital was later moved to Richmond, Virginia.

On April 12, 1865, following the [[Battle of Selma]], Major General [[James H. Wilson]] captured Montgomery for the Union.<ref name="EoA Wilson's Raid">{{citation |last=Hébert |first=Keith S. |contribution=Wilson's Raid |title=Encyclopedia of Alabama |date=October 23, 2007 |contribution-url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1375 |access-date=May 2, 2009 |title-link=Encyclopedia of Alabama |archive-date=September 22, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110922123139/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1375 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[File:Marketing cotton Montgomery Alabama circa 1900.jpg|thumb|Cotton being brought to market, Montgomery, c. 1900]]
In 1886 Montgomery became the first city in the United States to install citywide electric [[streetcars]] along a system that was nicknamed the [[Lightning Route]]. Residents followed the streetcar lines to settle in new housing in what were then "suburban" locations.
[[File:Union Station Montgomery.JPG|thumb|[[Union Station (Montgomery, Alabama)|Union Station]] Montgomery, {{Circa|1900}}]] As the [[Reconstruction era]] ended, mayor W. L. Moses asked the state legislature to [[gerrymander]] city boundaries. It complied and removed the districts where African Americans lived, restoring white supremacy to the city's demographics and electorate. This prevented African Americans from being elected in the municipality and denied them city services.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8PCI20OHCz0C&q=%22lawson+steele%22+montgomery&pg=PA99 |title=Neither Carpetbaggers nor Scalawags: Black Officeholders During the Reconstruction of Alabama, 1867-1878 |isbn=9781588381897 |last1=Bailey |first1=Richard |year=2010 |publisher=NewSouth Books}}</ref>

On February 12, 1945, [[Tornado outbreak of February 12, 1945#Montgomery–Chisholm, Alabama|a devastating and deadly tornado]] struck the western portion of the city. The tornado killed 26 people, injured 293 others, and caused a city-wide blackout which lasted for hours.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grazulis |first1=Thomas P. |title=Significant tornadoes, 1680–1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events |date=1993 |publisher=Environmental Films |location=St. Johnsbury, Vermont |isbn=1-879362-03-1 |pages=922–925}}</ref> The United States Weather Bureau would describe this tornado as "the most officially observed one in history".<ref>{{cite journal |author1=F. C. Pate (United States Weather Bureau) |title=The Tornado at Montgomery, Alabama, February 12, 1945 |journal=Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society |date=October 1946 |volume=27 |issue=8 |pages=462–464 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26257954 |access-date=May 27, 2023 |publisher=American Meteorological Society |jstor=26257954 |archive-date=May 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230527175643/https://www.jstor.org/stable/26257954 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the post-World War II era, returning African-American veterans were among those who became active in pushing to regain their civil rights in the South: to be allowed to vote and participate in politics, to freely use public places, to end segregation. According to the historian [[David Beito]] of the [[University of Alabama]], African Americans in Montgomery "nurtured the [[Civil Rights Movement|modern civil rights movement]]."<ref name=Beito/> African Americans comprised most of the customers on the city buses, but were forced to give up seats and even stand in order to make room for whites. On December 1, 1955, [[Rosa Parks]] was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man, sparking the [[Montgomery bus boycott]]. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], then the pastor of [[Dexter Avenue Baptist Church]], and [[E.D. Nixon]], a local civil rights advocate, founded the [[Montgomery Improvement Association]] to organize the boycott. In June 1956, the US District Court Judge [[Frank M. Johnson]] ruled that Montgomery's bus [[racial segregation]] was unconstitutional. After the [[Supreme Court of the United States|US Supreme Court]] upheld the ruling in November, the city desegregated the bus system, and the boycott was ended.<ref name="Bus boycott">{{citation |last=Hare |first=Ken |title=Montgomery Bus Boycott: The story of Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement |periodical=[[Montgomery Advertiser]] |url=http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/article_overview.htm |access-date=May 2, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090401175002/http://montgomeryboycott.com/article_overview.htm |archive-date=April 1, 2009}}</ref>

In separate action, integrated teams of [[Freedom Riders]] rode South on interstate buses. In violation of federal law and the constitution, bus companies had for decades acceded to state laws and required passengers to occupy segregated seating in Southern states. Opponents of the push for integration organized mob violence at stops along the Freedom Ride. In Montgomery, there was police collaboration when a white mob attacked Freedom Riders at the [[Greyhound Bus Station (Montgomery, Alabama)|Greyhound Bus Station]] in May 1961.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/us/22freedom.html |title=Honoring Freedom Riders at an Old Bus Station |agency=[[Associated Press]] |date=May 21, 2011 |work=The New York Times |access-date=April 2, 2018 |archive-date=April 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180403061853/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/us/22freedom.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Outraged national reaction resulted in the enforcement of desegregation of interstate public transportation.

Martin Luther King Jr. returned to Montgomery in 1965. Local civil rights leaders in [[Selma, Alabama|Selma]] had been protesting [[Jim Crow laws]] and practices that raised barriers to blacks registering to vote. Following the shooting of a man after a civil rights rally, the leaders decided to [[Selma to Montgomery marches|march to Montgomery]] to petition Governor [[George Wallace]] to allow free voter registration. The violence they encountered from county and state highway police outraged the country. The federal government ordered National Guard and troops to protect the marchers. Thousands more joined the marchers on the way to Montgomery, and an estimated 25,000 marchers entered the capital to press for voting rights. These actions contributed to Congressional passage of the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], to authorize federal supervision and enforcement of the rights of African Americans and other minorities to vote.

On February 7, 1967, a devastating fire broke out at Dale's Penthouse, a restaurant and lounge on the top floor of the Walter Bragg Smith apartment building (now called Capital Towers) at 7 Clayton Street downtown. Twenty-six people died.<ref name="Dale's Penthouse Fire">{{citation |url=https://www.gendisasters.com/alabama/617/montgomery,-al-restaurant-fire,-feb-1967 |title=Dale's Penthouse Fire |publisher=gendisasters.com |access-date=December 11, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511015029/http://www3.gendisasters.com/alabama/617/montgomery,-al-restaurant-fire,-feb-1967 |archive-date=May 11, 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In recent years, Montgomery has grown and diversified its economy. Active in downtown revitalization, the city adopted a master plan in 2007; it includes the revitalization of Court Square and the riverfront, renewing the city's connection to the river.<ref name="downtown">{{citation |url=http://www.doverkohl.com/project.aspx?id=16&type=2 |title=Montgomery Downtown Plan and SmartCode |publisher=Dover, Kohl, and Partners |access-date=August 23, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113131142/http://www.doverkohl.com/project.aspx?id=16&type=2 |archive-date=January 13, 2016 }}</ref> Many other projects under construction include the revitalization of Historic Dexter Avenue, pedestrian and infrastructure improvements along the [[Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail]], and the construction of a new environmental park on West Fairview Avenue.