Editing Alabama (section)

== History ==
{{Main|History of Alabama}}

=== Pre-European settlement ===
[[File:Moundville Archaeological Site Alabama.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Moundville Archaeological Site]] in Hale County. It was occupied by Native Americans of the [[Mississippian culture]] from 1000 to 1450 CE.]]

[[Indigenous peoples]] of varying cultures lived in the area for thousands of years before the advent of European colonization. Trade with the northeastern tribes by the [[Ohio River]] began during the Burial Mound Period (1000{{spaces}}BC{{snd}}700{{spaces}}AD) and continued until [[European colonization of the Americas|European contact]].<ref name="NewYorkTimesAlmanac">{{cite news |url=http://travel2.nytimes.com/2004/07/15/travel/NYT_ALMANAC_US_ALABAMA.html |title=Alabama |date=August 11, 2006 |work=The New York Times Almanac 2004 |access-date=September 23, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016195242/http://travel2.nytimes.com/2004/07/15/travel/NYT_ALMANAC_US_ALABAMA.html |archive-date=October 16, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The agrarian [[Mississippian culture]] covered most of the state from 1000 to 1600 AD, with one of its major centers built at what is now the [[Moundville Archaeological Site]] in [[Moundville, Alabama]].<ref>{{Cite book |last= Welch |first= Paul D. |title= Moundville's Economy |publisher= University of Alabama Press |year= 1991 |isbn= 978-0-8173-0512-3 |oclc= 21330955}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last= Walthall |first= John A. |title= Prehistoric Indians of the Southeast-Archaeology of Alabama and the Middle South |publisher= University of Alabama Press |year= 1990 |isbn= 978-0-8173-0552-9 |oclc= 26656858}}</ref> This is the second-largest complex of the classic Middle Mississippian era, after [[Cahokia]] in present-day [[Illinois]], which was the center of the culture. Analysis of [[Artifact (archaeology)|artifacts]] from [[archaeological]] excavations at Moundville were the basis of scholars' formulating the characteristics of the [[Southeastern Ceremonial Complex]] (SECC).<ref>{{Cite book |last= Townsend |first= Richard F. |title= Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand |publisher= Yale University Press |year= 2004 |isbn= 978-0-300-10601-5 |oclc= 56633574 |title-link= Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand}}</ref> Contrary to popular belief, the SECC appears to have no direct links to [[Mesoamerica]]n culture but developed independently. The Ceremonial Complex represents a major component of the religion of the Mississippian peoples; it is one of the primary means by which their religion is understood.<ref>{{Cite book|editor= F. Kent Reilly |editor2= James Garber |title= Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms |publisher= University of Texas Press |year= 2004 |isbn= 978-0-292-71347-5 |others=Foreword by Vincas P. Steponaitis |oclc= 70335213 |title-link= Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms}}</ref>

Among the historical tribes of Native American people living in present-day Alabama at the time of European contact were the [[Cherokee]], an [[Iroquoian languages|Iroquoian language]] people; and the [[Muscogee language|Muskogean-speaking]] Alabama (''Alibamu''), [[Chickasaw]], [[Choctaw]], Creek, and [[Coushatta|Koasati]].<ref name=":4">{{cite web |url=http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/alabama/ |title=Alabama Indian Tribes |access-date=September 23, 2006 |year=2006 |website=Indian Tribal Records |publisher=AccessGenealogy.com |archive-url=https://archive.today/20061012073735/http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/alabama/ |archive-date=October 12, 2006 |url-status=live}}</ref> While part of the same large language family, the [[Muscogee|Muskogee tribes]] developed distinct cultures and languages.

=== European settlement ===
{{Main|New France|Louisiana (New France)|French and Indian War|Treaty of Paris (1763)|New Spain|Louisiana (New Spain)|West Florida|Indian Reserve (1763)|American Revolutionary War|Treaty of Paris (1783)|Spanish West Florida|Seminole Wars|Adams–Onís Treaty|Republic of West Florida|Mississippi Territory}}

The Spanish were the first Europeans to reach Alabama during their exploration of North America in the 16th century. The expedition of Hernando de Soto passed through [[Mabila]] and other parts of the state in 1540. More than 160 years later, the French founded the region's first European settlement at [[Old Mobile Site|Old Mobile]] in 1702.<ref name="US50">{{cite web |url=http://www.theus50.com/alabama/ |title=Alabama State History |access-date=September 23, 2006 |publisher=theUS50.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060825052401/http://www.theus50.com/alabama/ |archive-date=August 25, 2006 |url-status=live}}</ref> The city was moved to the current site of Mobile in 1711. This area was claimed by the French from 1702 to 1763 as part of [[Louisiana (New France)|La Louisiane]].<ref name=alahisttmln/>

After the French lost to the British in the [[Seven Years' War]], it became part of British [[West Florida]] from 1763 to 1783. After the U.S. victory in the [[American Revolutionary War]], the territory was divided between the United States and Spain. The latter retained control of this western territory from 1783 until the surrender of the Spanish garrison at Mobile to U.S. forces on April 13, 1813.<ref name=alahisttmln>{{cite web |title=Alabama History Timeline |url=http://www.archives.alabama.gov/timeline/al1801.html |publisher=Alabama Department of Archives and History |access-date=July 27, 2013 |archive-date=June 18, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160618035649/http://www.archives.alabama.gov/timeline/al1801.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="annexed1">{{cite book |last=Thomason |first=Michael |title=Mobile: The New History of Alabama's First City|year=2001 |publisher=University of Alabama Press|location=Tuscaloosa|isbn=978-0-8173-1065-3|page=61}}</ref>

Thomas Bassett, a [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|loyalist]] to the [[British Empire|British monarchy]] during the Revolutionary era, was one of the earliest white settlers in the state outside Mobile. He settled in the [[Tombigbee District]] during the early 1770s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.archives.state.al.us/aha/markers/washington.html |title=Alabama Historical Association Marker Program: Washington County |publisher=Archives.state.al.us |access-date=June 1, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110822222441/http://www.archives.state.al.us/aha/markers/washington.html |archive-date=August 22, 2011}}</ref> The district's boundaries were roughly limited to the area within a few miles of the [[Tombigbee River]] and included portions of what is today southern [[Clarke County, Alabama|Clarke County]], northernmost [[Mobile County, Alabama|Mobile County]], and most of [[Washington County, Alabama|Washington County]].<ref name="oldsw">{{cite book |title=The Old Southwest 1795–1830: Frontiers in Conflict |last=Clark |first=Thomas D. |author2=John D. W. Guice |year=1989 |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |location=Albuquerque |isbn=978-0-8061-2836-8 |pages=44–65, 210–257}}</ref><ref name="colonial mobile">{{cite book |title=Colonial Mobile: An Historical Study of the Alabama-Tombigbee Basin and the Old South West from the Discovery of the Spiritu Sancto in 1519 until the Demolition of Fort Charlotte in 1821 |last=Hamilton |first=Peter Joseph |year=1910 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |location=Boston |oclc=49073155 |pages=241–244}}</ref>

What are now [[Baldwin County, Alabama|Baldwin]] and Mobile counties became part of [[Spanish West Florida]] in 1783, part of the independent [[Republic of West Florida]] in 1810, and finally part of the [[Mississippi Territory]] in 1812. Most of what is now the northern two-thirds of Alabama was known as the [[Yazoo lands]] beginning during the British colonial period. It was claimed by the [[Province of Georgia]] from 1767 onwards. Following the American Revolutionary War, it remained a part of Georgia, although heavily disputed.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cadle |first=Farris W |title=Georgia Land Surveying History and Law|year=1991 |publisher=University of Georgia Press|location=Athens, Ga.}}</ref><ref name="pickett">{{cite book |last=Pickett |first=Albert James |title=History of Alabama and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period|url=https://archive.org/details/historyalabamaa00pickgoog |year=1851 |publisher=Walker and James|location=Charleston|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyalabamaa00pickgoog/page/n432 408]–428}}</ref>

With the exception of the area around Mobile and the Yazoo lands, what is now the lower one-third of Alabama was made part of the Mississippi Territory when it was organized in 1798. The Yazoo lands were added to the territory in 1804, following the [[Yazoo land scandal]].<ref name="pickett"/><ref>{{cite web |title=The Pine Barrens Speculation and Yazoo Land Fraud |url=http://www.aboutnorthgeorgia.com/ang/The_Pine_Barrens_Speculation_and_Yazoo_Land_Fraud |publisher=About North Georgia |access-date=July 27, 2013 |archive-date=November 3, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103193838/http://www.aboutnorthgeorgia.com/ang/The_Pine_Barrens_Speculation_and_Yazoo_Land_Fraud |url-status=dead}}</ref> Spain kept a claim on its former Spanish West Florida territory in what would become the coastal counties until the [[Adams–Onís Treaty]] officially ceded it to the U.S. in 1819.<ref name="annexed1"/>

=== 19th century ===
{{main|Organic act#List of organic acts|Alabama Territory|Admission to the Union|List of U.S. states by date of admission to the Union}}The creation of the [[Mississippi Territory]] quickly prompted debates over its division. Amid pressure from white southerners who sought the establishment of two slave states, Congress formed the Alabama Territory from the eastern half of the Mississippi Territory on March 3, 1817. The legislation appointed William Wyatt Bibb of Georgia as the first governor of the newly designated Alabama Territory.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Territorial Period and Early Statehood |url=https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/territorial-period-and-early-statehood/ |access-date=2025-02-26 |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Harney |first=Erin |date=2018-03-01 |title=On this day in Alabama history: Authority granted to Mississippi Territory |url=https://alabamanewscenter.com/2018/03/01/day-alabama-history-march-1/ |access-date=2025-02-26 |website=Alabama News Center |language=en-US}}</ref>
Before [[Mississippi|Mississippi's]] admission to statehood on December 10, 1817, the more sparsely settled eastern half of the territory was separated and named the [[Alabama Territory]]. The [[United States Congress]] created the Alabama Territory on March 3, 1817. [[St. Stephens, Alabama|St. Stephens]], now abandoned, served as the territorial capital from 1817 to 1819.<ref name="eoaststephens">{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1674 |title=Old St. Stephens |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |publisher=Auburn University |access-date=June 21, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726152101/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1674 |archive-date=July 26, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Alabama was admitted as the 22nd state on December 14, 1819, with Congress selecting [[Huntsville, Alabama|Huntsville]] as the site for the first [[Constituent assembly|Constitutional Convention]]. From July{{spaces}}5 to August 2, 1819, delegates met to prepare the new state constitution. Huntsville served as temporary capital from 1819 to 1820, when the seat of government moved to [[Cahaba, Alabama|Cahaba]] in [[Dallas County, Alabama|Dallas County]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Huntsville |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2498 |website=The Encyclopedia of Alabama |publisher=Alabama Humanities Foundation |access-date=January 22, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130122065945/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2498 |archive-date=January 22, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Cahaba, Alabama|Cahaba]], now a [[ghost town]], was the first permanent state capital from 1820 to 1825.<ref name="Cahaw">{{cite web |title=Old Cahawba, Alabama's first state capital, 1820 to 1826 |website=Old Cahawba: A Cahawba Advisory Committee Project |url=http://www.cahawba.com/ |access-date=September 22, 2012 |archive-date=August 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120821130209/http://www.cahawba.com/ |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Alabama Fever]] land rush was underway when the state was admitted to the Union, with settlers and land speculators pouring into the state to take advantage of fertile land suitable for cotton cultivation.<ref name="fever">{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-3155 |title=Alabama Fever |author=LeeAnna Keith |date=October 13, 2011 |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |publisher=Auburn University |access-date=September 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117053816/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-3155 |archive-date=January 17, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="adahtalafvr">{{cite web |url=http://www.alabamaheritage.com/vault/kingcotton.htm |title=Alabama Fever |website=Alabama Department of Archives and History |publisher=State of Alabama |access-date=September 22, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117053326/http://www.alabamaheritage.com/vault/kingcotton.htm |archive-date=January 17, 2013}}</ref> Part of the frontier in the 1820s and 1830s, its constitution provided for universal suffrage for white men.<ref name="SSpaces"/>

[[File:Thornhill 01.jpg|thumb|right|The main house, built in 1833, at [[Thornhill (Forkland, Alabama)|Thornhill]] in Greene County. It is a former [[Black Belt (region of Alabama)|Black Belt]] plantation.]]
Southeastern planters and traders from the [[Upper South]] brought [[History of slavery in Alabama|slaves]] with them as the cotton [[List of plantations in Alabama|plantations in Alabama]] expanded. The economy of the central [[Black Belt (region of Alabama)|Black Belt]] (named for its dark, productive soil) was built around large cotton [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|plantations]] whose owners' wealth grew mainly from slave labor.<ref name="SSpaces"/> The area also drew many poor, disenfranchised people who became [[Subsistence agriculture|subsistence farmers]]. Alabama had an estimated population of under 10,000 people in 1810, but it increased to more than 300,000 people by 1830.<ref name="fever"/> Most Native American tribes were [[Indian removal|completely removed]] from the state within a few years of the passage of the [[Indian Removal Act]] by Congress in 1830.<ref name="ala">{{cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1598 |title=Alabama |author=Wayne Flynt |date=July 9, 2008 |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |publisher=Auburn University |access-date=September 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120906010441/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1598 |archive-date=September 6, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

From 1826 to 1846, [[Tuscaloosa, Alabama|Tuscaloosa]] served as Alabama's capital. On January 30, 1846, the Alabama legislature announced it had voted to move the capital city from Tuscaloosa to Montgomery. The first legislative session in the new capital met in December 1847.<ref name="capitols">{{cite web |url=http://www.archives.state.al.us/capital/capitals.html |title=Capitals of Alabama |website=Alabama Department of Archives and History |access-date=July 8, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716220255/http://www.archives.state.al.us/capital/capitals.html |archive-date=July 16, 2011 |url-status=live}}</ref> A new capitol building was erected under the direction of [[Stephen Decatur Button]] of [[Philadelphia]]. The first structure burned down in 1849, but was rebuilt on the same site in 1851. This second capitol building in Montgomery remains to the present day. It was designed by Barachias Holt of [[Exeter, Maine]].<ref name="alcatalog">{{cite book |last= Gamble |first=Robert|year =1987 |title =The Alabama Catalog: A Guide to the Early Architecture of the State|pages=144, 323–324 |publisher =University of Alabama Press|location = University, AL|isbn =978-0-8173-0148-4}}</ref><ref name="alarchitecture">{{cite book |last =Bowsher |first =Alice Meriwether|year =2001 |title =Alabama Architecture|pages=90–91 |publisher =University of Alabama Press|location = Tuscaloosa|isbn =978-0-8173-1081-3}}</ref>

==== Civil War and Reconstruction ====
{{Main|Ordinance of Secession|Confederate States of America|Alabama in the American Civil War}}

By 1860, the population had increased to 964,201 people, of which nearly half, 435,080, were enslaved African Americans, and 2,690 were [[free people of color]].<ref name="adahtmln">{{cite web |url=http://www.archives.alabama.gov/timeline/al1801.html |title=Alabama History Timeline |website=Alabama Department of Archives and History |publisher=State of Alabama |access-date=September 22, 2012 |archive-date=June 18, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160618035649/http://www.archives.alabama.gov/timeline/al1801.html |url-status=live}}</ref> On January 11, 1861, Alabama declared its [[Secession in the United States|secession]] from the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]]. After remaining an independent republic for a few days, it joined the [[Confederate States of America]]. The Confederacy's capital was initially at Montgomery. Alabama was heavily [[Alabama in the American Civil War|involved in the American Civil War]]. Although comparatively few battles were fought in the state, Alabama contributed about 120,000 soldiers to the war effort.

[[File:Huntsville Courthouse Square 1864.jpg|thumb|left|[[Union Army]] troops occupying Courthouse Square in Huntsville, following its capture and occupation by federal forces in 1864]]
A company of cavalry soldiers from Huntsville, Alabama, joined [[Nathan Bedford Forrest]]'s battalion in [[Hopkinsville, Kentucky]]. The company wore new uniforms with yellow trim on the sleeves, collar and coattails. This led to them being greeted with "Yellowhammer", and the name later was applied to all Alabama troops in the Confederate Army.<ref>[http://www.archives.state.al.us/emblems/st_bird.html Official Symbols and Emblems of Alabama, State Bird of Alabama, Yellowhammer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190102071436/http://www.archives.state.al.us/emblems/st_bird.html |date=January 2, 2019}}. Alabama State Archives</ref>

Alabama's slaves were freed by the 13th Amendment in 1865.<ref name="HistDocs">{{cite web |url=http://www.historicaldocuments.com/13thAmendment.htm |title=13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865) |access-date=September 23, 2006 |year=2005 |website=Historical Documents |publisher=HistoricalDocuments.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061031131251/http://www.historicaldocuments.com/13thAmendment.htm |archive-date=October 31, 2006}}</ref> Alabama was under military rule from the end of the war in May 1865 until its official restoration to the Union in 1868. From 1867 to 1874, with most white citizens barred temporarily from voting and freedmen enfranchised, many African Americans emerged as political leaders in the state. Alabama was represented in Congress during this period by three African-American congressmen: [[Jeremiah Haralson]], [[Benjamin S. Turner]], and [[James T. Rapier]].<ref name="alrecnstrctn">{{cite web |url=http://www.alabamamoments.alabama.gov/sec24.html |title=Reconstruction in Alabama: A Quick Summary |website=Alabama Moments in American History |publisher=Alabama Department of Archives and History |access-date=September 22, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120913020916/http://www.alabamamoments.alabama.gov/sec24.html |archive-date=September 13, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Following the war, the state remained chiefly agricultural, with an economy tied to cotton. During the Reconstruction era, state legislators ratified a [[Constitution of Alabama|new state constitution]] in 1868 which created the state's first public school system and expanded women's rights. Legislators funded numerous public road and railroad projects, although these were plagued with allegations of fraud and [[misappropriation]].<ref name="alrecnstrctn"/> Organized [[Insurgency|insurgent]], resistance groups tried to suppress the freedmen and Republicans. These groups included The [[Ku Klux Klan]], the Pale Faces, [[Knights of the White Camelia|Knights of the White Camellia]], [[Red Shirts (United States)|Red Shirts]], and the [[White League]].<ref name="alrecnstrctn"/>

Reconstruction in Alabama ended in 1874, when the Democrats regained control of the legislature and governor's office through an election dominated by fraud and violence. They wrote another constitution in 1875,<ref name="alrecnstrctn"/> and the legislature passed the [[Blaine Amendment]], prohibiting public money from being used to finance religious-affiliated schools.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.schoolreport.com/schoolreport/articles/blaine_7_00.htm |title=A Blaine Amendment Update (July 00) |publisher=Schoolreport.com |access-date=June 1, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716014339/http://www.schoolreport.com/schoolreport/articles/blaine_7_00.htm |archive-date=July 16, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The same year, legislation was approved that called for [[racial segregation|racially segregated]] schools.<ref name="jimcrowala">{{cite web |url=http://www.classroomhelp.com/till/jimcrowlaws/jimcrowalabama.html |title=Jim Crow Laws in Alabama |website=Emmett Till, It All Began with a Whistle |publisher=Classroomhelp |access-date=September 22, 2012 |archive-date=June 26, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626210219/http://classroomhelp.com/till/jimcrowlaws/jimcrowalabama.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Railroad passenger cars were segregated in 1891.<ref name="jimcrowala"/>

=== 20th century ===
[[File:Birmingham Alabama skyline 1915.jpg|thumb|The developing skyline of Birmingham, 1915]]

The new 1901 constitution of Alabama included provisions for [[voter registration]] that effectively [[Disfranchisement after the Reconstruction era|disenfranchised]] large portions of the population, including nearly all African Americans and Native Americans, and tens of thousands of poor European Americans, through making voter registration difficult, requiring a [[Poll taxes in the United States|poll tax]] and [[literacy test]].<ref>Morgan Kousser. ''The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South'', New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974</ref> The 1901 constitution required racial segregation of public schools. By 1903 only 2,980 African Americans were registered in Alabama, although at least 74,000 were [[Literacy|literate]]. This compared to more than 181,000 African Americans eligible to vote in 1900. The numbers dropped even more in later decades.<ref name="epzzsd"/> The state legislature passed additional racial segregation laws related to public facilities into the 1950s: jails were segregated in 1911; hospitals in 1915; toilets, hotels, and restaurants in 1928; and bus stop waiting rooms in 1945.<ref name="jimcrowala"/>

While the planter class had persuaded poor whites to vote for this legislative effort to suppress black voting, the new restrictions resulted in their disenfranchisement as well, due mostly to the imposition of a cumulative poll tax.<ref name="epzzsd"/> By 1941, whites constituted a slight majority of those disenfranchised by these laws: 600,000 whites vs. 520,000 African Americans.<ref name="epzzsd">Glenn Feldman. ''The Disfranchisement Myth: Poor Whites and Suffrage Restriction in Alabama''. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004, p. 136.</ref> Nearly all blacks had lost the ability to vote. Despite numerous legal challenges which succeeded in overturning certain provisions, the state legislature would create new ones to maintain disenfranchisement. The exclusion of blacks from the political system persisted until after passage of federal civil rights legislation in 1965 to enforce their constitutional rights as citizens.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1248 |title=Segregation (Jim Crow) |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |access-date=May 26, 2018 |archive-date=May 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180530141129/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1248 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The rural-dominated Alabama legislature consistently underfunded schools and services for the disenfranchised African Americans, but it did not relieve them of paying taxes.<ref name="SSpaces">{{cite journal |url= http://southernspaces.org/2004/black-belt |title= The Black Belt |access-date= September 23, 2006 |date= April 19, 2004 |journal= Southern Spaces |publisher= Emory University |doi= 10.18737/M70K6P |last1= Tullos |first1= Allen |doi-access= free |archive-date= January 11, 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110111023122/http://southernspaces.org/2004/black-belt |url-status= live}}</ref> Partially as a response to chronic underfunding of education for African Americans in the South, the [[Rosenwald Fund]] began funding the construction of what came to be known as [[Rosenwald School]]s. In Alabama, these schools were designed, and the construction partially financed with Rosenwald funds, which paid one-third of the construction costs. The fund required the local community and state to raise matching funds to pay the rest. Black residents effectively taxed themselves twice, by raising additional monies to supply matching funds for such schools, which were built in many rural areas. They often donated land and labor as well.<ref name="rosenwaldal">{{cite web |title=The Rosenwald School Building Fund and Associated Buildings MPS |website=National Register Information System |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/64500011_text |access-date=October 3, 2012 |archive-date=June 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220607152915/https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/64500011_text |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Mount Sinai School Autauga County July 2011 1.jpg|thumb|The former [[Mount Sinai School]] in rural Autauga County, completed in 1919. It was one of the 387 [[Rosenwald Schools]] built in the state.]]

Beginning in 1913, the first 80 Rosenwald Schools were built in Alabama for African American children. A total of 387 schools, seven teachers' houses, and several vocational buildings were completed by 1937 in the state. Several of the [[The Rosenwald School Building Fund and Associated Buildings Multiple Property Submission|surviving school buildings]] in the state are now listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="rosenwaldal"/>

Continued racial discrimination and [[lynching]]s, agricultural depression, and the failure of the cotton crops due to [[boll weevil]] infestation led tens of thousands of African Americans from rural Alabama and other states to seek opportunities in northern and midwestern cities during the early decades of the 20th century as part of the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] out of the South.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hine |first1=Darlene |last2=Hine |first2=William |last3=Harrold |first3=Stanley |title=African Americans: A Concise History |date=2012 |publisher=Pearson Education, Inc. |location=Boston |isbn=9780205806270 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/africanamericans0000hine_i0f5/page/388 388–389] |edition=4th |url=https://archive.org/details/africanamericans0000hine_i0f5/page/388}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Migration |title=Great Migration {{!}} African-American history |work=Encyclopædia Britannica |access-date=May 26, 2018 |archive-date=May 27, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180527024942/https://www.britannica.com/event/Great-Migration |url-status=live}}</ref> Reflecting this emigration, the population growth rate in Alabama (see "historical populations" table below) dropped by nearly half from 1910 to 1920.<ref name="census data">{{cite web|author=Resident Population Data |url=http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/apportionment-pop-text.php |title=Resident Population Data—2010 Census |publisher=2010.census.gov |access-date=January 31, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519131122/http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/apportionment-pop-text.php |archive-date=May 19, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

At the same time, many rural people migrated to the city of Birmingham to work in new industrial jobs. Birmingham experienced such rapid growth it was called the "Magic City".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1421 |title=Birmingham {{!}} Encyclopedia of Alabama |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |access-date=May 26, 2018 |archive-date=September 8, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180908221815/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1421 |url-status=live}}</ref> By 1920, Birmingham was the 36th-largest city in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/tab15.txt |title=Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1920 |website=United States Census Bureau|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080814041159/http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/tab15.txt|archive-date=August 14, 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> Heavy industry and mining were the basis of its economy. Its residents were under-represented for decades in the state legislature, which refused to redistrict after each decennial census according to population changes, as it was required by the state constitution. This did not change until the late 1960s following a lawsuit and court order.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_bq9L27c4fwC&q=birmingham+alabama+underrepresented+in+the+state+legislature&pg=PA149 |title=Defending Constitutional Rights |last=Johnson |first=Frank Minis |date=2001 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=9780820322858 |access-date=November 8, 2020 |archive-date=December 31, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211231203237/https://books.google.com/books?id=_bq9L27c4fwC&q=birmingham+alabama+underrepresented+in+the+state+legislature&pg=PA149 |url-status=live}}</ref>
{{blockquote|Beginning in the 1940s, when the courts started taking the first steps to recognize the voting rights of black voters, the Alabama legislature took several counter-steps designed to disfranchise black voters. The legislature passed, and the voters ratified [as these were mostly white voters], a state constitutional amendment that gave local registrars greater latitude to disqualify voter registration applicants. Black citizens in Mobile successfully challenged this amendment as a violation of the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifteenth Amendment]]. The legislature also changed the boundaries of [[Tuskegee, Alabama|Tuskegee]] to a 28-sided figure designed to fence out blacks from the city limits. The Supreme Court unanimously held that this racial "[[gerrymandering]]" violated the Constitution. In 1961,{{spaces}}... the Alabama legislature also intentionally diluted the effect of the black vote by instituting numbered place requirements for local elections.<ref name="vra">James Blacksher, Edward Still, Nick Quinton, Cullen Brown and Royal Dumas. [http://www.protectcivilrights.org/pdf/voting/AlabamaVRA.pdf ''Voting Rights in Alabama (1982–2006)''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924102059/http://www.protectcivilrights.org/pdf/voting/AlabamaVRA.pdf |date=September 24, 2020}}, Renew the VRA.org, July 2006, from discussion in Peyton McCrary, Jerome A. Gray, Edward Still, and Huey L. Perry, "Alabama" in ''Quiet Revolution in the South'', pp. 38–52, Chandler Davidson and Bernard Grofman, eds. 1994.</ref>}}

Industrial development related to the demands of World War II brought a level of prosperity to the state not seen since before the civil war.<ref name="SSpaces"/> Rural workers poured into the largest cities in the state for better jobs and a higher standard of living. One example of this massive influx of workers occurred in Mobile. Between 1940 and 1943, more than 89,000 people moved into the city to work for war-related industries.<ref name="thomason2">{{cite book |last1=Thomason |first1=Michael |title=Mobile : the new history of Alabama's first city |date=2001 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa |isbn=0-8173-1065-7 |pages=213–217}}</ref> Cotton and other [[cash crop]]s faded in importance as the state developed a manufacturing and service base.

Despite massive population changes in the state from 1901 to 1961, the rural-dominated legislature refused to reapportion House and Senate seats based on population, as required by the state constitution to follow the results of decennial censuses. They held on to old representation to maintain political and economic power in agricultural areas. One result was that [[Jefferson County, Alabama|Jefferson County]], containing Birmingham's industrial and economic powerhouse, contributed more than one-third of all tax revenue to the state, but did not receive a proportional amount in services. Urban interests were consistently underrepresented in the legislature. A 1960 study noted that because of rural domination, "a minority of about 25% of the total state population is in majority control of the Alabama legislature."<ref name=":0" /><ref name="pjhwpa">{{cite web |url=http://elections.gmu.edu/Redistricting/AL.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017192719/http://elections.gmu.edu/Redistricting/AL.htm |archive-date=October 17, 2007 |title=George Mason University, United States Election Project: Alabama Redistricting Summary.|access-date=October 24, 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In the United States Supreme Court cases of ''[[Baker v. Carr]]'' (1962) and ''[[Reynolds v. Sims]]'' (1964), the court ruled that the principle of "[[one man, one vote]]" needed to be the basis of both houses of state legislatures, and that their districts had to be based on population rather than geographic counties.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2023 |title=Reynolds v. Sims |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |access-date=May 26, 2018 |archive-date=May 27, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180527201725/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2023 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|date=1963|title=Baker V. Carr and Legislative Apportionments: A Problem of Standards|jstor=794657|journal=The Yale Law Journal|volume=72|issue=5|pages=968–1040|doi=10.2307/794657|s2cid=249552862 |url=https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/ylj/vol72/iss5/4|access-date=March 26, 2019|archive-date=March 26, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190326031411/https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/ylj/vol72/iss5/4/|url-status=live}}</ref>

African Americans continued to press in the 1950s and 1960s to end disenfranchisement and segregation in the state through the civil rights movement, including legal challenges. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' that public schools had to be [[Desegregation in the United States|desegregated]], but Alabama was slow to comply. During the 1960s, under Governor [[George Wallace]], Alabama resisted compliance with federal demands for desegregation.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I5JJCAAAQBAJ&q=alabama+brown+v.+board&pg=PT94 |title=Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Movement |last=Klarman |first=Michael J. |date=July 31, 2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780190294588 |access-date=November 8, 2020 |archive-date=February 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210220154843/https://books.google.com/books?id=I5JJCAAAQBAJ&q=alabama+brown+v.+board&pg=PT94 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/september_2_1963_gov._wallace_halts_integration/|title=September 2, 1963: Gov. Wallace halts integration|work=ABA Journal|access-date=May 26, 2018|author=Mark Curriden|archive-date=May 27, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180527023651/http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/september_2_1963_gov._wallace_halts_integration/|url-status=live}}</ref> The civil rights movement had notable events in Alabama, including the [[Montgomery bus boycott]] (1955–1956), [[Freedom Rides]] in 1961, and 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/s-121 |title=Civil Rights Movement in Alabama Feature |website=Encyclopedia of Alabama |access-date=May 26, 2018 |archive-date=May 27, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180527201747/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/s-121 |url-status=live}}</ref> These contributed to Congressional passage and enactment of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] and [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]] by the U.S. Congress.<ref name="cra64">{{cite web |url=http://finduslaw.com/civil_rights_act_of_1964_cra_title_vii_equal_employment_opportunities_42_us_code_chapter_21 |title=Civil Rights Act of 1964 |publisher=Finduslaw.com |access-date=October 24, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101021141154/http://finduslaw.com/civil_rights_act_of_1964_cra_title_vii_equal_employment_opportunities_42_us_code_chapter_21 |archive-date=October 21, 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/alabama-birthplace-of-voting-rights-act-once-again-gutting-voting-rights/ |title=Alabama, Birthplace of the Voting Rights Act, Is Once Again Gutting Voting Rights |last=Berman |first=Ari |date=October 1, 2015 |work=The Nation |access-date=May 26, 2018 |issn=0027-8378 |archive-date=May 27, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180527023747/https://www.thenation.com/article/alabama-birthplace-of-voting-rights-act-once-again-gutting-voting-rights/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

Legal segregation ended in the states in 1964, but Jim Crow customs often continued until specifically challenged in court.<ref name="USDOJ">{{cite web |url=http://www.usdoj.gov/kidspage/crt/voting.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070221054512/http://www.usdoj.gov/kidspage/crt/voting.htm |archive-date=February 21, 2007 |title=Voting Rights |access-date=September 23, 2006 |date=January 9, 2002 |website=Civil Rights: Law and History |publisher=U.S. Department of Justice |url-status=dead}}</ref> According to ''[[The New York Times]]'', by 2017, many of Alabama's African Americans were living in Alabama's cities such as Birmingham and Montgomery. Also, the Black Belt region across central Alabama "is home to largely poor counties that are predominantly African-American. These counties include Dallas, [[Lowndes County, Alabama|Lowndes]], [[Marengo County, Alabama|Marengo]] and [[Perry County, Alabama|Perry]]."<ref name="NYT_2017">{{cite news |title=Alabama Senate Race Between Roy Moore and Doug Jones Ends With More Controversy |first1=Jonathan |last1=Martin |first2=Alan |last2=Blinder |date=December 12, 2017}}</ref>

In 1972, for the first time since 1901, the legislature completed the congressional redistricting based on the decennial census. This benefited the urban areas that had developed, as well as all in the population who had been underrepresented for more than sixty years.<ref name="pjhwpa" /> Other changes were made to implement representative state house and senate districts.

Alabama has made some changes since the late 20th century and has used new types of voting to increase representation. In the 1980s, an omnibus redistricting case, ''[[Dillard v. Crenshaw County]]'', challenged the [[at-large]] voting for representative seats of 180 Alabama jurisdictions, including counties and school boards. At-large voting had diluted the votes of any minority in a county, as the majority tended to take all seats. Despite African Americans making up a significant minority in the state, they had been unable to elect any representatives in most of the at-large jurisdictions.<ref name="vra" />

As part of settlement of this case, five Alabama cities and counties, including [[Chilton County, Alabama|Chilton County]], adopted a system of [[proportional representation|cumulative voting]] for election of representatives in multi-seat jurisdictions. This has resulted in more proportional representation for voters. In another form of proportional representation, 23 jurisdictions use [[limited voting]], as in [[Conecuh County, Alabama|Conecuh County]]. In 1982, limited voting was first tested in Conecuh County. Together use of these systems has increased the number of African Americans and women being elected to local offices, resulting in governments that are more representative of their citizens.<ref name="cum">{{cite web |title=Cumulative Elections in Alabama (2004) |url=http://archive.fairvote.org/?page=516 |publisher=FairVote Archives |access-date=January 11, 2015 |archive-date=February 3, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150203203843/http://archive.fairvote.org/?page=516 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:MSFC Aerial 2017.jpg|thumb|George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, 2017]]
Beginning in the 1960s, the state's economy shifted away from its traditional lumber, steel, and textile industries because of increased foreign competition. Steel jobs, for instance, declined from 46,314 in 1950 to 14,185 in 2011.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bridges |first1=Edwin |title=Alabama: The Making of an American State |date=2016 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa, AL |page=224}}</ref> However, the state, particularly Huntsville, benefited from the opening of the [[Marshall Space Flight Center|George C. Marshall Space Flight Center]] in 1960, a major facility in the development of the Saturn rocket program and the space shuttle. Technology and manufacturing industries, such as automobile assembly, replaced some of the state's older industries in the late twentieth century, but the state's economy and growth lagged behind other states in the area, such as Georgia and Florida.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bridges |first1=Edwin |title=Alabama: The Making of an American State |date=2016 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa, AL |pages=224–229}}</ref>

=== 21st century ===
In 2001, Alabama Supreme Court chief justice [[Roy Moore]] installed a statue of the [[Ten Commandments]] in the capitol in Montgomery. In 2002, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court ordered the statue removed, but Moore refused to follow the court order, which led to protests around the capitol in favor of keeping the monument. The monument was removed in August 2003.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Faulk |first1=Kent |title=A Roy Moore timeline: From Ten Commandments to senate candidate |url=https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2016/05/a_roy_moore_timeline_from_ten.html |website=al.com |access-date=February 6, 2021 |date=May 8, 2016 |archive-date=August 13, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200813094511/https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2016/05/a_roy_moore_timeline_from_ten.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

A few natural disasters have occurred in the state in the twenty-first century. In 2004, [[Hurricane Ivan]], a category 3 storm upon landfall, struck the state and caused over $18&nbsp;billion of damage. It was among the most destructive storms to strike the state in its modern history.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Morgan |first1=Leigh |title=Remembering Hurricane Ivan 14 years later |url=https://www.al.com/news/erry-2018/09/338f6e161d3228/remembering-hurricane-ivan-14.html |website=al.com |access-date=February 6, 2021 |date=September 16, 2018 |archive-date=February 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210220152012/https://www.al.com/news/erry-2018/09/338f6e161d3228/remembering-hurricane-ivan-14.html |url-status=live}}</ref> A [[2011 Super Outbreak|super outbreak]] of 62 tornadoes hit the state in April 2011 and killed 238 people, devastating many communities.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Leada |first1=Gore |title=April 27, 2011 tornadoes in Alabama: A by-the-numbers look at day of devastation |url=https://www.al.com/sports/g66l-2019/04/4a522b8b4b5305/april-27-2011-tornadoes-in-alabama-a-bythenumbers-look-at-day-of-devastation.html |website=al.com |access-date=February 6, 2021 |date=April 27, 2019 |archive-date=February 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210214052116/https://www.al.com/sports/g66l-2019/04/4a522b8b4b5305/april-27-2011-tornadoes-in-alabama-a-bythenumbers-look-at-day-of-devastation.html |url-status=live}}</ref>