Alabama’s Historical Sites

How old is Alabama? Alabama is about 200 years old. The state has had a lot of important history during that time. The story of Alabama and its people can be found in its many historical sites.

Montgomery, Alabama Birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement with the Montgomery Bus Boycott (Dec. 1, 1955), also called the birthplace of the Confederacy because it was the first capital of the states that wanted to break away from the U.S. during the Civil War During that time black people had to sit in the back of the bus while white people sat in the front. The Montgomery Bus Boycott began after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person and was put in jail. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other black people boycotted the bus system by walking for a little over a year until the policies were changed.

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Tuskegee, Alabama Place of Tuskegee Institute, a historically African American College founded by Booker T. Washington Booker T. Washington was born into slavery in Franklin County, Virginia, on April 5, In spite of the fact that it was illegal to teach enslaved blacks to read and write, Washington was able to obtain a primary education, and subsequently entered Hampton Institute in the fall of He proved to be an exemplary student, and over the years, an equally respectable teacher and speaker. The principal of Hampton Institute was so fond of Washington that he recommended him to a group of Alabama legislators as a viable candidate for director of an African American school that they wanted to establish in their state. In 1881, Washington became president of that Alabama school, known as Tuskegee Institute, which he and fellow colleagues built from a little shanty church to a major educational institution for blacks.

Tuskegee Institute History Class at Tuskegee Institute in 1902

Mobile, Alabama Site of the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park The USS Alabama Battleship won 9 battle stars in WWII

Huntsville, Alabama Home of the U.S. Space and Rocket Center It is the largest space museum in the world! Where America's space program was born Where the rockets were developed that put the first U.S. satellite into orbit and sent men to the moon Where the power for today's space shuttle was developed Where the modules for the International Space Station were designed and built Today, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center houses thousands of artifacts, including the charred Apollo 16 Command Module, a rock brought back from the moon, the original Saturn V lunar rocket vehicle and a full-sized space shuttle mock-up.

U.S. Space and Rocket Center

Tuscumbia, Alabama The location of the house where Helen Keller was born. The name of the house is “Ivy Green.” She was the first deaf/blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts Degree. She was an American Author, Political Activist, and lecturer.

Helen Keller

Moundville, Alabama Home of an Archaeological Park which features 26 prehistoric mounds The site was occupied by Native Americans of the Mississippian culture from around 1000 AD to 1450 AD. At its height, the community took the form of a roughly 300-acre residential and political areas protected on three sides by a bastioned wooden palisade wall, with the remaining side protected by the river bluff. The largest platform mounds are located on the northern edge of the plaza and become increasingly smaller going either clockwise or counter clockwise around the plaza to the south. Scholars theorize that the highest-ranking clans occupied the large northern mounds with the smaller mounds' supporting buildings used for residences, mortuary, and other purposes.

Moundville, Alabama

Birmingham, Alabama Home of Vulcan, the world’s largest cast-iron statue Considered one of the most memorable works of civic art in the United States Designed by Italian artist Giuseppe Moretti and cast from local iron in 1904, it has overlooked the urban landscape of Alabama's largest city since the 1930s. Symbolizes the giant potential in every person

How Vulcan Was Chosen as Birmingham’s Symbol… In ancient times, people worshipped many gods. Vulcan was the Roman god of the Forge. A forge is a shop with a furnace where metal is heated and hammered out into useful items. In Greek mythology, Vulcan's name is Hephaestus. His father was Jupiter, the supreme ruler of the universe, and his mother, Juno. Unlike all the other gods and goddesses, who were perfectly beautiful, Vulcan was ugly and lame. He was thrown from Mt. Olympus, the home of the gods. After falling for an entire day, he landed on the island of Lemnos in the Aegean Sea and worked as a blacksmith, using a volcano as his forge. The one-eyed Cyclopes were his helpers. He made weapons and armor for all the gods, but was kindly and peaceful himself. He married the glamorous Venus, goddess of Love and Beauty. What does an ancient god have to do with a modern city?

More about Vulcan Birmingham was founded in The area where the city grew is very special because it contains coal, iron ore and limestone, the raw materials for making iron and steel. Birmingham's founders knew this would be a good place to build an industrial city. By 1900, Birmingham was called the "Magic City" because it grew so quickly. The city's leaders wanted to advertise Birmingham and the state of Alabama to the world by entering an exhibit in the St. Louis World's Fair. It did this by hiring a sculptor to create Vulcan. After the fair, it was shipped in pieces back to Birmingham to be reassembled.

Vulcan – Birmingham, Alabama

Selma, Alabama The site of the start of the 1965 civil rights march to Montgomery, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to protest laws that kept African Americans from voting. The march inspired the passage of the Voting Rights Act of The first march took place on March 7, 1965 — "Bloody Sunday" — when 600 civil rights marchers were attacked by state and local police with billy clubs and tear gas. The second march, the following Tuesday, resulted in 2,500 protesters turning around after crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The third march started March 16. The marchers averaged 10 miles a day along U.S. Route 80, known in Alabama as the "Jefferson Davis Highway". Protected by 2,000 soldiers of the U.S. Army, 1,900 members of the Alabama National Guard under Federal command, and many FBI agents and Federal Marshals, they arrived in Montgomery on March 24, and at the Alabama State Capitol on March 25. The route is memorialized as the Selma To Montgomery Voting Rights Trail, a U.S. National Historic Trail.

Civil Rights March for Voting Rights