85-780: Raccoon Creek may refer to: Raccoon Creek, a tributary of the Coosa River in Alabama Raccoon Creek (Chattooga River tributary) , a stream in Georgia Raccoon Creek (Etowah River tributary) , a stream in Georgia Raccoon Creek, a tributary of the Elm River (Illinois) Raccoon Creek, a tributary of the Kaskaskia River near Walnut Hill, Illinois Raccoon Creek,
170-486: A poll tax and literacy test . 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 literate . This compared to more than 181,000 African Americans eligible to vote in 1900. The numbers dropped even more in later decades. The state legislature passed additional racial segregation laws related to public facilities into
255-933: A creek in Maquoketa Caves State Park , Iowa Raccoon Creek, a creek along Corridor G in Kentucky Raccoon Creek (Missouri) , a stream in Missouri Raccoon Creek (New Jersey) , a tributary of the Delaware River Raccoon Creek, a creek near Waynesville, North Carolina ; see William Holland Thomas Raccoon Creek (Ohio) , a tributary of the Ohio River near Carbondale in southern Ohio Raccoon Creek Ecological Management Area, located in Zaleski State Forest in southern Ohio Raccoon Creek (Beaver County, Pennsylvania) ,
340-650: A few days, it joined the Confederate States of America . The Confederacy's capital was initially at Montgomery. Alabama was heavily 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. 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
425-505: A hideout of Jesse James ; Stephens Gap Cave, in Jackson County , which has a 143-foot pit and two waterfalls and is one of the most photographed wild cave scenes in America; Little River Canyon, near Fort Payne, one of the nation's longest mountaintop rivers; Rickwood Caverns , near Warrior , which has an underground pool, blind cave-fish, and 260-million-year-old limestone formations; and
510-561: A lawsuit and court order. 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
595-555: A local aerospace industry. Alabama's economy in the 21st century is based on automotive, finance, tourism, manufacturing, aerospace, mineral extraction, healthcare, education, retail, and technology. The name of the Alabama River and state is derived from the Alabama people , a Muskogean-speaking tribe whose members lived just below the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers on
680-584: A significant minority in the state, they had been unable to elect any representatives in most of the at-large jurisdictions. As part of settlement of this case, five Alabama cities and counties, including Chilton County , adopted a system of 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 . In 1982, limited voting
765-582: A slight majority of those disenfranchised by these laws: 600,000 whites vs. 520,000 African Americans. 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. The rural-dominated Alabama legislature consistently underfunded schools and services for
850-631: A stream in Beaver County Raccoon Creek (Erie County, Pennsylvania) , a creek in Erie County Raccoon Creek State Park , Pennsylvania Raccoon Creek (Tomhicken Creek) , in Luzerne and Schuylkill Counties, Pennsylvania See also [ edit ] Coon Creek (disambiguation) [REDACTED] Topics referred to by the same term This disambiguation page lists articles about distinct geographical locations with
935-585: A violation of the Fifteenth Amendment . The legislature also changed the boundaries of 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, ... the Alabama legislature also intentionally diluted the effect of the black vote by instituting numbered place requirements for local elections. Industrial development related to
SECTION 10
#17328513304571020-483: 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 . Within Alabama, American football , particularly at the college level, plays a major part of the state's culture. Originally home to many native tribes, present-day Alabama was a Spanish territory beginning in
1105-639: Is a state in the Southeastern region 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
1190-571: Is a tributary of the Alabama River in the U.S. states of Alabama and Georgia . The river is about 280 miles (450 km) long. The Coosa River begins at the confluence of the Oostanaula and Etowah rivers in Rome, Georgia , and ends just northeast of the Alabama state capital, Montgomery , where it joins the Tallapoosa River to form the Alabama River just south of Wetumpka . Around 90% of
1275-573: Is common in the U.S.; an estimated 26 states have names of Native American origin. Sources disagree on the word's meaning. Some scholars suggest the word comes from the Choctaw alba (meaning 'plants' or 'weeds') and amo (meaning 'to cut', 'to trim', or 'to gather'). The meaning may have been 'clearers of the thicket' or 'herb gatherers', referring to clearing land for cultivation or collecting medicinal plants. The state has numerous place names of Native American origin . An 1842 article in
1360-602: Is dedicated to volunteer citizen monitoring of water quality in Alabama Rivers. The Alabama Power Foundation is a non-profit foundation providing grants for watershed, environmental and community projects along the Coosa River and within the state of Alabama. The Coosa River Basin Initiative is a grassroots environmental organization with the mission of informing and empowering citizens so that they may become involved in
1445-509: Is home to the majority of the remaining clumps of the endangered green pitcherplant . The bald eagle , once an endangered species now has nesting populations on and in the vicinity of Coosa River impoundments The largest concentration of clusters in Alabama of the red-cockaded woodpecker , an endangered species, occurs on lands adjacent to Lake Mitchell under the stewardship of Alabama Power. The Coosa River's drainage has hundreds of tributaries, which have been divided into sections based on
1530-570: Is mostly mountainous, with the Tennessee River cutting a large valley and creating numerous creeks, streams, rivers, mountains, and lakes. Alabama is bordered by the states of Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama has coastline at the Gulf of Mexico, in the extreme southern edge of the state. The state ranges in elevation from sea level at Mobile Bay to more than 2,000 feet (610 m) in
1615-521: Is today southern Clarke County , northernmost Mobile County , and most of Washington County . What are now 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
1700-621: The Blaine Amendment , prohibiting public money from being used to finance religious-affiliated schools. The same year, legislation was approved that called for racially segregated schools. Railroad passenger cars were segregated in 1891. The new 1901 Constitution of Alabama included provisions for voter registration that effectively 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
1785-536: The Jacksonville Republican proposed it meant 'Here We Rest'. This notion was popularized in the 1850s through the writings of Alexander Beaufort Meek . Experts in the Muskogean languages have not found any evidence to support such a translation. 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
SECTION 20
#17328513304571870-644: The Montgomery bus boycott (1955–1956), Freedom Rides in 1961, and 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. 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. Legal segregation ended in the states in 1964, but Jim Crow customs often continued until specifically challenged in court. 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,
1955-499: The Muskogee tribes developed distinct cultures and languages. 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 in 1702. The city
2040-709: The Natchez Trace Parkway , the Selma To Montgomery National Historic Trail , and the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail . Natural wonders include the "Natural Bridge" rock, the longest natural bridge east of the Rockies , just south of Haleyville ; Cathedral Caverns , in Marshall County , named for its cathedral-like appearance, which features one of the largest cave entrances and one of
2125-709: The Ohio River began during the Burial Mound Period (1000 BCE – 700 CE) and continued until European contact . The agrarian Mississippian culture covered most of the state from 1000 to 1600 CE, with one of its major centers built at what is now the Moundville Archaeological Site in Moundville, Alabama . This is the second-largest complex of the classic Middle Mississippian era, after Cahokia in present-day Illinois , which
2210-589: The Upper South brought slaves with them as the cotton plantations in Alabama expanded. The economy of the central Black Belt (named for its dark, productive soil) was built around large cotton plantations whose owners' wealth grew mainly from slave labor. The area also drew many poor, disenfranchised people who became 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. Most Native American tribes were completely removed from
2295-623: The Walls of Jericho canyon, on the Alabama–Tennessee border. A 5-mile (8 km)-wide meteorite impact crater is located in Elmore County , just north of Montgomery. This is the Wetumpka crater , the site of "Alabama's greatest natural disaster". A 1,000-foot (300 m)-wide meteorite hit the area about 80 million years ago. The hills just east of downtown Wetumpka showcase the eroded remains of
2380-1071: The northeast , to Mount Cheaha at 2,413 ft (735 m). Alabama's land consists of 22 million acres (89,000 km ) of forest or 67% of the state's total land area. Suburban Baldwin County , along the Gulf Coast, is the largest county in the state in both land area and water area. Areas in Alabama administered by the National Park Service include Horseshoe Bend National Military Park near Alexander City ; Little River Canyon National Preserve near Fort Payne ; Russell Cave National Monument in Bridgeport ; Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site in Tuskegee; and Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site near Tuskegee. Additionally, Alabama has four National Forests : Conecuh , Talladega , Tuskegee , and William B. Bankhead . Alabama also contains
2465-423: The "Cotton State". The state has diverse geography, with the north dominated by the mountainous Tennessee Valley and the south by Mobile Bay , a historically significant port. 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
2550-405: The "Magic City". By 1920, Birmingham was the 36th-largest city in the United States. 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
2635-404: The 1950s: jails were segregated in 1911; hospitals in 1915; toilets, hotels, and restaurants in 1928; and bus stop waiting rooms in 1945. 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. By 1941, whites constituted
Raccoon Creek - Misplaced Pages Continue
2720-493: The Alabama Territory on March 3, 1817. St. Stephens , now abandoned, served as the territorial capital from 1817 to 1819. Alabama was admitted as the 22nd state on December 14, 1819, with Congress selecting Huntsville as the site for the first Constitutional Convention . From July 5 to August 2, 1819, delegates met to prepare the new state constitution. Huntsville served as temporary capital from 1819 to 1820, when
2805-519: The Alabama legislature." 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. African Americans continued to press in the 1950s and 1960s to end disenfranchisement and segregation in
2890-636: The Black Belt region across central Alabama "is home to largely poor counties that are predominantly African-American. These counties include Dallas, Lowndes , Marengo and Perry ." 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. Other changes were made to implement representative state house and senate districts. Alabama has made some changes since
2975-671: The British colonial period. It was claimed by the Province of Georgia from 1767 onwards. Following the Revolutionary War, it remained a part of Georgia, although heavily disputed. 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
3060-713: The Cherokee Trail of Tears. After the removals, the Coosa River valley and the southeast in general was wide open for American settlers. The invention of the cotton gin at the turn of the 19th century had made short-staple cotton profitable to process. It could be easily grown in the upland areas of the South, and demand was high for this cotton in the US and Europe. Large-scale migrations known as "Alabama Fever" filled Alabama with new settlers developing large cotton plantations worked by enslaved African Americans. The first river town to form in
3145-505: The Coosa Basin was at the foot of the last waterfall on the Coosa River, the "Devil's Staircase." Settlers soon adopted the native name Wetumpka (meaning "rumbling waters" or "falling stream") for this new community. The Coosa River was an important transportation route into the early 20th century as a commercial waterway for riverboats along the upper section of the river for 200 miles south of Rome. However, shoals and waterfalls, such
3230-458: The Coosa River's length is located in Alabama. Coosa County, Alabama , is located on the Coosa River. The Coosa is one of Alabama 's most developed rivers. Most of the river has been impounded, with Alabama Power , a unit of the Southern Company , owning seven dams and powerhouses on the Coosa River. The dams produce hydroelectric power , but they are costly to some species endemic to
3315-561: The Coosa River. Native Americans had been living on the Coosa Valley for millennia before Hernando de Soto and his men became the first Europeans to visit it in 1540. The Coosa chiefdom was one of the most powerful chiefdoms in the southeast at the time. Over a century after the Spanish left the Coosa Valley, the British established strong trading ties with the Muscogee Creek bands of
3400-580: The Coosa are: A number of significant cities lie on the banks of the Coosa River. They include: The Coosa-Alabama River Improvement Association , founded in 1890 in Gadsden, Alabama to promote navigation on the Coosa River is a leading advocate of the economic, recreational and environmental benefits of the Coosa River system. The Alabama Rivers Alliance works to unite the citizens of Alabama to protect peoples right to clean, healthy, waters. Alabama Water Watch
3485-592: The Devil's Staircase along the river's lowest 65 miles, blocked the upper Coosa's riverboats from access to the Alabama River and the Gulf of Mexico . Through its building of dams on the Coosa in the early 20th century — Lay, Mitchell and Jordan — Alabama Power began to pioneer new methods of controlling and eliminating malaria , which was a major health issue in rural Alabama in the early 1900s and in other river valley areas. So successful were their pioneering efforts, that
Raccoon Creek - Misplaced Pages Continue
3570-608: The French and English over the Coosa Valley, and much of the southeast in general, continued. It was not until after Britain had defeated France in the Seven Years' War (also known as the French and Indian War ) that France relinquished its holdings east of the Mississippi River to Britain. This was part of the Treaty of Paris , signed by both nations in 1763 to mark the end of the war. By
3655-554: The Knight of Elvas and Rodrigo Ranjel wrote Alibamu and Limamu , respectively, in transliterations of the term. As early as 1702, the French called the tribe the Alibamon , with French maps identifying the river as Rivière des Alibamons . Other spellings of the name have included Alibamu , Alabamo , Albama , Alebamon , Alibama , Alibamou , Alabamu , and Allibamou . The use of state names derived from Native American languages
3740-658: The Lower Creek in the Creek War . This culminated in the Creek defeat at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend . Afterward, the Treaty of Fort Jackson in 1814 forced the Creek to cede a large amount of land to the United States, but left them a reserve between the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers in northern Alabama. Even there the Creeks were encroached on by European-American settlers who began as squatters from
3825-403: The Medical Division of the League of Nations visited Alabama to study the new methods during the construction of Mitchell Dam. For a time, the Popeye the Sailorman cartoons were inspired by Tom Sims, a Coosa River resident of Rome, Georgia . He was familiar with riverboat life and characters of the early 1900s. The following table describes the seven impoundments on the Coosa River from
3910-644: The Middle Coosa River Watershed, 281 occurrences of rare plant and animal species and natural communities have been documented, including 73 occurrences of 23 species that are federal or state protected. Ten conservation targets were chosen: the riverine system, matrix forest communities (oak hickory-pine forest), gray bat ( Myotis grisescens ), riparian vegetation, mountain longleaf pine ( Pinus palustris ) forest communities, red-cockaded woodpecker ( Picoides borealis ), critically imperiled aquatic species (fish, mussels, and snails), southern hognose snake ( Heterodon simus ), caddisflies, and imperiled plants. Maintaining
3995-411: The Mississippian peoples; it is one of the primary means by which their religion is understood. Among the historical tribes of Native American people living in present-day Alabama at the time of European contact were the Cherokee , an Iroquoian language people; and the Muskogean-speaking Alabama ( Alibamu ), Chickasaw , Choctaw , Creek, and Koasati . While part of the same large language family,
4080-429: The United States with 52,419 square miles (135,760 km ) of total area: 3.2% of the area is water, making Alabama 23rd in the amount of surface water, also giving it the second-largest inland waterway system in the United States. About three-fifths of the land area is part of the Gulf Coastal Plain , a gentle plain with a general descent towards the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. The North Alabama region
4165-431: The United States. Finally, during the 1820s and 1830s the Creek, Cherokee, and virtually all the southeastern Indians were removed to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma ). The Cherokee removal is remembered as the Trail of Tears . The Cherokee capital city of New Echota was located on the headwater tributaries of the Coosa River, in Georgia, until the tribe's removal. The Creek and Choctaw removals were similar to
4250-454: The area around the late 17th century, much to the dismay of France, which had some early settlements on the coast, specifically Mobile . The French had traveled from there upriver and believed that the Coosa River was a key gateway to the entire South ; they wanted to control the valley. The main transportation of the day was by boat. The confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers formed the Alabama River , which has its mouth at Mobile Bay ,
4335-441: The area, such as Georgia and Florida. 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 US 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. A few natural disasters have occurred in
SECTION 50
#17328513304574420-411: The biodiversity of the Coosa River system is particularly important because it has already lost a significant portion of its aquatic fauna to extinction. (S)=State Status (F)=Federal Status The Alabama sturgeon , a former resident of the Coosa River below the Fall Line , was placed on the endangered species list in September 2000. The upper Coosa watershed in northeastern Alabama and north Georgia
4505-530: 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. 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
4590-438: The demands of World War II brought a level of prosperity to the state not seen since before the civil war. 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. Cotton and other cash crops faded in importance as
4675-401: The different areas of the watershed . The first four sections are tributary systems that converge to form the main artery of the Coosa River in Georgia. These main tributary rivers are the Conasauga and Coosawattee Rivers, which together then form the Oostanaula River . The Oostanaula then joins with the Etowah River in Rome, Georgia, forming the Coosa River. Other significant tributaries of
4760-409: The disenfranchised African Americans, but it did not relieve them of paying taxes. 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 Schools . In Alabama, these schools were designed, and the construction partially financed with Rosenwald funds, which paid one-third of
4845-402: The early decades of the 20th century as part of the Great Migration out of the South. Reflecting this emigration, the population growth rate in Alabama (see "historical populations" table below) dropped by nearly half from 1910 to 1920. 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
4930-450: The end of the American Revolutionary War, the Coosa Valley was occupied in its lower portion by the Creek and in the upper portion by the Cherokee peoples, who had a settlement near its origin in northwest Georgia. They were beginning to feel pressure from European-American encroachment throughout their territories. After the Fort Mims massacre near Mobile, General Andrew Jackson led American troops, along with Cherokee allies, against
5015-401: The freedmen and Republicans. These groups included The Ku Klux Klan , the Pale Faces, Knights of the White Camellia , Red Shirts , and the White League . 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, and the legislature passed
5100-401: The largest stalagmites in the world; Ecor Rouge, in Fairhope , the highest coastline point between Maine and Mexico; DeSoto Caverns , in Childersburg , the first officially recorded cave in the United States; Noccalula Falls , in Gadsden , which has a 90-foot waterfall; Dismals Canyon , near Phil Campbell , which is home to two waterfalls and six natural bridges and is said to have been
5185-436: The late 19th century up until the 1960s. High-profile events such as the Selma to Montgomery marches made the state a major focal point of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. During and after World War II , Alabama grew as the state's economy diversified with new industries. In 1960, the establishment of NASA 's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville helped boost Alabama's economic growth by developing
SECTION 60
#17328513304575270-430: 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
5355-432: The port used by the French for travel around the Caribbean and to France. They wanted to retain control of both the Coosa and the Alabama rivers. In the early 18th century, almost all European and Indian trade in the southeast ceased during the tribal uprisings brought on by the Yamasee War against the Carolinas . After a few years, the Indian trade system was resumed under somewhat reformed policies. The conflict between
5440-422: The process of creating a clean, healthy and economically viable Coosa River Basin. Coosa Riverkeeper is a citizen-based river conservation group that patrols the river, educates the public and advocates on behalf of the river. The staffed organization is based on Yellowleaf Creek and works in the Middle and Lower Coosa Basins. Alabama Alabama ( / ˌ æ l ə ˈ b æ m ə / AL -ə- BAM -ə )
5525-471: The same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Raccoon_Creek&oldid=898684430 " Category : Place name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Coosa River The Coosa River
5610-514: The seat of government moved to Cahaba in Dallas County . Cahaba , now a ghost town , was the first permanent state capital from 1820 to 1825. 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. Part of the frontier in the 1820s and 1830s, its constitution provided for universal suffrage for white men. Southeastern planters and traders from
5695-422: The sixteenth century until the French acquired it in the early eighteenth 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,
5780-505: 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. Alabama's slaves were freed by the 13th Amendment in 1865. 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
5865-770: The south to north built by the Alabama Power Company as well as the tailwater section below Jordan Dam. Harvey H. Jackson III in a book Putting Loafing Streams To Work characterized the importance of the first Coosa River dams as follows: Prior to 1912 only seventy-two Alabama communities had electricity, but by 1928, when Jordan Dam went into operation, Alabama Power served four hundred twenty-one communities in sixty-one of Alabama's sixty-seven counties. The company also provided power for coal and iron mines, cotton mills, cement plants, quarries, steel plants and rolling mills, foundries, pipe plants and machine shops, ice plants, public utilities, and electric furnance installations, industries that put thousands of [Alabama] citizens to work. In
5950-414: 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
6035-406: The state in the twenty-first century. In 2004, Hurricane Ivan , a category 3 storm upon landfall, struck the state and caused over $ 18 billion of damage. It was among the most destructive storms to strike the state in its modern history. A super outbreak of 62 tornadoes hit the state in April 2011 and killed 238 people, devastating many communities. Alabama is the thirtieth-largest state in
6120-553: The state seceded from the United States to become part of the Confederate States of America , with Montgomery acting as its first capital, and rejoined the Union in 1868. Following the American Civil War , Alabama 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
6205-457: 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 desegregated , but Alabama was slow to comply. During the 1960s, under Governor George Wallace , Alabama resisted compliance with federal demands for desegregation. The civil rights movement had notable events in Alabama, including
6290-610: The state within a few years of the passage of the Indian Removal Act by Congress in 1830. From 1826 to 1846, 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. A new capitol building was erected under the direction of Stephen Decatur Button of Philadelphia . The first structure burned down in 1849, but
6375-513: The state, particularly Huntsville, benefited from the opening of the 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 the state's older industries in the late twentieth century, but the state's economy and growth lagged behind other states in
6460-684: The state. Alabama was represented in Congress during this period by three African-American congressmen: Jeremiah Haralson , Benjamin S. Turner , and James T. Rapier . Following the war, the state remained chiefly agricultural, with an economy tied to cotton. During Reconstruction, state legislators ratified a 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 . Organized insurgent , resistance groups tried to suppress
6545-476: The state. Several of the surviving school buildings in the state are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places . Continued racial discrimination and lynchings , 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
6630-657: The surrender of the Spanish garrison at Mobile to U.S. forces on April 13, 1813. Thomas Bassett, a loyalist to the 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. The district's boundaries were roughly limited to the area within a few miles of the Tombigbee River and included portions of what
6715-568: The territory in 1804, following the Yazoo land scandal . 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. Before 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
6800-473: The upper reaches of the river. In the Alabama language , the word for a person of Alabama lineage is Albaamo (or variously Albaama or Albàamo in different dialects; the plural form is Albaamaha ). The word's spelling varies significantly among historical sources. The first usage appears in three accounts of the Hernando de Soto expedition of 1540: Garcilaso de la Vega used Alibamo , while
6885-528: 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. 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. However,
6970-517: Was moved to the current site of Mobile in 1711. This area was claimed by the French from 1702 to 1763 as part of La Louisiane . 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
7055-543: 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 . 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 . On January 11, 1861, Alabama declared its secession from the Union . After remaining an independent republic for
7140-413: Was that 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
7225-527: Was the center of the culture. Analysis of artifacts from archaeological excavations at Moundville were the basis of scholars' formulating the characteristics of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC). Contrary to popular belief, the SECC appears to have no direct links to Mesoamerican culture but developed independently. The Ceremonial Complex represents a major component of the religion of
#456543