Alabama
Alabama (/ˌæləˈbæmə/) is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered by 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[9] and the 24th-most populous of the U.S. states.[10]
Alabama | |
---|---|
State of Alabama | |
| |
Nicknames: the Yellowhammer State, the Heart of Dixie, the Cotton State | |
Motto(s): | |
Anthem: "Alabama" | |
Country | United States |
Before statehood | Alabama Territory |
Admitted to the Union | December 14, 1819 (22nd) |
Capital | Montgomery |
Largest city | Huntsville |
Largest county or equivalent | Jefferson |
Largest metro and urban areas | Greater Birmingham |
Government | |
• Governor | Kay Ivey (R) |
• Lieutenant Governor | Will Ainsworth (R) |
Legislature | Alabama Legislature |
• Upper house | Senate |
• Lower house | House of Representatives |
Judiciary | Supreme Court of Alabama |
U.S. senators | Tommy Tuberville (R) Katie Britt (R) |
U.S. House delegation | 6 Republicans 1 Democrat (list) |
Area | |
• Total | 52,419 sq mi (135,765 km2) |
• Land | 50,744 sq mi (131,426 km2) |
• Water | 1,675 sq mi (4,338 km2) 3.2% |
• Rank | 30th |
Dimensions | |
• Length | 330 mi (531 km) |
• Width | 190 mi (305 km) |
Elevation | 500 ft (150 m) |
Highest elevation | 2,413 ft (735.5 m) |
Lowest elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
Population (2021) | |
• Total | 5,039,877[3] |
• Rank | 24th |
• Density | 99.1/sq mi (38.4/km2) |
• Rank | 27th |
• Median household income | $52,000[4] |
• Income rank | 46th[5] |
Demonym(s) | Alabamian,[6] Alabaman[7] |
Language | |
• Official language | English |
• Spoken language | As of 2010[8]
|
Time zones | |
Entire state (legally) | UTC−06:00 (Central) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−05:00 (CDT) |
Phenix City area (unofficially) | UTC−05:00 (Eastern) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC−04:00 (EDT) |
USPS abbreviation | AL |
ISO 3166 code | US-AL |
Traditional abbreviation | Ala. |
Latitude | 30°11' N to 35° N |
Longitude | 84°53' W to 88°28' W |
Website | alabama |
List of state symbols | |
---|---|
Slogan | Share The Wonder, Alabama the beautiful, Where America finds its voice, Sweet Home Alabama |
Living insignia | |
Amphibian | Red Hills salamander |
Bird | Yellowhammer, wild turkey |
Butterfly | Eastern tiger swallowtail |
Fish | Largemouth bass, fighting tarpon |
Flower | Camellia, oak-leaf hydrangea |
Horse breed | Racking horse |
Insect | Monarch butterfly |
Mammal | American black bear |
Reptile | Alabama red-bellied turtle |
Tree | Longleaf pine |
Inanimate insignia | |
Beverage | Conecuh Ridge Whiskey |
Color(s) | Red, white |
Dance | Square dance |
Food | Pecan, blackberry, peach |
Fossil | Basilosaurus |
Gemstone | Star blue quartz |
Mineral | Hematite |
Rock | Marble |
Shell | Johnstone's junonia |
Soil | Bama |
State route marker | |
State quarter | |
Released in 2003 | |
Lists of United States state symbols |
Alabama is nicknamed the Yellowhammer State, after the state bird. Alabama is also known as the "Heart of Dixie" and the "Cotton State". The state tree is the longleaf pine, and the state flower is the camellia. Alabama's capital is Montgomery, and its largest city by population and area is Huntsville.[11] Its oldest city is Mobile, founded by French colonists (Alabama Creoles) in 1702 as the capital of French Louisiana.[12][13] Greater Birmingham is Alabama's largest metropolitan area and its economic center.[14]
Originally home to many native tribes, present-day Alabama was a Spanish territory beginning in 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, 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 the late 19th century up until the 1960s. High-profile events such as the Selma to Montgomery march 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. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville would help Alabama's economic growth in the mid-to-late 20th century, by developing an aerospace industry. Alabama's economy in the 21st century is based on automotive, finance, tourism, manufacturing, aerospace, mineral extraction, healthcare, education, retail, and technology.[15]
The state's geography is diverse, with the north dominated by the mountainous Tennessee Valley and the south by Mobile Bay, a historically significant port. Politically, as part of the Deep South, Alabama is predominantly a 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.
Etymology
The European-American naming of the Alabama River and state was derived from the Alabama people, a Muskogean-speaking tribe whose members lived just below the confluence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers on the upper reaches of the river.[16] 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).[17] The word's spelling varies significantly among historical sources.[18] The first usage appears in three accounts of the Hernando de Soto expedition of 1540: Garcilaso de la Vega used Alibamo, while the Knight of Elvas and Rodrigo Ranjel wrote Alibamu and Limamu, respectively, in transliterations of the term.[18] As early as 1702, the French called the tribe the Alibamon, with French maps identifying the river as Rivière des Alibamons.[16] Other spellings of the name have included Alibamu, Alabamo, Albama, Alebamon, Alibama, Alibamou, Alabamu, and Allibamou.[18][19][20] The use of state names derived from Native American languages is common in the U.S.; an estimated 26 states have names of Native American origin.[21]
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').[18][22][23] The meaning may have been 'clearers of the thicket'[22] or 'herb gatherers',[23][24] referring to clearing land for cultivation[19] or collecting medicinal plants.[24] The state has numerous place names of Native American origin.[25][26]
An 1842 article in the Jacksonville Republican proposed it meant 'Here We Rest'.[18] This notion was popularized in the 1850s through the writings of Alexander Beaufort Meek.[18] Experts in the Muskogean languages have not found any evidence to support such a translation.[16][18]
History
Pre-European settlement
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 BCE – 700 CE) and continued until European contact.[27]
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.[28][29] 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 artifacts from archaeological excavations at Moundville were the basis of scholars' formulating the characteristics of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC).[30] 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 the Mississippian peoples; it is one of the primary means by which their religion is understood.[31]
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.[32] While part of the same large language family, the Muskogee tribes developed distinct cultures and languages.
European settlement
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.[33] 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 La Louisiane.[34]
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 United States 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.[34][35]
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.[36] 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, northernmost Mobile County, and most of Washington County.[37][38]
What is now the counties of Baldwin and Mobile became part of Spanish West Florida in 1783, part of the independent Republic of West Florida in 1810, and was finally added to 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 Revolutionary War, it remained a part of Georgia, although heavily disputed.[39][40]
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.[40][41] 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 United States in 1819.[35]
19th century
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 the Alabama Territory on March 3, 1817. St. Stephens, now abandoned, served as the territorial capital from 1817 to 1819.[42]
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 the seat of government moved to Cahaba in Dallas County.[43]
Cahaba, now a ghost town, was the first permanent state capital from 1820 to 1825.[44] 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.[45][46] Part of the frontier in the 1820s and 1830s, its constitution provided for universal suffrage for white men.[47]
Southeastern planters and traders from 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.[47] 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.[45] Most Native American tribes were completely removed from the state within a few years of the passage of the Indian Removal Act by Congress in 1830.[48]
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.[49] 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.[50][51]
Civil War and Reconstruction
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.[52] On January 11, 1861, Alabama declared its secession from the 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 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 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.[53]
Alabama's slaves were freed by the 13th Amendment in 1865.[54] 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.[55]
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.[55] Organized insurgent, resistance groups tried to suppress the freedmen and Republicans. Besides the short-lived original Ku Klux Klan, these included the Pale Faces, Knights of the White Camellia, Red Shirts, and the White League.[55]
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,[55] and the legislature passed the Blaine Amendment, prohibiting public money from being used to finance religious-affiliated schools.[56] The same year, legislation was approved that called for racially segregated schools.[57] Railroad passenger cars were segregated in 1891.[57]
20th century
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 a poll tax and literacy test.[58] 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.[59] 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.[57]
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.[59] By 1941, whites constituted a slight majority of those disenfranchised by these laws: 600,000 whites vs. 520,000 African Americans.[59] 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.[60]
The rural-dominated Alabama legislature consistently underfunded schools and services for the disenfranchised African Americans, but it did not relieve them of paying taxes.[47] 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 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.[61]
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 surviving school buildings in the state are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[61]
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 the early decades of the 20th century as part of the Great Migration out of the South.[62][63] Reflecting this emigration, the population growth rate in Alabama (see "historical populations" table below) dropped by nearly half from 1910 to 1920.[64]
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".[65] By 1920, Birmingham was the 36th-largest city in the United States.[66] 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.[67]
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. 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.[68]
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.[47] 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.[69] Cotton and other cash crops 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, 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."[67][70]
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.[71][72]
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 desegregated, but Alabama was slow to comply. During the 1960s, under Governor George Wallace, Alabama resisted compliance with federal demands for desegregation.[73][74] 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.[75] 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.[76][77]
Legal segregation ended in the states in 1964, but Jim Crow customs often continued until specifically challenged in court.[78] 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, Marengo and Perry."[79]
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.[70] 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.[68]
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 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.[80]
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.[81] However, 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 the area, such as Georgia and Florida.[82]
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 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.[83]
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 billion of damage. It was among the most destructive storms to strike the state in its modern history.[84] A super outbreak of 62 tornadoes hit the state in April 2011 and killed 238 people, devastating many communities.[85]
Geography
Alabama is the thirtieth-largest state in the United States with 52,419 square miles (135,760 km2) 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.[86] 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 is mostly mountainous, with the Tennessee River cutting a large valley and creating numerous creeks, streams, rivers, mountains, and lakes.[87]
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.[87] The state ranges in elevation from sea level[88] at Mobile Bay to more than 2,000 feet (610 m) in the northeast, to Mount Cheaha[87] at 2,413 ft (735 m).[89]
Alabama's land consists of 22 million acres (89,000 km2) of forest or 67% of the state's total land area.[90] Suburban Baldwin County, along the Gulf Coast, is the largest county in the state in both land area and water area.[91]
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.[92] Additionally, Alabama has four National Forests: Conecuh, Talladega, Tuskegee, and William B. Bankhead.[93] Alabama also contains the Natchez Trace Parkway, the Selma To Montgomery National Historic Trail, and the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.
Notable natural wonders include: the "Natural Bridge" rock, the longest natural bridge east of the Rockies, located just south of Haleyville; Cathedral Caverns in Marshall County, named for its cathedral-like appearance, features one of the largest cave entrances and stalagmites in the world; Ecor Rouge in Fairhope, the highest coastline point between Maine and Mexico;[94] DeSoto Caverns in Childersburg, the first officially recorded cave in the United States;[95] Noccalula Falls in Gadsden features a 90-foot waterfall; Dismals Canyon near Phil Campbell, home to two waterfalls, six natural bridges and allegedly served as a hideout for legendary outlaw Jesse James;[96] Stephens Gap Cave in Jackson County boasts a 143-foot pit, two waterfalls and is one of the most photographed wild cave scenes in America;[97] Little River Canyon near Fort Payne, one of the nation's longest mountaintop rivers; Rickwood Caverns near Warrior features an underground pool, blind cave fish and 260-million-year-old limestone formations; and the Walls of Jericho canyon on the Alabama-Tennessee state line.
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.[98] The hills just east of downtown Wetumpka showcase the eroded remains of the impact crater that was blasted into the bedrock, with the area labeled the Wetumpka crater or astrobleme ("star-wound") because of the concentric rings of fractures and zones of shattered rock that can be found beneath the surface.[99] In 2002, Christian Koeberl with the Institute of Geochemistry University of Vienna published evidence and established the site as the 157th recognized impact crater on Earth.[100]
Climate
The state is classified as humid subtropical (Cfa) under the Koppen Climate Classification.[101] The average annual temperature is 64 °F (18 °C). Temperatures tend to be warmer in the southern part of the state with its proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, while the northern parts of the state, especially in the Appalachian Mountains in the northeast, tend to be slightly cooler.[102] Generally, Alabama has very hot summers and mild winters with copious precipitation throughout the year. Alabama receives an average of 56 inches (1,400 mm) of rainfall annually and enjoys a lengthy growing season of up to 300 days in the southern part of the state.[102]
Summers in Alabama are among the hottest in the U.S., with high temperatures averaging over 90 °F (32 °C) throughout the summer in some parts of the state. Alabama is also prone to tropical storms and hurricanes. Areas of the state far away from the Gulf are not immune to the effects of the storms, which often dump tremendous amounts of rain as they move inland and weaken.
South Alabama reports many thunderstorms. The Gulf Coast, around Mobile Bay, averages between 70 and 80 days per year with thunder reported. This activity decreases somewhat further north in the state, but even the far north of the state reports thunder on about 60 days per year. Occasionally, thunderstorms are severe with frequent lightning and large hail; the central and northern parts of the state are most vulnerable to this type of storm. Alabama ranks ninth in the number of deaths from lightning and tenth in the number of deaths from lightning strikes per capita.[103]
Alabama, along with Oklahoma and Iowa, has the most confirmed F5 and EF5 tornadoes of any state, according to statistics from the National Climatic Data Center for the period January 1, 1950, to June 2013.[104] Several long-tracked F5/EF5 tornadoes have contributed to Alabama reporting more tornado fatalities since 1950 than any other state. The state was affected by the 1974 Super Outbreak and was devastated tremendously by the 2011 Super Outbreak. The 2011 Super Outbreak produced a record amount of tornadoes in the state. The tally reached 62.[105]
The peak season for tornadoes varies from the northern to southern parts of the state. Alabama is one of the few places in the world that has a secondary tornado season in November and December besides the typically severe spring. The northern part—along the Tennessee River Valley—is most vulnerable. The area of Alabama and Mississippi most affected by tornadoes is sometimes referred to as Dixie Alley, as distinct from the Tornado Alley of the Southern Plains.
Winters are generally mild in Alabama, as they are throughout most of the Southeastern United States, with average January low temperatures around 40 °F (4 °C) in Mobile and around 32 °F (0 °C) in Birmingham. Although snow is a rare event in much of Alabama, areas of the state north of Montgomery may receive a dusting of snow a few times every winter, with an occasional moderately heavy snowfall every few years. Historic snowfall events include New Year's Eve 1963 snowstorm and the 1993 Storm of the Century. The annual average snowfall for the Birmingham area is 2 inches (51 mm) per year. In the southern Gulf coast, snowfall is less frequent, sometimes going several years without any snowfall.
Alabama's highest temperature of 112 °F (44 °C) was recorded on September 5, 1925, in the unincorporated community of Centerville. The record low of −27 °F (−33 °C) occurred on January 30, 1966, in New Market.[106]
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Huntsville[107] | Average high | 48.9 (9.4) |
54.6 (12.6) |
63.4 (17.4) |
72.3 (22.4) |
79.6 (26.4) |
86.5 (30.3) |
89.4 (31.9) |
89.0 (31.7) |
83.0 (28.3) |
72.9 (22.7) |
61.6 (16.4) |
52.4 (11.3) |
71.1 (21.7) | |
Average low | 30.7 (-0.7) |
34.0 (1.1) |
41.2 (5.1) |
48.4 (9.1) |
57.5 (14.2) |
65.4 (18.6) |
69.5 (20.8) |
68.1 (20.1) |
61.7 (16.5) |
49.6 (9.8) |
40.7 (4.8) |
33.8 (1.0) |
50.1 (10.1) | ||
Birmingham[108] | Average high | 52.8 (11.6) |
58.3 (14.6) |
66.5 (19.2) |
74.1 (23.4) |
81.0 (27.2) |
87.5 (30.8) |
90.6 (32.6) |
90.2 (32.3) |
84.6 (29.2) |
74.9 (23.8) |
64.5 (18.1) |
56.0 (13.3) |
73.4 (23.0) | |
Average low | 32.3 (0.2) |
35.4 (1.9) |
42.4 (5.8) |
48.4 (9.1) |
57.6 (14.2) |
65.4 (18.6) |
69.7 (20.9) |
68.9 (20.5) |
63.0 (17.2) |
50.9 (10.5) |
41.8 (5.4) |
35.2 (1.8) |
50.9 (10.5) | ||
Montgomery [109] | Average high | 57.6 (14.2) |
62.4 (16.9) |
70.5 (21.4) |
77.5 (25.3) |
84.6 (29.2) |
90.6 (32.6) |
92.7 (33.7) |
92.2 (33.4) |
87.7 (30.9) |
78.7 (25.9) |
68.7 (20.4) |
60.3 (15.7) |
77.0 (25.0) | |
Average low | 35.5 (1.9) |
38.6 (3.7) |
45.4 (7.4) |
52.1 (11.2) |
60.1 (15.6) |
67.3 (19.6) |
70.9 (21.6) |
70.1 (21.2) |
64.9 (18.3) |
52.2 (11.2) |
43.5 (6.4) |
37.6 (3.1) |
53.2 (11.8) | ||
Mobile[110] | Average high | 60.7 (15.9) |
64.5 (18.1) |
71.2 (21.8) |
77.4 (25.2) |
84.2 (29.0) |
89.4 (31.9) |
91.2 (32.9) |
90.8 (32.7) |
86.8 (30.4) |
79.2 (26.2) |
70.1 (21.2) |
62.9 (17.2) |
77.4 (25.2) | |
Average low | 39.5 (4.2) |
42.4 (5.8) |
49.2 (9.6) |
54.8 (12.7) |
62.8 (17.1) |
69.2 (20.7) |
71.8 (22.1) |
71.7 (22.0) |
67.6 (19.8) |
56.3 (13.5) |
47.8 (8.8) |
41.6 (5.3) |
56.2 (13.4) |
Flora and fauna
Alabama is home to a diverse array of flora and fauna in habitats that range from the Tennessee Valley, Appalachian Plateau, and Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians of the north to the Piedmont, Canebrake, and Black Belt of the central region to the Gulf Coastal Plain and beaches along the Gulf of Mexico in the south. The state is usually ranked among the top in nation for its range of overall biodiversity.[111][112]
Alabama is in the subtropical coniferous forest biome and once boasted huge expanses of pine forest, which still form the largest proportion of forests in the state.[111] It currently ranks fifth in the nation for the diversity of its flora. It is home to nearly 4,000 pteridophyte and spermatophyte plant species.[113]
Indigenous animal species in the state include 62 mammal species,[114] 93 reptile species,[115] 73 amphibian species,[116] roughly 307 native freshwater fish species,[111] and 420 bird species that spend at least part of their year within the state.[117] Invertebrates include 97 crayfish species and 383 mollusk species. 113 of these mollusk species have never been collected outside the state.[118][119]
Census-designated and metropolitan areas
Rank | Combined statistical area | Population (2021 estimate) | Population (2020 census) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Birmingham–Hoover–Talladega | 1,350,646 | 1,290,744 |
2 | Chattanooga–Cleveland–Dalton[CSA 1] | 1,000,303 | 951,434 |
3 | Mobile–Daphne–Fairhope | 661,964 | 612,838 |
4 | Huntsville–Decatur–Albertville | 648,217 | 571,422 |
5 | Columbus–Auburn–Opelika[CSA 2] | 503,124 | 448,035 |
6 | Dothan–Enterprise–Ozark | 200,333 | 195,890 |
- In Alabama, only Jackson County (2019 population: 51,626; 2010 population: 53,227) is included in the Chattanooga CSA
- In Alabama, only Lee, Russell, and Chambers Counties (total 2019 population: 255,757; total 2010 population: 227,409) are included in the Columbus CSA
Rank | Metropolitan area | Population (2021 estimate) | Population (2020 census) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Birmingham–Hoover | 1,114,262 | 1,115,289 |
2 | Huntsville | 502,728 | 491,723 |
3 | Mobile | 429,536 | 430,573 |
4 | Montgomery | 385,798 | 386,047 |
5 | Tuscaloosa | 268,191 | 268,674 |
6 | Daphne–Fairhope–Foley | 239,294 | 231,767 |
7 | Auburn–Opelika | 177,218 | 174,241 |
8 | Decatur | 156,758 | 156,494 |
9 | Dothan | 151,618 | 151,007 |
10 | Florence–Muscle Shoals | 147,970 | 147,137 |
11 | Anniston–Oxford–Jacksonville | 115,972 | 116,441 |
12 | Gadsden | 103,162 | 103,436 |
Cities
Rank | City | Population (2020 census) |
County(ies) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Huntsville | 215,006 | Madison, Limestone, Morgan |
2 | Birmingham | 200,733 | Jefferson, Shelby |
3 | Montgomery | 200,603 | Montgomery |
4 | Mobile | 187,041 | Mobile |
5 | Tuscaloosa | 99,600 | Tuscaloosa |
6 | Hoover | 92,606 | Jefferson, Shelby |
7 | Auburn | 76,143 | Lee |
8 | Dothan | 71,072 | Houston, Dale, Henry |
9 | Decatur | 57,938 | Morgan, Limestone |
10 | Madison | 56,933 | Madison, Limestone |
11 | Florence | 40,184 | Lauderdale |
12 | Vestavia Hills | 39,102 | Jefferson, Shelby |
13 | Phenix City | 38,816 | Russell |
14 | Prattville | 37,781 | Autauga, Elmore |
15 | Gadsden | 33,945 | Etowah |
Demographics
Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
---|---|---|---|
1800 | 1,250 | — | |
1810 | 9,046 | 623.7% | |
1820 | 144,317 | [121] | 1,495.4% |
1830 | 309,527 | 114.5% | |
1840 | 590,756 | 90.9% | |
1850 | 771,623 | 30.6% | |
1860 | 964,201 | 25.0% | |
1870 | 996,992 | 3.4% | |
1880 | 1,262,505 | 26.6% | |
1890 | 1,513,401 | 19.9% | |
1900 | 1,828,697 | 20.8% | |
1910 | 2,138,093 | 16.9% | |
1920 | 2,348,174 | 9.8% | |
1930 | 2,646,248 | 12.7% | |
1940 | 2,832,961 | 7.1% | |
1950 | 3,061,743 | 8.1% | |
1960 | 3,266,740 | 6.7% | |
1970 | 3,444,165 | 5.4% | |
1980 | 3,893,888 | 13.1% | |
1990 | 4,040,587 | 3.8% | |
2000 | 4,447,100 | 10.1% | |
2010 | 4,779,736 | 7.5% | |
2020 | 5,024,279 | 5.1% | |
2022 (est.) | 5,074,296 | 1.0% | |
Sources: 1910–2020[122] |
According to the 2020 United States census the population of Alabama was 5,024,279 on April 1, 2020, which represents an increase of 244,543 or 5.12%, since the 2010 census.[123] This includes a natural increase since the last census of 121,054 (502,457 births minus 381,403 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 104,991 into the state.[124]
Immigration from outside the U.S. resulted in a net increase of 31,180 people, and migration within the country produced a net gain of 73,811 people.[124] The state had 108,000 foreign-born (2.4% of the state population), of which an estimated 22.2% were undocumented (24,000). Alabama has the 5th highest African American population among US states at 25.8% as of 2020.
The center of population of Alabama is located in Chilton County, outside the town of Jemison.[125]
According to HUD's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 3,752 homeless people in Alabama.[126][127]
Ancestry
Race and ethnicity[128] | Alone | Total | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
White (non-Hispanic) | 63.1% | 66.5% | ||
African American (non-Hispanic) | 25.6% | 26.9% | ||
Hispanic or Latino[lower-alpha 2] | — | 5.3% | ||
Asian | 1.5% | 2.0% | ||
Native American | 0.5% | 2.2% | ||
Pacific Islander | 0.1% | 0.1% | ||
Other | 0.3% | 0.8% |
Racial and ethnic composition | 1990[129] | 2000[130] | 2010[131] |
---|---|---|---|
White | 73.6% | 71.1% | 68.5% |
Black | 25.3% | 26% | 26.2% |
Asian | 0.5% | 0.7% | 1.1% |
Native | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.6% |
Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander | — | — | 0.1% |
Other race | 0.1% | 0.6% | 2% |
Two or more races | — | 1% | 1.5% |
Those citing "American" ancestry in Alabama are of overwhelmingly English extraction, however most English Americans identify simply as having American ancestry because their roots have been in North America for so long, in many cases since the early 1600s. Demographers estimate that a minimum of 20–23% of people in Alabama are of predominantly English ancestry and state that the figure is probably much higher. In the 1980 census 1,139,976 people in Alabama cited that they were of English ancestry out of a total state population of 2,824,719 making them 41% of the state at the time and the largest ethnic group.[132][133][134]
In 2011, 46.6% of Alabama's population younger than age 1 were minorities.[135] The largest reported ancestry groups in Alabama are American (13.4%), Irish (10.5%), English (10.2%), German (7.9%), and Scots-Irish (2.5%) based on 2006-2008 Census data.[136]
The Scots-Irish were the largest non-English immigrant group from the British Isles before the American Revolution, and many settled in the South, later moving into the Deep South as it was developed.[137]
In 1984, under the Davis–Strong Act, the state legislature established the Alabama Indian Affairs Commission.[138] Native American groups within the state had increasingly been demanding recognition as ethnic groups and seeking an end to discrimination. Given the long history of slavery and associated racial segregation, the Native American peoples, who have sometimes been of mixed race, have insisted on having their cultural identification respected. In the past, their self-identification was often overlooked as the state tried to impose a binary breakdown of society into white and black. The state has officially recognized nine American Indian tribes in the state, descended mostly from the Five Civilized Tribes of the American Southeast. These are the following.[139]
- Poarch Band of Creek Indians (who also have federal recognition)
- MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians
- Star Clan of Muscogee Creeks
- Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama
- Cherokee Tribe of Northeast Alabama
- Cher-O-Creek Intra Tribal Indians
- Ma-Chis Lower Creek Indian Tribe
- Piqua Shawnee Tribe
- Ani-Yun-Wiya Nation
The state government has promoted recognition of Native American contributions to the state, including the designation in 2000 for Columbus Day to be jointly celebrated as American Indian Heritage Day.[140]
Language
Most Alabama residents (95.1% of those five and older) spoke only English at home in 2010, a minor decrease from 96.1% in 2000. Alabama English is predominantly Southern, and is related to South Midland speech which was taken across the border from Tennessee. In the major Southern speech region, there is the decreasing loss of the final r, for example the "boyd" pronunciation of "bird". In the northern third of the state, there is a South Midland "arm" and "barb" rhyming with "form" and "orb", respectively. Unique words in Alabama English include: redworm (earthworm), peckerwood (woodpecker), snake doctor and snake feeder (dragonfly), tow sack (burlap bag), plum peach (clingstone), French harp (harmonica), and dog irons (andirons).
Language | Percentage of population (as of 2010) |
---|---|
Spanish | 2.2% |
German | 0.4% |
French (incl. Patois, Cajun) | 0.3% |
Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Arabic, African languages, Japanese, and Italian (tied) | 0.1% |
Religion
In the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey, 86% of Alabama respondents reported their religion as Christian, including 6% Catholic, with 11% as having no religion.[141] The composition of other traditions is 0.5% Mormon, 0.5% Jewish, 0.5% Muslim, 0.5% Buddhist, and 0.5% Hindu.[142]
Affiliation | % of population | |
---|---|---|
Christian | 86 | |
Protestant | 78 | |
Evangelical Protestant | 49 | |
Mainline Protestant | 13 | |
Black church | 16 | |
Catholic | 7 | |
Mormon | 1 | |
Jehovah's Witnesses | 0.1 | |
Eastern Orthodox | 0.1 | |
Other Christian | 0.1 | |
Unaffiliated | 12 | |
Nothing in particular | 9 | |
Agnostic | 1 | |
Atheist | 1 | |
Non-Christian faiths | 1 | |
Jewish | 0.2 | |
Muslim | 0.2 | |
Buddhist | 0.2 | |
Hindu | 0.2 | |
Other Non-Christian faiths | 0.2 | |
Don't know/refused answer | 1 | |
Total | 100 |
Alabama is located in the middle of the Bible Belt, a region of numerous Protestant Christians. Alabama has been identified as one of the most religious states in the United States, with about 58% of the population attending church regularly.[144] A majority of people in the state identify as Evangelical Protestant. As of 2010, the three largest denominational groups in Alabama are the Southern Baptist Convention, The United Methodist Church, and non-denominational Evangelical Protestant.[145]
In Alabama, the Southern Baptist Convention has the highest number of adherents with 1,380,121; this is followed by the United Methodist Church with 327,734 adherents, non-denominational Evangelical Protestant with 220,938 adherents, and the Catholic Church with 150,647 adherents. Many Baptist and Methodist congregations became established in the Great Awakening of the early 19th century, when preachers proselytized across the South. The Assemblies of God had almost 60,000 members, the Churches of Christ had nearly 120,000 members. The Presbyterian churches, strongly associated with Scots-Irish immigrants of the 18th century and their descendants, had a combined membership around 75,000 (PCA—28,009 members in 108 congregations, PC(USA)—26,247 members in 147 congregations,[146] the Cumberland Presbyterian Church—6,000 members in 59 congregations, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America—5,000 members and fifty congregations plus the EPC and Associate Reformed Presbyterians with 230 members and nine congregations).[147]
In a 2007 survey, nearly 70% of respondents could name all four of the Christian Gospels. Of those who indicated a religious preference, 59% said they possessed a "full understanding" of their faith and needed no further learning.[148] In a 2007 poll, 92% of Alabamians reported having at least some confidence in churches in the state.[149][150]
Although in much smaller numbers, many other religious faiths are represented in the state as well, including Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, the Baháʼí Faith, and Unitarian Universalism.[147]
Jews have been present in what is now Alabama since 1763, during the colonial era of Mobile, when Sephardic Jews immigrated from London.[151] The oldest Jewish congregation in the state is Congregation Sha'arai Shomayim in Mobile. It was formally recognized by the state legislature on January 25, 1844.[151] Later immigrants in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries tended to be Ashkenazi Jews from eastern Europe. Jewish denominations in the state include two Orthodox, four Conservative, ten Reform, and one Humanistic synagogue.[152]
Muslims have been increasing in Alabama, with 31 mosques built by 2011, many by African-American converts.[153]
Several Hindu temples and cultural centers in the state have been founded by Indian immigrants and their descendants, the best-known being the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Birmingham, the Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of Birmingham in Pelham, the Hindu Cultural Center of North Alabama in Capshaw, and the Hindu Mandir and Cultural Center in Tuscaloosa.[154][155]
There are six Dharma centers and organizations for Theravada Buddhists.[156] Most monastic Buddhist temples are concentrated in southern Mobile County, near Bayou La Batre. This area has attracted an influx of refugees from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam during the 1970s and thereafter.[157] The four temples within a ten-mile radius of Bayou La Batre, include Chua Chanh Giac, Wat Buddharaksa, and Wat Lao Phoutthavihan.[158][159][160]
The first community of adherents of the Baháʼí Faith in Alabama was founded in 1896 by Paul K. Dealy, who moved from Chicago to Fairhope. Baháʼí centers in Alabama exist in Birmingham, Huntsville, and Florence.[161]
Health
In 2018, life expectancy in Alabama was 75.1 years, below the national average of 78.7 years and is the third lowest life expectancy in the country. Factors that can cause lower life expectancy are maternal mortality, suicide, and gun crimes.[162]
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study in 2008 showed that obesity in Alabama is a problem, with most counties having more than 29% of adults obese, except for ten which had a rate between 26% and 29%.[163] Residents of the state, along with those in five other states, were least likely in the nation to be physically active during leisure time.[164] Alabama, and the southeastern U.S. in general, has one of the highest incidences of adult onset diabetes in the country, exceeding 10% of adults.[165][166]
Economy
The state has invested in aerospace, education, health care, banking, and various heavy industries, including automobile manufacturing, mineral extraction, steel production and fabrication. By 2006, crop and animal production in Alabama was valued at $1.5 billion. In contrast to the primarily agricultural economy of the previous century, this was only about one percent of the state's gross domestic product. The number of private farms has declined at a steady rate since the 1960s, as land has been sold to developers, timber companies, and large farming conglomerates.[167]
Non-agricultural employment in 2008 was 121,800 in management occupations; 71,750 in business and financial operations; 36,790 in computer-related and mathematical occupation; 44,200 in architecture and engineering; 12,410 in life, physical, and social sciences; 32,260 in community and social services; 12,770 in legal occupations; 116,250 in education, training, and library services; 27,840 in art, design and media occupations; 121,110 in healthcare; 44,750 in fire fighting, law enforcement, and security; 154,040 in food preparation and serving; 76,650 in building and grounds cleaning and maintenance; 53,230 in personal care and services; 244,510 in sales; 338,760 in office and administration support; 20,510 in farming, fishing, and forestry; 120,155 in construction and mining, gas, and oil extraction; 106,280 in installation, maintenance, and repair; 224,110 in production; and 167,160 in transportation and material moving.[15]
According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the 2008 total gross state product was $170 billion, or $29,411 per capita. Alabama's 2012 GDP increased 1.2% from the previous year. The single largest increase came in the area of information.[168] In 2010, per capita income for the state was $22,984.[169]
The state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.8% in April 2015.[170] This compared to a nationwide seasonally adjusted rate of 5.4%.[171]
Alabama has no minimum wage and in February 2016 passed legislation preventing municipalities from setting one. (A Birmingham city ordinance would have raised theirs to $10.10.)[172]
As of 2018, Alabama has the sixth highest poverty rate among states in the U.S.[173] In 2017, United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston toured parts of rural Alabama and observed environmental conditions he said were poorer than anywhere he had seen in the developed world.[174]
Largest employers
The five employers that employed the most employees in Alabama in April 2011 were:[175]
Employer | Employees |
---|---|
Redstone Arsenal | 25,373 |
University of Alabama at Birmingham (includes UAB Hospital) | 18,750 |
Maxwell Air Force Base | 12,280 |
State of Alabama | 9,500 |
Mobile County Public School System | 8,100 |
The next twenty largest employers, as of 2011, included:[176]
Employer | Location |
---|---|
Anniston Army Depot | Anniston |
AT&T | Multiple |
Auburn University | Auburn |
Baptist Medical Center South | Montgomery |
Birmingham City Schools | Birmingham |
City of Birmingham | Birmingham |
DCH Health System | Tuscaloosa |
Huntsville City Schools | Huntsville |
Huntsville Hospital System | Huntsville |
Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama | Montgomery |
Infirmary Health System | Mobile |
Jefferson County Board of Education | Birmingham |
Marshall Space Flight Center | Huntsville |
Mercedes-Benz U.S. International | Vance |
Montgomery Public Schools | Montgomery |
Regions Financial Corporation | Multiple |
Boeing | Multiple |
University of Alabama | Tuscaloosa |
University of South Alabama | Mobile |
Walmart | Multiple |
Agriculture
Alabama's agricultural outputs include poultry and eggs, cattle, fish, plant nursery items, peanuts, cotton, grains such as corn and sorghum, vegetables, milk, soybeans, and peaches. Although known as "The Cotton State", Alabama ranks between eighth and tenth in national cotton production, according to various reports,[177][178] with Texas, Georgia and Mississippi comprising the top three.
Aquaculture
Aquaculture is a large part of the economy of Alabama.[179] Alabamians began to practice aquaculture in the early 1960s.[180] U.S. farm-raised catfish is the 8th most popular seafood product in America.[181] By 2008, approximately 4,000 people in Alabama were employed by the catfish industry and Alabama produced 132 million pounds of catfish.[179] In 2020, Alabama produced 1⁄3 of the United States' farm-raised catfish.[181] The total 2020 sales of catfish raised in Alabama equaled $307 million but by 2020 the total employment of Alabamians fell to 2,442.[181]
From the early 2000s to 2020, the Alabamian catfish industry has declined from 250 farms and 4 processors to 66 farms and 2 processors.[181] Reasons for this decline include increased feed prices, catfish alternatives, COVID-19's impact on restaurant sales, disease, and fish size.[181]
Industry
Alabama's industrial outputs include iron and steel products (including cast-iron and steel pipe); paper, lumber, and wood products; mining (mostly coal); plastic products; cars and trucks; and apparel. In addition, Alabama produces aerospace and electronic products, mostly in the Huntsville area, the location of NASA's George C. Marshall Space Flight Center and the U.S. Army Materiel Command, headquartered at Redstone Arsenal.
A great deal of Alabama's economic growth since the 1990s has been due to the state's expanding automotive manufacturing industry. Located in the state are Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama, as well as their various suppliers. Since 1993, the automobile industry has generated more than 67,800 new jobs in the state. Alabama currently ranks 4th in the nation for vehicle exports.[182]
Automakers accounted for approximately a third of the industrial expansion in the state in 2012.[183] The eight models produced at the state's auto factories totaled combined sales of 74,335 vehicles for 2012. The strongest model sales during this period were the Hyundai Elantra compact car, the Mercedes-Benz GL-Class sport utility vehicle and the Honda Ridgeline sport utility truck.[184]
Steel producers Outokumpu, Nucor, SSAB, ThyssenKrupp, and U.S. Steel have facilities in Alabama and employ more than 10,000 people. In May 2007, German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp selected Calvert in Mobile County for a 4.65 billion combined stainless and carbon steel processing facility.[185] ThyssenKrupp's stainless steel division, Inoxum, including the stainless portion of the Calvert plant, was sold to Finnish stainless steel company Outokumpu in 2012.[186] The remaining portion of the ThyssenKrupp plant had final bids submitted by ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel for $1.6 billion in March 2013. Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional submitted a combined bid for the mill at Calvert, plus a majority stake in the ThyssenKrupp mill in Brazil, for $3.8 billion.[187] In July 2013, the plant was sold to ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel.[188]
The Hunt Refining Company, a subsidiary of Hunt Consolidated, Inc., is based in Tuscaloosa and operates a refinery there. The company also operates terminals in Mobile, Melvin, and Moundville.[189] JVC America, Inc. operates an optical disc replication and packaging plant in Tuscaloosa.[190]
The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company operates a large plant in Gadsden which employs about 1,400 people. It has been in operation since 1929.
Construction of an Airbus A320 family aircraft assembly plant in Mobile was formally announced by Airbus CEO Fabrice Brégier from the Mobile Convention Center on July 2, 2012. The plans include a $600 million factory at the Brookley Aeroplex for the assembly of the A319, A320 and A321 aircraft. Construction began in 2013, with plans for it to become operable by 2015 and produce up to 50 aircraft per year by 2017.b[191][192] The assembly plant is the company's first factory to be built within the United States.[193] It was announced on February 1, 2013, that Airbus had hired Alabama-based Hoar Construction to oversee construction of the facility.[194] The factory officially opened on September 14, 2015, covering one million square feet on 53 acres of flat grassland.[195]
Tourism and entertainment
According to Business Insider, Alabama ranked 14th in most popular states to visit in 2014.[196] An estimated 26 million tourists visited the state in 2017 and spent $14.3 billion, providing directly or indirectly 186,900 jobs in the state,[197] which includes 362,000 International tourists spending $589 million.[198]
The state is home to various attractions, natural features, parks and events that attract visitors from around the globe, notably the annual Hangout Music Festival, held on the public beaches of Gulf Shores; the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, one of the ten largest Shakespeare festivals in the world;[199] the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, a collection of championship caliber golf courses distributed across the state; casinos such as Victoryland; amusement parks such as Alabama Splash Adventure; the Riverchase Galleria, one of the largest shopping centers in the southeast; Guntersville Lake, voted the best lake in Alabama by Southern Living Magazine readers;[200] and the Alabama Museum of Natural History, the oldest museum in the state.[201]
Mobile is known for having the oldest organized Mardi Gras celebration in the United States, beginning in 1703.[202] It was also host to the first formally organized Mardi Gras parade in the United States in 1830, a tradition that continues to this day.[202] Mardi Gras is an official state holiday in Mobile and Baldwin counties.[203]
In 2018, Mobile's Mardi Gras parade was the state's top event, producing the most tourists with an attendance of 892,811. The top attraction was the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville with an attendance of 849,981, followed by the Birmingham Zoo with 543,090. Of the parks and natural destinations, Alabama's Gulf Coast topped the list with 6,700,000 visitors.[204]
Alabama has historically been a popular region for film shoots due to its diverse landscapes and contrast of environments.[205] Movies filmed in Alabama include: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Get Out, 42, Selma, Big Fish, The Final Destination, Due Date, Need For Speed and many more.[206]
Healthcare
UAB Hospital, USA Health University Hospital, Huntsville Hospital, and Children's Hospital of Alabama are the only Level I trauma centers in Alabama.[207] UAB is the largest state government employer in Alabama, with a workforce of about 18,000.[208] A 2017 study found that Alabama had the least competitive health insurance market in the country, with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama having a market share of 84% followed by UnitedHealth Group at 7%.[209]
Banking
Regions Financial Corporation is the largest bank headquartered in or operating in Alabama. PNC Financial Services and Wells Fargo also have a major presence in Alabama.[210]
Wells Fargo has a regional headquarters, an operations center campus, and a $400 million data center in Birmingham. Many smaller banks are also headquartered in the Birmingham area, including ServisFirst and New South Federal Savings Bank. Birmingham also serves as the headquarters for several large investment management companies, including Harbert Management Corporation.
Electronics and communications
Telecommunications provider AT&T, formerly BellSouth, has a major presence in Alabama with several large offices in Birmingham.
Many technology companies are headquartered in Huntsville, such as ADTRAN, a network access company; Intergraph, a computer graphics company; and Avocent, an IT infrastructure company.
Construction
Brasfield & Gorrie, BE&K, Hoar Construction, and B.L. Harbert International, based in Alabama and subsidiaries of URS Corporation, are all routinely are included in the Engineering News-Record lists of top design, international construction, and engineering firms.
Law and government
State government
The foundational document for Alabama's government is the Alabama Constitution, which was ratified in 1901. With over 850 amendments and almost 87,000 words, it is by some accounts the world's longest constitution and is roughly forty times the length of the United States Constitution.[211][212][213][214]
There has been a significant movement to rewrite and modernize Alabama's constitution.[215] Critics argue that Alabama's constitution maintains highly centralized power with the state legislature, leaving practically no power in local hands. Most counties do not have home rule. Any policy changes proposed in different areas of the state must be approved by the entire Alabama legislature and, frequently, by state referendum. One criticism of the current constitution claims that its complexity and length intentionally codify segregation and racism.
Alabama's government is divided into three coequal branches. The legislative branch is the Alabama Legislature, a bicameral assembly composed of the Alabama House of Representatives, with 105 members, and the Alabama Senate, with 35 members. The Legislature is responsible for writing, debating, passing, or defeating state legislation. The Republican Party currently holds a majority in both houses of the Legislature. The Legislature has the power to override a gubernatorial veto by a simple majority (most state Legislatures require a two-thirds majority to override a veto).
Until 1964, the state elected state senators on a geographic basis by county, with one per county. It had not redistricted congressional districts since passage of its constitution in 1901; as a result, urbanized areas were grossly underrepresented. It had not changed legislative districts to reflect the decennial censuses, either. In Reynolds v. Sims (1964), the U.S. Supreme Court implemented the principle of "one man, one vote", ruling that congressional districts had to be reapportioned based on censuses (as the state already included in its constitution but had not implemented.) Further, the court ruled that both houses of bicameral state legislatures had to be apportioned by population, as there was no constitutional basis for states to have geographically based systems.
At that time, Alabama and many other states had to change their legislative districting, as many across the country had systems that underrepresented urban areas and districts. This had caused decades of underinvestment in such areas. For instance, Birmingham and Jefferson County taxes had supplied one-third of the state budget, but Jefferson County received only 1/67th of state services in funding. Through the legislative delegations, the Alabama legislature kept control of county governments.
The executive branch is responsible for the execution and oversight of laws. It is headed by the governor of Alabama. Other members of the executive branch include the cabinet, the lieutenant governor of Alabama, the Attorney General of Alabama, the Alabama Secretary of State, the Alabama State Treasurer, and the State Auditor of Alabama. The current governor is Republican Kay Ivey.
The members of the Legislature take office immediately after the November elections. Statewide officials, such as the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and other constitutional officers, take office the following January.[216]
The judiciary is responsible for interpreting the Constitution of Alabama and applying the law in state criminal and civil cases. The state's highest court is the Supreme Court of Alabama. Alabama uses partisan elections to select judges. Since the 1980s judicial campaigns have become increasingly politicized.[217] The current chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court is Republican Tom Parker. All sitting justices on the Alabama Supreme Court are members of the Republican Party. There are two intermediate appellate courts, the Court of Civil Appeals and the Court of Criminal Appeals, and four trial courts: the circuit court (trial court of general jurisdiction), and the district, probate, and municipal courts.[217]
Alabama has the death penalty with authorized methods of execution that include the electric chair and the gas chamber.[218] Some critics believe the election of judges has contributed to an exceedingly high rate of executions.[219] Alabama has the highest per capita death penalty rate in the country. In some years, it imposes more death sentences than does Texas, a state which has a population five times larger.[220] However, executions per capita are significantly higher in Texas.[221] Some of its cases have been highly controversial; the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned[222] 24 convictions in death penalty cases. It was the only state to allow judges to override jury decisions in whether or not to use a death sentence; in 10 cases judges overturned sentences of life imprisonment without parole that were voted unanimously by juries.[220] This judicial authority was removed in April 2017.[223]
On May 14, 2019, Alabama passed the Human Life Protection Act, banning abortion at any stage of pregnancy unless there is a "serious health risk", with no exceptions for rape and incest. The law subjects doctors who perform abortions with 10 to 99 years imprisonment.[224] The law was originally supposed to take effect the following November, but on October 29, 2019, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson blocked the law from taking effect due to it being in conflict with the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade.[225] On June 24, 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Judge Thompson lifted the injunction, allowing the law to go into effect.[226]
Alabama is one of the very few states that does not allow the creation of state lotteries.[227]
Taxes
Taxes are collected by the Alabama Department of Revenue.[228] Alabama levies a 2%, 4%, or 5% personal income tax, depending on the amount earned and filing status.[229] Taxpayers are allowed to deduct their federal income tax from their Alabama state tax, even if taking the standard deduction; those who itemize can also deduct FICA (the Social Security and Medicare tax).[230]
The state's general sales tax rate is 4%.[231] Sales tax rates for cities and counties are also added to purchases.[232] For example, the total sales tax rate in Mobile County, Alabama is 10% and there is an additional restaurant tax of 1%, which means a diner in Mobile County, Alabama would pay an 11% tax on a meal.
In 2020, sales and excise taxes in Alabama accounted for 38% of all state and local revenue.[233]
Only Alabama, Mississippi, and South Dakota tax groceries at the full state sales tax rate.[234]
The corporate income tax rate in Alabama is 6.5%. The overall federal, state, and local tax burden in Alabama ranks the state as the second least tax-burdened state in the country.[235]
Property taxes of .40% of assessed value per year, are the second-lowest in the U.S., after Hawaii.[236] The current state constitution requires a voter referendum to raise property taxes.
County and local governments
Alabama has 67 counties. Each county has its own elected legislative branch, usually called the county commission. It also has limited executive authority in the county. Because of the constraints of the Alabama Constitution, which centralizes power in the state legislature, only seven counties (Jefferson, Lee, Mobile, Madison, Montgomery, Shelby, and Tuscaloosa) in the state have limited home rule. Instead, most counties in the state must lobby the Local Legislation Committee of the state legislature to get simple local policies approved, ranging from waste disposal to land use zoning.
The state legislature has retained power over local governments by refusing to pass a constitutional amendment establishing home rule for counties, as recommended by the 1973 Alabama Constitutional Commission.[237] Legislative delegations retain certain powers over each county. United States Supreme Court decisions in Baker v. Carr (1964) required that both houses have districts established on the basis of population, and redistricted after each census, to implement the principle of "one man, one vote". Before that, each county was represented by one state senator, leading to under-representation in the state senate for more urbanized, populous counties. The rural bias of the state legislature, which had also failed to redistrict seats in the state house, affected politics well into the 20th century, failing to recognize the rise of industrial cities and urbanized areas.
"The lack of home rule for counties in Alabama has resulted in the proliferation of local legislation permitting counties to do things not authorized by the state constitution. Alabama's constitution has been amended more than 700 times, and almost one-third of the amendments are local in nature, applying to only one county or city. A significant part of each legislative session is spent on local legislation, taking away time and attention of legislators from issues of statewide importance."[237]
Alabama is an alcoholic beverage control state, meaning the state government holds a monopoly on the sale of alcohol. The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board controls the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages in the state. A total of 25 of the 67 counties are "dry counties" which ban the sale of alcohol, and there are many dry municipalities in counties which permit alcohol sales.[238]
Rank | County | Population (2019 Estimate) | Population (2010 Census) | Seat | Largest city |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jefferson | 658,573 | 658,158 | Birmingham | Birmingham |
2 | Mobile | 413,210 | 412,992 | Mobile | Mobile |
3 | Madison | 372,909 | 334,811 | Huntsville | Huntsville |
4 | Montgomery | 226,486 | 229,363 | Montgomery | Montgomery |
5 | Shelby | 217,702 | 195,085 | Columbiana | Hoover (part) Alabaster |
6 | Baldwin | 223,234 | 182,265 | Bay Minette | Daphne |
7 | Tuscaloosa | 209,355 | 194,656 | Tuscaloosa | Tuscaloosa |
8 | Lee | 164,542 | 140,247 | Opelika | Auburn |
9 | Morgan | 119,679 | 119,490 | Decatur | Decatur |
10 | Calhoun | 113,605 | 118,572 | Anniston | Anniston |
11 | Houston | 105,882 | 101,547 | Dothan | Dothan |
12 | Etowah | 102,268 | 104,303 | Gadsden | Gadsden |
13 | Limestone | 98,915 | 82,782 | Athens | Athens |
14 | Marshall | 96,774 | 93,019 | Guntersville | Albertville |
15 | Lauderdale | 92,729 | 92,709 | Florence | Florence |
Politics
During Reconstruction following the American Civil War, Alabama was occupied by federal troops of the Third Military District under General John Pope. In 1874, the political coalition of white Democrats known as the Redeemers took control of the state government from the Republicans, in part by suppressing the black vote through violence, fraud, and intimidation. After 1890, a coalition of White Democratic politicians passed laws to segregate and disenfranchise African American residents, a process completed in provisions of the 1901 constitution. Provisions which disenfranchised blacks resulted in excluding many poor Whites. By 1941 more Whites than Blacks had been disenfranchised: 600,000 to 520,000. The total effects were greater on the black community, as almost all its citizens were disfranchised and relegated to separate and unequal treatment under the law.
From 1901 through the 1960s, the state did not redraw election districts as population grew and shifted within the state during urbanization and industrialization of certain areas. As counties were the basis of election districts, the result was a rural minority that dominated state politics through nearly three-quarters of the century, until a series of federal court cases required redistricting in 1972 to meet equal representation. Alabama state politics gained nationwide and international attention in the 1950s and 1960s during the civil rights movement, when whites bureaucratically, and at times violently, resisted protests for electoral and social reform. Governor George Wallace, the state's only four-term governor, was a controversial figure who vowed to maintain segregation. Only after passage of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964[76] and Voting Rights Act of 1965 did African Americans regain the ability to exercise suffrage, among other civil rights. In many jurisdictions, they continued to be excluded from representation by at-large electoral systems, which allowed the majority of the population to dominate elections. Some changes at the county level have occurred following court challenges to establish single-member districts that enable a more diverse representation among county boards.
In 2007, the Alabama Legislature passed, and Republican governor Bob Riley signed a resolution expressing "profound regret" over slavery and its lingering impact. In a symbolic ceremony, the bill was signed in the Alabama State Capitol, which housed Congress of the Confederate States of America.[239] In 2010, Republicans won control of both houses of the legislature for the first time in 136 years.[240]
As of February 2023, there are a total of 3,707,233 registered voters, with 3,318,679 active, and the others inactive in the state.[241]
The 2023 American Values Atlas by Public Religion Research Institute found that a majority of Alabama residents support same-sex marriage.[242]
Elections
State elections
With the disfranchisement of Blacks in 1901, the state became part of the "Solid South", a system in which the Democratic Party operated as effectively the only viable political party in every Southern state. For nearly a hundred years local and state elections in Alabama were decided in the Democratic Party primary, with generally only token Republican challengers running in the general election. Since the mid- to late 20th century, however, white conservatives started shifting to the Republican Party. In Alabama, majority-white districts are now expected to regularly elect Republican candidates to federal, state and local office.
Members of the nine seats on the Supreme Court of Alabama[243] and all ten seats on the state appellate courts are elected to office. Until 1994, no Republicans held any of the court seats. In that general election, the then-incumbent chief justice, Ernest C. Hornsby, refused to leave office after losing the election by approximately 3,000 votes to Republican Perry O. Hooper Sr.[244] Hornsby sued Alabama and defiantly remained in office for nearly a year before finally giving up the seat after losing in court. The Democrats lost the last of the nineteen court seats in August 2011 with the resignation of the last Democrat on the bench.
In the early 21st century, Republicans hold all seven of the statewide elected executive branch offices. Republicans hold six of the eight elected seats on the Alabama State Board of Education. In 2010, Republicans took large majorities of both chambers of the state legislature, giving them control of that body for the first time in 136 years. The last remaining statewide Democrat, who served on the Alabama Public Service Commission, was defeated in 2012.[245][246][247]
Only three Republican lieutenant governors have been elected since the end of Reconstruction, when Republicans generally represented Reconstruction government, including the newly emancipated freedmen who had gained the franchise. The three GOP lieutenant governors are Steve Windom (1999–2003), Kay Ivey (2011–2017), and Will Ainsworth (2019–present).
Local elections
Many local offices (county commissioners, boards of education, tax assessors, mayors, etc.) in the state are still held by Democrats.[248][249] Many metropolitan and suburban counties have voters who are majority Democrats, resulting in local elections being decided in the Democratic primary. Similarly most rural counties are majority-Republican and elections are effectively decided in the Republican Primary. However, since local governments in Alabama are weaker than in other parts of the country, Republicans have the upper hand in government.
Alabama's 67 county sheriffs are elected in partisan, at-large races, and Republicans retain the vast majority of those posts. The current split is 18 Democrats, and 49 Republicans as of 2023. However, most of the Democratic sheriffs preside over urban and more populated counties. The majority of Republican sheriffs have been elected in the more rural counties with lower population. The state of Alabama has and 11 African-American sheriffs.[250]
Federal elections
The state's two U.S. senators are Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville, both of whom are Republican. In the U.S. House of Representatives, the state is represented by seven members, six of whom are Republicans: (Jerry Carl, Mike Rogers, Robert Aderholt, Dale Strong, Barry Moore, and Gary Palmer) and one Democrat: Terri Sewell, who represents the Black Belt as well as most of the predominantly black portions of Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and Montgomery.
Education
Primary and secondary education
Public primary and secondary education in Alabama is under the purview of the Alabama State Board of Education as well as local oversight by 67 county school boards and 60 city boards of education. Together, 1,496 individual schools provide education for 744,637 elementary and secondary students.[251]
Public school funding is appropriated through the Alabama Legislature through the Education Trust Fund. In FY 2006–2007, Alabama appropriated $3,775,163,578 for primary and secondary education. That represented an increase of $444,736,387 over the previous fiscal year. In 2007, more than 82 percent of schools made adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward student proficiency under the National No Child Left Behind law, using measures determined by the state of Alabama.
While Alabama's public education system has improved in recent decades, it lags behind in achievement compared to other states. According to U.S. Census data (2000), Alabama's high school graduation rate (75%) is the fourth lowest in the U.S. (after Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi).[252] The largest educational gains were among people with some college education but without degrees.[253] According to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP), Alabama ranks 39 in reading and 40 in math among fourth-grade students in the rankings from 2022.
Generally prohibited in the West at large, school corporal punishment is not unusual in Alabama, with 27,260 public school students paddled at least one time, according to government data for the 2011–2012 school year.[lower-alpha 3][254] The rate of school corporal punishment in Alabama is surpassed by only Mississippi and Arkansas.[254]
Colleges and universities
Alabama's programs of higher education include 14 four-year public universities, two-year community colleges, and 17 private, undergraduate and graduate universities. In the state are four medical schools (as of fall 2015) (University of Alabama School of Medicine, University of South Alabama and Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine and The Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine—Auburn Campus), two veterinary colleges (Auburn University and Tuskegee University), a dental school (University of Alabama School of Dentistry), an optometry college (University of Alabama at Birmingham), two pharmacy schools (Auburn University and Samford University), and five law schools (University of Alabama School of Law, Birmingham School of Law, Cumberland School of Law, Miles Law School, and the Thomas Goode Jones School of Law). Public, post-secondary education in Alabama is overseen by the Alabama Commission on Higher Education and the Alabama Department of Postsecondary Education. Colleges and universities in Alabama offer degree programs from two-year associate degrees to a multitude of doctoral level programs.[255]
The largest single campus is the University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa, with 37,665 enrolled for fall 2016.[256] Troy University was the largest institution in the state in 2010, with an enrollment of 29,689 students across four Alabama campuses (Troy, Dothan, Montgomery, and Phenix City), as well as sixty learning sites in seventeen other states and eleven other countries. The oldest institutions are the public University of North Alabama in Florence and the Catholic Church-affiliated Spring Hill College in Mobile, both founded in 1830.[257][258]
Accreditation of academic programs is through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) as well as other subject-focused national and international accreditation agencies such as the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE),[259] the Council on Occupational Education (COE),[260] and the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS).[261]
According to the 2011 U.S. News & World Report, Alabama had three universities ranked in the top 100 Public Schools in America (University of Alabama at 31, Auburn University at 36, and University of Alabama at Birmingham at 73).[262]
According to the 2012 U.S. News & World Report, Alabama had four tier one universities (University of Alabama, Auburn University, University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of Alabama in Huntsville).[263]
Media
Major newspapers include Birmingham News, Mobile Press-Register, and Montgomery Advertiser.[264]
Major television network affiliates in Alabama include:
Culture
Literature
Alabama literature is characterized by themes of race and issues of gender and war, and is influenced by events such as the American Civil War, the Reconstruction era, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Vietnam War. Some notable examples of Alabama literature include Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, Winston Groom's Forrest Gump, Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe, and the biographies of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.
Sports
Professional sports
Alabama has several professional and semi-professional sports teams, including three minor league baseball teams.
Club | City | Sport | League | Venue |
---|---|---|---|---|
AFC Mobile | Mobile | Soccer | Gulf Coast Premier League | Archbishop Lipscomb Athletic Complex |
Birmingham Bulls | Pelham | Ice hockey | Southern Professional Hockey League | Pelham Civic Center |
Birmingham Legion FC | Birmingham | Soccer | USL Championship | PNC Field |
Birmingham Barons | Birmingham | Baseball | Double-A South | Regions Field |
Huntsville Havoc | Huntsville | Ice hockey | Southern Professional Hockey League | Von Braun Center |
Montgomery Biscuits | Montgomery | Baseball | Double-A South | Montgomery Riverwalk Stadium |
Rocket City Trash Pandas | Madison | Baseball | Double-A South | Toyota Field |
Tennessee Valley Tigers | Huntsville | Football | Independent Women's Football League | Milton Frank Stadium |
The Talladega Superspeedway motorsports complex hosts a series of NASCAR events. It has a seating capacity of 143,000 and is the thirteenth largest stadium in the world and sixth largest stadium in America. Also, the Barber Motorsports Park has hosted IndyCar Series and Rolex Sports Car Series races.
The ATP Birmingham was a World Championship Tennis tournament held from 1973 to 1980.
Alabama has hosted several professional golf tournaments, such as the 1984 and 1990 PGA Championship at Shoal Creek, the Barbasol Championship (PGA Tour), the Mobile LPGA Tournament of Champions, Airbus LPGA Classic, and Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic (LPGA Tour), and The Tradition (Champions Tour).
College sports
College football is extremely popular in Alabama, particularly the University of Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn University Tigers, rivals in the Southeastern Conference. Alabama averages over 100,000 fans per game and Auburn averages over 80,000—both numbers among the top twenty in the nation.[266] Bryant–Denny Stadium is the home of the Alabama football team, and has a seating capacity of 101,821,[267] and is the fifth largest stadium in America.[268] Jordan-Hare Stadium is the home field of the Auburn football team and seats up to 87,451.[269]
Protective Stadium is home of the UAB Blazers football program and the Birmingham Bowl. It seats 45,000.[270] Ladd–Peebles Stadium in Mobile is the home of the University of South Alabama football team, and serves as the home of the NCAA Senior Bowl, LendingTree Bowl, and Alabama-Mississippi All Star Classic; the stadium seats 40,646.[271] In 2009, Bryant–Denny Stadium and Jordan-Hare Stadium became the homes of the Alabama High School Athletic Association state football championship games, after previously being held at Legion Field in Birmingham.[272]
Transportation
Aviation
Major airports with sustained operations in Alabama include Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM), Huntsville International Airport (HSV), Dothan Regional Airport (DHN), Mobile Regional Airport (MOB), Montgomery Regional Airport (MGM), Northwest Alabama Regional Airport (MSL) and Northeast Alabama Regional Airport (GAD).
Rail
Alabama train stations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
For rail transport, Amtrak schedules the Crescent, a daily passenger train, running from New York to New Orleans with station stops at Anniston, Birmingham, and Tuscaloosa.
Roads
Alabama has six major interstate routes: Interstate 65 (I-65) travels north–south roughly through the middle of the state; I-20/I-59 travel from the central west Mississippi state line to Birmingham, where I-59 continues to the north-east corner of the state and I-20 continues east towards Atlanta; I-85 originates in Montgomery and travels east-northeast to the Georgia state line, providing a main thoroughfare to Atlanta; and I-10 traverses the southernmost portion of the state, traveling from west to east through Mobile. I-22 enters the state from Mississippi and connects Birmingham with Memphis, Tennessee. In addition, there are currently five auxiliary interstate routes in the state: I-165 in Mobile, I-359 in Tuscaloosa, I-459 around Birmingham, I-565 in Decatur and Huntsville, and I-759 in Gadsden. A sixth route, I-685, will be formed when I-85 is rerouted along a new southern bypass of Montgomery. A proposed northern bypass of Birmingham will be designated as I-422. Since a direct connection from I-22 to I-422 will not be possible, I-222 has been proposed, as well.
Several U.S. Highways also pass through the state, such as U.S. Route 11 (US-11), US-29, US-31, US-43, US-45, US-72, US-78, US-80, US-82, US-84, US-90, US-98, US-231, US-278, US-280, US-331, US-411, and US-431.
There are four toll roads in the state: Montgomery Expressway in Montgomery; Northport/Tuscaloosa Western Bypass in Tuscaloosa and Northport; Emerald Mountain Expressway in Wetumpka; and Beach Express in Orange Beach.
Ports
The Port of Mobile, Alabama's only saltwater port, is a large seaport on the Gulf of Mexico with inland waterway access to the Midwest by way of the Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway. The Port of Mobile was ranked 12th by tons of traffic in the United States during 2009.[273] The newly expanded container terminal at the Port of Mobile was ranked as the 25th busiest for container traffic in the nation during 2011.[274] The state's other ports are on rivers with access to the Gulf of Mexico.
Water ports of Alabama, listed from north to south:
Port name | Location | Connected to |
---|---|---|
Port of Florence | Florence/Muscle Shoals, on Pickwick Lake | Tennessee River |
Port of Decatur | Decatur, on Wheeler Lake | Tennessee River |
Port of Demopolis | Demopolis, on Tombigbee River | Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway |
Port of Guntersville | Guntersville, on Lake Guntersville | Tennessee River |
Port of Birmingham | Birmingham, on Black Warrior River | Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway |
Port of Tuscaloosa | Tuscaloosa, on Black Warrior River | Tennessee–Tombigbee Waterway |
Port of Montgomery | Montgomery, on Woodruff Lake | Alabama River |
Port of Mobile | Mobile, on Mobile Bay | Gulf of Mexico |
See also
- Index of Alabama-related articles
- Outline of Alabama — organized list of topics about Alabama
- USS Alabama, 7 ships
Notes
Subnotes
- The relevant note on p. 10 erroneously switches the population values for Perry and Washington counties. The correct values can be found on page 121 of the final census report for 1820.
Other notes
- Elevation adjusted to North American Vertical Datum of 1988.
- Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin are not distinguished between total and partial ancestry.
- This figure refers to only the number of students paddled, and does not refer to the number of instances of corporal punishment, which would be higher.
References
- "Cheehahaw". NGS Data Sheet. National Geodetic Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States Department of Commerce. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
- "Elevations and Distances in the United States". United States Geological Survey. 2001. Archived from the original on October 15, 2011. Retrieved October 21, 2011.
- Bureau, US Census (April 26, 2021). "2020 Census Apportionment Results" (PDF). The United States Census Bureau. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 26, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
- "US Census Bureau QuickFacts". Archived from the original on March 13, 2022. Retrieved April 30, 2022.
- "Median Household Income by State 2022". Archived from the original on September 7, 2022. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
- "State of Alabama". The Battle of Gettysburg. Archived from the original on July 13, 2014. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
- "Oxford English Dictionary". www-oed-com. Oxford University Press. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
- Stephens, Challen (October 19, 2015). "A look at the languages spoken in Alabama and the drop in the Spanish speaking population". AL.com. Archived from the original on October 9, 2016. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
- "Ranking of U.S. States by Area". Archived from the original on December 17, 2022. Retrieved November 7, 2022.
- "US States - Ranked by Population 2022". Archived from the original on March 24, 2022. Retrieved November 7, 2022.
- "Huntsville rockets past Birmingham in Census, now Alabama's largest city". al. August 12, 2021. Archived from the original on August 12, 2021. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
- Thomason, Michael (2001). Mobile: The New History of Alabama's First City. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. pp. 2–21. ISBN 978-0-8173-1065-3.
- Melton McLaurin, Michael Thomason (1981). Mobile the life and times of a great Southern city (1st ed.). United States of America: Windsor Publications. pp. 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41. 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 88, 92, 105, 119, 120, 123.
- "Alabama's largest county looks to continue economic development momentum". August 31, 2018. Archived from the original on October 21, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
- "Alabama Occupational Projections 2008–2018" (PDF). Alabama Department of Industrial Relations. State of Alabama. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 17, 2013. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- Read, William A. (1984). Indian Place Names in Alabama. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-0231-3. OCLC 10724679.
- Sylestine, Cora; Hardy, Heather; Montler, Timothy (1993). Dictionary of the Alabama Language. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-73077-9. OCLC 26590560. Archived from the original on October 24, 2008.
- "Alabama: The State Name". All About Alabama. Alabama Department of Archives and History. Archived from the original on June 28, 2007. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
- Wills, Charles A. (1995). A Historical Album of Alabama. The Millbrook Press. ISBN 978-1-56294-591-6. OCLC 32242468.
- Griffith, Lucille (1972). Alabama: A Documentary History to 1900. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-0371-6. OCLC 17530914.
- Weiss, Sonia (1999). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Baby Names. Macmillan USA. ISBN 978-0-02-863367-1. OCLC 222611214.
- Rogers, William W.; Robert D. Ward; Leah R. Atkins; Wayne Flynt (1994). Alabama: the History of a Deep South State. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-0712-7. OCLC 28634588.
- Swanton, John R. (1953). "The Indian Tribes of North America". Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin. 145: 153–174. hdl:2027/mdp.39015005395804. Archived from the original on August 4, 2007. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
- Swanton, John R. (1937). "Review of Read, Indian Place Names of Alabama". American Speech. 12 (3): 212–215. doi:10.2307/452431. JSTOR 452431.
- William A. Read (1994). "Southeastern Indian Place Names in what is now Alabama" (PDF). Indian Place Names in Alabama. Alabama Department of Archives and History. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 1, 2011. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
- Bright, William (2004). Native American placenames of the United States. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 29–559. ISBN 978-0-8061-3576-2. Archived from the original on June 17, 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
- "Alabama". The New York Times Almanac 2004. August 11, 2006. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
- Welch, Paul D. (1991). Moundville's Economy. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-0512-3. OCLC 21330955.
- Walthall, John A. (1990). Prehistoric Indians of the Southeast-Archaeology of Alabama and the Middle South. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-0552-9. OCLC 26656858.
- Townsend, Richard F. (2004). Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10601-5. OCLC 56633574.
- F. Kent Reilly; James Garber, eds. (2004). Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms. Foreword by Vincas P. Steponaitis. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-71347-5. OCLC 70335213.
- "Alabama Indian Tribes". Indian Tribal Records. AccessGenealogy.com. 2006. Archived from the original on October 12, 2006. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
- "Alabama State History". theUS50.com. Archived from the original on August 25, 2006. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
- "Alabama History Timeline". Alabama Department of Archives and History. Archived from the original on June 18, 2016. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
- Thomason, Michael (2001). Mobile: The New History of Alabama's First City. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-8173-1065-3.
- "Alabama Historical Association Marker Program: Washington County". Archives.state.al.us. Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved June 1, 2011.
- Clark, Thomas D.; John D. W. Guice (1989). The Old Southwest 1795–1830: Frontiers in Conflict. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. pp. 44–65, 210–257. ISBN 978-0-8061-2836-8.
- Hamilton, Peter Joseph (1910). 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. Boston: Hougthon Mifflin. pp. 241–244. OCLC 49073155.
- Cadle, Farris W (1991). Georgia Land Surveying History and Law. Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press.
- Pickett, Albert James (1851). History of Alabama and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period. Charleston: Walker and James. pp. 408–428.
- "The Pine Barrens Speculation and Yazoo Land Fraud". About North Georgia. Archived from the original on November 3, 2013. Retrieved July 27, 2013.
- "Old St. Stephens". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Auburn University. Archived from the original on July 26, 2011. Retrieved June 21, 2011.
- "Huntsville". The Encyclopedia of Alabama. Alabama Humanities Foundation. Archived from the original on January 22, 2013. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
- "Old Cahawba, Alabama's first state capital, 1820 to 1826". Old Cahawba: A Cahawba Advisory Committee Project. Archived from the original on August 21, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- LeeAnna Keith (October 13, 2011). "Alabama Fever". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Auburn University. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- "Alabama Fever". Alabama Department of Archives and History. State of Alabama. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- Tullos, Allen (April 19, 2004). "The Black Belt". Southern Spaces. Emory University. doi:10.18737/M70K6P. Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
- Wayne Flynt (July 9, 2008). "Alabama". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Auburn University. Archived from the original on September 6, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- "Capitals of Alabama". Alabama Department of Archives and History. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
- Gamble, Robert (1987). The Alabama Catalog: A Guide to the Early Architecture of the State. University, AL: University of Alabama Press. pp. 144, 323–324. ISBN 978-0-8173-0148-4.
- Bowsher, Alice Meriwether (2001). Alabama Architecture. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. pp. 90–91. ISBN 978-0-8173-1081-3.
- "Alabama History Timeline". Alabama Department of Archives and History. State of Alabama. Archived from the original on June 18, 2016. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- Official Symbols and Emblems of Alabama, State Bird of Alabama, Yellowhammer Archived January 2, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. Alabama State Archives
- "13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865)". Historical Documents. HistoricalDocuments.com. 2005. Archived from the original on October 31, 2006. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
- "Reconstruction in Alabama: A Quick Summary". Alabama Moments in American History. Alabama Department of Archives and History. Archived from the original on September 13, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- "A Blaine Amendment Update (July 00)". Schoolreport.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved June 1, 2011.
- "Jim Crow Laws in Alabama". Emmett Till, It All Began with a Whistle. Classroomhelp. Archived from the original on June 26, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- Morgan Kousser. The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974
- Glenn Feldman. The Disfranchisement Myth: Poor Whites and Suffrage Restriction in Alabama. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004, p. 136.
- "Segregation (Jim Crow)". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Archived from the original on May 30, 2018. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
- "The Rosenwald School Building Fund and Associated Buildings MPS". National Register Information System. Archived from the original on June 7, 2022. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
- Hine, Darlene; Hine, William; Harrold, Stanley (2012). African Americans: A Concise History (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education, Inc. pp. 388–389. ISBN 9780205806270.
- "Great Migration | African-American history". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on May 27, 2018. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
- Resident Population Data. "Resident Population Data—2010 Census". 2010.census.gov. Archived from the original on May 19, 2011. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
- "Birmingham | Encyclopedia of Alabama". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Archived from the original on September 8, 2018. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
- "Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1920". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on August 14, 2008.
- Johnson, Frank Minis (2001). Defending Constitutional Rights. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 9780820322858. Archived from the original on December 31, 2021. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
- James Blacksher, Edward Still, Nick Quinton, Cullen Brown and Royal Dumas. Voting Rights in Alabama (1982–2006) Archived September 24, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, 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.
- Thomason, Michael (2001). Mobile : the new history of Alabama's first city. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. pp. 213–217. ISBN 0-8173-1065-7.
- "George Mason University, United States Election Project: Alabama Redistricting Summary". Archived from the original on October 17, 2007. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
- "Reynolds v. Sims". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Archived from the original on May 27, 2018. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
- "Baker V. Carr and Legislative Apportionments: A Problem of Standards". The Yale Law Journal. 72 (5): 968–1040. 1963. doi:10.2307/794657. JSTOR 794657. S2CID 249552862. Archived from the original on March 26, 2019. Retrieved March 26, 2019.
- Klarman, Michael J. (July 31, 2007). Brown v. Board of Education and the Civil Rights Movement. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190294588. Archived from the original on February 20, 2021. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
- Mark Curriden. "September 2, 1963: Gov. Wallace halts integration". ABA Journal. Archived from the original on May 27, 2018. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
- "Civil Rights Movement in Alabama Feature". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Archived from the original on May 27, 2018. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
- "Civil Rights Act of 1964". Finduslaw.com. Archived from the original on October 21, 2010. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
- Berman, Ari (October 1, 2015). "Alabama, Birthplace of the Voting Rights Act, Is Once Again Gutting Voting Rights". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378. Archived from the original on May 27, 2018. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
- "Voting Rights". Civil Rights: Law and History. U.S. Department of Justice. January 9, 2002. Archived from the original on February 21, 2007. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
- Martin, Jonathan; Blinder, Alan (December 12, 2017). "Alabama Senate Race Between Roy Moore and Doug Jones Ends With More Controversy".
- "Cumulative Elections in Alabama (2004)". FairVote Archives. Archived from the original on February 3, 2015. Retrieved January 11, 2015.
- Bridges, Edwin (2016). Alabama: The Making of an American State. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press. p. 224.
- Bridges, Edwin (2016). Alabama: The Making of an American State. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press. pp. 224–229.
- Faulk, Kent (May 8, 2016). "A Roy Moore timeline: From Ten Commandments to senate candidate". al.com. Archived from the original on August 13, 2020. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
- Morgan, Leigh (September 16, 2018). "Remembering Hurricane Ivan 14 years later". al.com. Archived from the original on February 20, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
- Leada, Gore (April 27, 2019). "April 27, 2011 tornadoes in Alabama: A by-the-numbers look at day of devastation". al.com. Archived from the original on February 14, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
- "GCT-PH1-R. Population, Housing Units, Area, and Density (areas ranked by population): 2000". Geographic Comparison Table. U.S. Census Bureau. 2000. Archived from the original on April 3, 2009. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
- "The Geography of Alabama". Geography of the States. NetState.com. August 11, 2006. Archived from the original on September 17, 2006. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
- "Elevations and Distances in the United States". U.S. Geological Survey. April 29, 2005. Archived from the original on January 16, 2008. Retrieved November 3, 2006.
- "NGS Data Sheet for Cheaha Mountain". U.S. National Geodetic Survey. Archived from the original on July 23, 2013. Retrieved June 8, 2011.
- Alabama Forest Owner's Guide to Information Resources, Introduction, Alabamaforests.org Archived April 27, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
- "Alabama County (geographies ranked by total population): 2000". Geographic Comparison Table. U.S. Census Bureau. 2000. Archived from the original on October 11, 2008. Retrieved May 14, 2007.
- "National Park Guide". Geographic Search. Washington, D.C: National Park Service—U.S. Department of the Interior. Archived from the original on September 30, 2006. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
- "National Forests in Alabama". USDA Forest Service. United States Department of Agriculture. Archived from the original on October 7, 2008. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
- Pappas, Breck (January 14, 2016). "Coastal Clay". Mobile Bay Magazine. Archived from the original on February 20, 2021. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
- Collector, Representative (3rd District) Bob Riley-- (September 21, 2000). "DeSoto Caverns Park, Childersburg, Alabama". lcweb2.loc.gov. Archived from the original on July 2, 2016. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
- "Dismals Canyon". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
- "Preserve: Stephens Gap Callahan Cave Preserve". www.saveyourcaves.org. Archived from the original on February 20, 2021. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
- "Wetumpka". Earth Impact Database. Planetary and Space Science Centre University of New Brunswick Fredericton. Retrieved August 20, 2009.
- "The Wetumpka Astrobleme" by John C. Hall, Alabama Heritage, Fall 1996, Number 42.
- King, David T. Jr. (April 23, 2010). "Wetumpka Crater". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Archived from the original on February 16, 2012. Retrieved December 13, 2011.
- "Encyclopedia of Alabama: Climate". University of Alabama. August 17, 2007. Archived from the original on June 21, 2010. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
- "Alabama Climate". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on June 16, 2008. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
- Lightning Fatalities, Injuries and Damages in the United States, 2004–2013 Archived April 27, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. NLSI. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
- "LIST: States with the most F5/EF5 tornadoes since 1950; Ohio high on list". Archived from the original on April 26, 2014. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
- Oliver, Mike (August 4, 2011). "April 27's record tally: 62 tornadoes in Alabama". al.com. Archived from the original on November 9, 2012. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
- "Record high and low temperatures for all 50 states". Internet Accuracy Project. accuracyproject.org. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved November 3, 2012.
- "Climatography of the United States No. 20 (1971–2000) - Huntsville Intl AP, AL" (PDF). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 2004. Archived from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
- "Climatography of the United States No. 20 (1971–2000) - Birmingham Intl AP, AL" (PDF). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 2004. Archived from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
- "Climatography of the United States No. 20 (1971–2000) - Montgomery Dannelly AP, AL" (PDF). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 2004. Archived from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
- "Climatography of the United States No. 20 (1971–2000) - Mobile Rgnl AP, AL" (PDF). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 2004. Archived from the original on July 6, 2011. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
- Mirarchi, Ralph E. (2004). Alabama Wildlife: Volume One. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. pp. 1–3, 60. ISBN 978-0-81735-1304.
- "Alabama Wildlife and their Conservation Status". Outdoor Alabama. Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Archived from the original on October 15, 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2012.
- "About the Atlas". Alabama Plant Atlas. Alabama Herbarium Consortium and University of West Alabama. Archived from the original on October 29, 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2012.
- "Mammals". Outdoor Alabama. Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Archived from the original on May 25, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
- "Reptiles". Outdoor Alabama. Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Archived from the original on May 25, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
- "Amphibians". Outdoor Alabama. Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Archived from the original on May 25, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
- "Birds". Outdoor Alabama. Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Archived from the original on May 25, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
- "Alabama Snails and Mussels". Outdoor Alabama. Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Archived from the original on May 25, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
- "Crayfish". Outdoor Alabama. Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Archived from the original on May 25, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
- "Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas Population Totals and Components of Change: 2020-2021". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on June 29, 2022. Retrieved April 6, 2022.
- Forstall, Richard L. (1996). Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790 to 1990. Washington: U.S. Bureau of the Census, pp. 8–11. ISBN 0-934213-48-8. Retrieved 19 May 2021. Due to the late arrival of returns from the counties of Lawrence, Perry, and Washington, the population of the state for 1820 was incorrectly listed as 127,901 in the official state total.[subnote 1]
- Historical Population Change Data (1910–2020) Archived April 29, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
- "2010 Census Interactive Population Search". 2010.census.gov. Archived from the original on December 30, 2014. Retrieved December 29, 2014.
- "Annual Estimates of the Population for the United States, Regions, States, and Puerto Rico: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2012". U.S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original (CSV) on February 5, 2009. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
- "Population and Population Centers by State—2000". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on December 18, 2008. Retrieved December 3, 2008.
- "2007-2022 PIT Counts by State". Archived from the original on March 14, 2023. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
- "The 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on March 11, 2023. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
- "Race and Ethnicity in the United States: 2010 Census and 2020 Census". census.gov. United States Census Bureau. August 12, 2021. Archived from the original on August 15, 2021. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
- "Historical Census Statistics on Population Totals By Race, 1790 to 1990, and By Hispanic Origin, 1970 to 1990, For The United States, Regions, Divisions, and States". Archived from the original on December 24, 2014.
- "Population of Alabama—Census 2010 and 2000 Interactive Map, Demographics, Statistics, Quick Facts—CensusViewer". censusviewer.com. Archived from the original on August 17, 2014. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
- Center for New Media and Promotions. "2010 Census Data". census.gov. Archived from the original on May 22, 2017. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
- "Ancestry of the Population by State: 1980 - Table 3" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on February 24, 2012. Retrieved February 18, 2018.
- Stanley Lieberson and Lawrence Santi, 'The Use of Nativity Data to Estimate Ethnic Characteristics and Patterns', Social Science Research, Vol. 14, No. 1 (1985), pp. 44–46.
- Stanley Lieberson and Mary C. Waters, 'Ethnic Groups in Flux: The Changing Ethnic Responses of American Whites', Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 487, No. 79 (September 1986), pp. 82–86.
- Exner, Rich (June 3, 2012). "Americans under age 1 now mostly minorities, but not in Ohio: Statistical Snapshot". The Plain Dealer. Archived from the original on July 14, 2016. Retrieved August 5, 2012.
- "Alabama—Selected Social Characteristics in the United States: 2006–2008". Factfinder.census.gov. Archived from the original on February 11, 2020. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
- David Hackett Fischer, Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America, New York: Oxford University Press, 1989, pp.361–368
- "Alabama Indian Affairs Commission" Archived October 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, State of Alabama, accessed September 28, 2013
- "AIAC Bylaws". Alabama Indian Affairs Commission. State of Alabama. Archived from the original on September 18, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- "Proclamation". www.aiac.state.al.us. Archived from the original on October 3, 2013.
- Barry A. Kosmin; Ariela Keysar (2009). "American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2008" (PDF). Hartford, Connecticut, US: Trinity College. p. 20. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 7, 2009. Retrieved May 8, 2009.
- "Religion in America: U.S. Religious Data, Demographics and Statistics—Pew Research Center". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. May 11, 2015. Archived from the original on July 7, 2013. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
- "Religious Landscape Study". May 11, 2015. Archived from the original on May 15, 2015. Retrieved December 18, 2015.
- "Church or synagogue attendance by state". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Archived from the original on May 13, 2012. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
- "State membership Report". The Association of Religion Data Archives. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved November 7, 2013.
- "Maps & Reports". The Association of Religion Data Archives. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
- "State Membership Reports". thearda.com. 2000. Archived from the original on August 29, 2010. Retrieved June 15, 2010.
- Campbell, Kirsten (March 25, 2007). "Alabama rates well in biblical literacy". Mobile Register. Advance Publications, Inc. p. A1.
- "Confidence in State and Local Institutions Survey" (PDF). Capital Survey Research Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 14, 2007. Retrieved June 2, 2007.
- White, David (April 1, 2007). "Poll says we feel good about state Trust in government, unlike some institutions, hasn't fallen". Birmingham News. p. 13A.
- Zietz, Robert (1994). The Gates of Heaven : Congregation Sha'arai Shomayim, the first 150 years, Mobile, Alabama, 1844–1994. Mobile, Alabama: Congregation Sha'arai Shomayim. pp. 1–7.
- "Synagogues in Alabama". Kosher Delight. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved September 8, 2012.
- Kay Campbell (February 29, 2012). "Survey: U.S. Muslims grow by 30 percent since 2000". The Huntsville Times. Archived from the original on July 19, 2012. Retrieved September 8, 2012.
- "Hindu Temples in the South East: catering to the needs of NRI and Indians in US". GaramChai. Archived from the original on September 22, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- "History of Hindu Mandir & Cultural Center". Hindu Mandir & Cultural Center. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- "Dharma Centers and Organizations in Alabama". Manjushri Buddhist Community. AcuMaestro. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- Frye Gaillard (December 2007). "After the Storms: Tradition and Change in Bayou La Batre". Journal of American History. Organization of American Historians. Archived from the original on December 1, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- Roy Hoffman (October 22, 2011). "For Vietnamese Buddhists in South Alabama, A Goddess of Mercy Is A Powerful Figure". Press-Register. Archived from the original on November 17, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- Debbie M. Lord (August 29, 2009). "A Welcome Gateway to the Far East". Press-Register. Archived from the original on November 19, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- Katherine Sayre (May 17, 2012). "Buddhist Monk Killed Temple Leader During Argument Over Food, Prosecutor Says". Press-Register. Archived from the original on November 17, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- "Bahais of the Shoals". shoalsbahais.com. Archived from the original on May 11, 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
- "Here are which states have the longest life expectancies — and which have the shortest". Yahoo. March 11, 2021. Archived from the original on March 11, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
- "County Level Estimates of Obesity—State Maps". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2008. Archived from the original on March 31, 2014.
- "Highest Rates of Leisure-Time Physical Inactivity in Appalachia and South". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2008. Archived from the original on July 7, 2017. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
- "Alabama—Percentage of Adults(aged 18 years or older) with Diagnosed Diabetes, 1994–2010". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2010. Archived from the original on October 18, 2011.
- "CDC national chart on diabetes". Apps.nccd.cdc.gov. Archived from the original on October 15, 2011. Retrieved June 1, 2011.
- Ijaz, Ahmad; Addy, Samuel N. (July 6, 2009). "Food Production in Alabama". The Encyclopedia of Alabama. Auburn University. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- "GDP by State (2008)". Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Economic Accounts. June 2, 2009. Archived from the original on August 26, 2009. Retrieved October 9, 2009. full release with tables Archived June 30, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
- "United States Census Bureau". State and County Quick Facts. Archived from the original on February 26, 2012. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
- "Local Area Unemployment Statistics—Alabama". Bureau of Labor Statistics. Archived from the original on February 9, 2014. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
- "Bureau of Labor Statistics Data". United States Department of Labor. Archived from the original on October 24, 2013. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
- Kasperkevic, Jana (February 26, 2016). "Alabama passes law banning cities and towns from increasing minimum wage". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 11, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
- Scott, Kristina. "AP_PovertyFactSheet_2018_Web". Archived from the original on September 4, 2018. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
- Ballesteros, Carlos (December 10, 2017). "Alabama Has the Worst Poverty in the Developed World, U.N. Official Says". Newsweek. Archived from the original on September 8, 2018. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
- Aneesa Macmillan. "Top of the List: Alabama's largest employers Archived April 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine" (April 22, 2011). Birmingham Business Journal.
- "Alabama's Largest Employers". Birmingham Business Journal. American Registry. April 2011. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved September 19, 2012.
- "Alabama and CBER: 75 Years of Change" (PDF). Alabama Business. Center for Business and Economic Research, Culverhouse College of Commerce, The University of Alabama. 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 27, 2006. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
- "State Highlights for 2004–2005" (PDF). Alabama Cooperative Extension System. USDA, NASS, Alabama Statistical Office. 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 21, 2006. Retrieved September 23, 2006.
- Hanson, TE. 2015. Economics of Aquaculture Production in Alabama. United States Department of Agriculture. Project No. ALA016-1-10022. Available from: https://reeis.usda.gov/web/crisprojectpages/0222158-economics-of-aquaculture-production-in-alabama.html Archived September 24, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
- Pine, H.J.; Boyd, C.E. (2011). "Stream Salinization by Inland Brackish-Water Aquaculture". North American Journal of Aquaculture. 73 (2): 107–113. doi:10.1080/15222055.2011.545580.
- Hanson, Terry; Roy, Luke; Kelly, Anita (2021). "2020 Alabama Farm-Raised Catfish Industry Highlights". Archived from the original on September 24, 2021.
- "Vehicle Technologies Program: Fact #539: October 6, 2008, Light Vehicle Production by State". .eere.energy.gov. October 6, 2008. Archived from the original on October 6, 2008. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
- McCreless, Patrick (October 31, 2012). "Automakers account for about a third of the state's industrial expansion". The Anniston Star. Archived from the original on October 22, 2013. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
- Kent, Dawn (April 2, 2013). "U.S. auto sales see gains in March, as Alabama-made models rise 4 percent". AL.com. Archived from the original on May 18, 2013. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
- "ThyssenKrupp's Alabama incentive package tops $811 million". Press-Register. May 11, 2007. Archived from the original on July 26, 2011. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
- "New owners of ThyssenKrupp stainless steel division plan visit in June". Press-Register. May 31, 2012. Archived from the original on October 22, 2013. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
- "Report: ThyssenKrupp gets final bids for Steel Americas plants". AL.com. March 1, 2013. Archived from the original on May 7, 2013. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
- "Alabama: Ende 2014 bei voller Kapazität—stahl-online.de". stahl-online.de. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
- "Hunt Refining Company Archived May 18, 2012, at the Wayback Machine". Linkedin.
- "Company Overview". JVC America, Inc.
- Melissa Nelson-Gabriel (July 2, 2012). "Airbus to Build 1st US Assembly Plant in Alabama". Associated Press. Archived from the original on July 3, 2012. Retrieved July 2, 2012.
- "Airbus confirms its first US factory to build A320 jet". BBC News. July 2, 2012. Archived from the original on July 2, 2012. Retrieved July 2, 2012.
- Nicola Clark (July 2, 2012). "EADS to Build United States Assembly Line for Airbus A320". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 2, 2012. Retrieved July 2, 2012.
- "Airbus Appoints Program Manager for its Mobile Assembly Line". Airbus. Archived from the original on February 6, 2013. Retrieved February 7, 2013.
- Arielle Emmett (June 2016). "Airbus Lands In Alabama". Air & Space Smithsonian. Archived from the original on March 19, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2017.
- Polland, Jennifer. "A Detailed Look At How Americans Travel Within The US". Business Insider. Archived from the original on June 20, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
- "Tourist spending in Alabama hit all-time high in 2017". al. May 23, 2018. Archived from the original on June 20, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
- Nusbaum, Lydia (November 30, 2018). "International travel agents descend on Alabama". WSFA 12 News. Archived from the original on June 15, 2021. Retrieved March 18, 2021.
- Jim Volz (February 21, 2007). "Alabama Shakespeare Festival (ASF)". The Encyclopedia of Alabama. Auburn University. Archived from the original on March 8, 2012. Retrieved April 3, 2012.
- "Guntersville Dam and Lake". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved September 21, 2020.
- "Planning Your Alabama Visit". alabama.travel.com. Sweet Home Alabama. Archived from the original on September 24, 2016. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
- "Carnival/Mobile Mardi Gras Timeline". Museum of Mobile. Archived from the original on July 19, 2013. Retrieved July 18, 2012.
- "HOLIDAYS ENUMERATED; PERSONAL LEAVE DAYS; STATE HOLIDAYS OBSERVED BY CLOSING OF STATE OFFICES; COMPENSATORY LEAVE DAYS", Alabama Code, pp. 1–3–8(c), archived from the original on July 14, 2014, retrieved December 2, 2014
- Roberts, Ken. "Alabama ranks top tourist attractions". Tuscaloosa News. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
- "Four Alabama-Filmed Movies to Watch In 2013". LocationsHub. March 19, 2013. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
- Walburn, Jackie Romine (December 10, 2018). "A Growing List of Movies Have Been Made in Alabama". Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
- "Trauma Centers | Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH)". www.alabamapublichealth.gov. Archived from the original on March 21, 2020. Retrieved November 6, 2020.
- "UAB—Human Resources—Home". uab.edu. Archived from the original on July 22, 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
- "Competition in health insurance research". American Medical Association. Archived from the original on June 18, 2019. Retrieved June 15, 2019.
- "Deposit Market Share Report". Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Archived from the original on May 27, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- Tim Lockette, Is the Alabama Constitution the longest constitution in the world?Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 Archived March 7, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Anniston Star.
- Campbell Robertson, Alabama Simmers Before Vote on Its Constitution's Racist Language Archived July 23, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, New York Times, October 10, 2012.
- Roig-Franzia, Manuel (November 28, 2004). "Alabama Vote Opens Old Racial Wounds". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 22, 2022. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
- "Constitution of Alabama—1901". The Alabama Legislative Information System. Archived from the original on September 23, 2006. Retrieved September 22, 2006.
- "Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform". Constitutionalreform.org. Archived from the original on September 15, 2010. Retrieved October 24, 2010.
- Lee, McDowell (2009). "Alabama's Legislative Process". State of Alabama. Archived from the original on January 2, 2011.
- Judicial Selection in the States: Alabama Archived October 6, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, American Judicature Society.
- "Methods of Execution". Archived from the original on July 1, 2018. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
- [Rimer, Sara (March 1, 2000). "Questions of Death Row Justice For Poor People in Alabama". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 26, 2023.
- Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza (July 27, 2014). "With Judges Overriding Death Penalty Cases, Alabama Is An Outlier". NPR. Archived from the original on July 3, 2018. Retrieved July 21, 2016.
- "State Execution Rates (through 2020)". Death Penalty Information Center. Archived from the original on February 7, 2021. Retrieved December 14, 2019.
- "Supreme Court Reverses Another Alabama Death Penalty Case". EJI. June 21, 2016. Archived from the original on August 20, 2016. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
- "Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signs bill: Judges can no longer override juries in death penalty cases". Al.com. April 12, 2017. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
- York, Erin Durkin Jessica Glenza in New (May 15, 2019). "Alabama abortion ban: Republican senate passes most restrictive law in US". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on May 15, 2019. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
- Chandler, Kim (October 29, 2019). "Federal judge blocks Alabama's strict abortion ban". Montgomery: Associated Press. Archived from the original on November 8, 2019. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
- "YASHICA ROBINSON vs STEVEN MARSHALL Court Docket" (PDF). bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022.
- Alabama Law, Article IV, §65
- "Alabama Department of Revenue". Alabama Department of Revenue. Archived from the original on January 3, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
- Loughead, Katherine (February 17, 2021). "State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets for 2021". Tax Foundation. Archived from the original on January 18, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- MORENO, TONYA (May 27, 2021). "States That Allow You to Deduct Federal Income Taxes". Dotdash. Archived from the original on January 19, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- "Sales Tax". Alabama Department of Revenue. Archived from the original on January 19, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- "City and County Tax Rates". Alabama Department of Revenue. Archived from the original on January 19, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- Chandler, Chuck (January 8, 2021). "Alabama collected record $12.2B revenues in 2020". Alabama News Center. Archived from the original on January 19, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- FIGUEROA, ERIC; LEGENDRE, JULIAN (April 1, 2020). "States That Still Impose Sales Taxes on Groceries Should Consider Reducing or Eliminating Them". Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Archived from the original on January 31, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- "Taxes In Alabama". Tax Foundation. Archived from the original on January 19, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- Richardson, Brenda (April 9, 2020). "Residents Pay The Lowest Property Taxes In These States". Forbes. Archived from the original on January 19, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- Brewer, Albert P. "Home Rule". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Archived from the original on February 3, 2015. Retrieved February 4, 2015.
- "Wet Cities". Alabama ABC Board. Archived from the original on January 19, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- Rawls, Phillip (June 1, 2007). "Alabama offers an apology for slavery". The Virginian Pilot.
- White, David (November 2, 2010). "GOP takes control of Alabama Legislature after 136 years". The Birmingham News. Archived from the original on July 9, 2018. Retrieved July 9, 2018.
- "Elections Data Downloads". Alabama Secretary of State. Archived from the original on December 8, 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2023.
- Staff (February 24, 2023). "American Values Atlas: Approval of Same-Sex Marriage in Alabama". Public Religion Research Institute. Archived from the original on April 4, 2017. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
- "Sue Bell Cobb considering running for governor". The Birmingham News. May 2, 2009. Archived from the original on May 6, 2009. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
- "Chief Justice Perry Hooper remembered as GOP pioneer". al. April 26, 2016. Archived from the original on June 13, 2021. Retrieved April 2, 2021.
- "Commissioners". Psc.state.al.us. Archived from the original on July 18, 2009. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
- Special (November 5, 2008). "Lucy Baxley wins Alabama Public Service Commission presidency, but recount possible". Birmingham News via al.com. Archived from the original on August 2, 2009. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
- Jeff Amy. "Public Service Commission: Twinkle Cavanaugh, Terry Dunn join GOP sweep". al.com. Archived from the original on March 6, 2012. Retrieved June 1, 2011.
- "Mayor's Office | City of Montgomery, AL". www.montgomeryal.gov. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
- "Mayor". City of Tuscaloosa. Archived from the original on April 16, 2023. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
- "Sheriffs Directory - Alabama Sheriffs Association - Alabama". www.alabamasheriffs.com. Archived from the original on May 30, 2023. Retrieved April 16, 2023.
- "Alabama Education Quick Facts 2012–13" (PDF). Archived from the original on April 29, 2014. Retrieved April 29, 2014.
- "Educational Attainment : 2000 : Census 2000 Brief" (PDF). Census.gov. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 16, 2019. Retrieved December 29, 2016.
- Education Statistics Archived May 13, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. CensusScope.org
- Farrell, Colin (February 2016). "Corporal punishment in US schools". World Corporal Punishment Research. Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
- "Directory of Alabama Colleges and Universities". Alabama Commission on Higher Education. Archived from the original on October 11, 2013. Retrieved July 28, 2013.
- "The University of Alabama". www.ua.edu. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved July 5, 2017.
- "History in the making". University of North Alabama. Archived from the original on August 12, 2011. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
- "The Mission Statement of Spring Hill College: History". Spring Hill College. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
- "Members". Association for Biblical Higher Education. Archived from the original on August 10, 2011. Retrieved June 24, 2011.
- "Membership Directory" (PDF). Council on Operational Education. November 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 25, 2011. Retrieved August 5, 2011.
- "ACICS Website Directory" (PDF). Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools. July 20, 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 24, 2011. Retrieved August 5, 2011.
- "Top Public Schools". U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on August 17, 2011. Retrieved September 17, 2011.
- National University Rankings | Top National Universities | US News Best Colleges Archived June 8, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved on July 12, 2013.
- "Alabama". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on March 20, 2017. Retrieved March 24, 2017.
- "APT—WGIQ Channel 43 Television". stationindex.com. Archived from the original on May 25, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
- STRAKA, DEAN (January 5, 2022). "College football: Top 10 teams by average home game attendance during 2021 season". 247Sports.com. Archived from the original on January 9, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- "Bryant–Denny Stadium". RollTide.com. University of Alabama. Archived from the original on January 5, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- "Stadium List: 100 000+ Stadiums". World Stadiums. Archived from the original on October 23, 2006. Retrieved February 10, 2012.
- "Jordan-Hare Stadium". Auburn University. Archived from the original on August 1, 2013.
- Short, Cody (October 1, 2021). "Legion Field". WBHM. Archived from the original on October 7, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
- "Welcome to Ladd Peebles Stadium". Ladd–Peebles Stadium. Archived from the original on January 19, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- Sentell, Jeff (April 8, 2009). "Super 6 leaving Birmingham for Bryant-Denny, Jordan-Hare stadiums | al.com". The Birmingham News. Archived from the original on January 19, 2022. Retrieved January 19, 2022.
- "Table 1086. Top U.S. Ports by Tons of Traffic: 2009" (PDF). U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 19, 2012. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
- "U.S. Waterborne Container Traffic by Port/Waterway in 2011 (Loaded and Empty TEUS)". U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Archived from the original on November 3, 2013. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
Further reading
- Atkins, Leah Rawls, Wayne Flynt, William Warren Rogers, and David Ward. Alabama: The History of a Deep South State (1994).
- Flynt, Wayne. Alabama in the Twentieth Century (2004).
- Owen Thomas M. History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography (4 vols, 1921).
- Jackson, Harvey H. Inside Alabama: A Personal History of My State (2004).
- Mohl, Raymond A. "Latinization in the Heart of Dixie: Hispanics in Late-twentieth-century Alabama" Alabama Review (2002, 55(4): 243–274). ISSN 0002-4341
- Peirce, Neal R. The Deep South States of America: People, Politics, and Power in the Seven Deep South States (1974).
- Williams, Benjamin Buford. A Literary History of Alabama: The Nineteenth Century (1979).
- WPA Guide to Alabama (1939).
External links
- Official website
- Alabama at Curlie
- Alabama State Guide, from the Library of Congress
- Your Not So Ordinary Alabama Tourist Guide Archived December 5, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
- All About Alabama Archived September 6, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, at the Alabama Department of Archives and History
- Code of Alabama 1975
- USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Alabama Archived January 6, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- Alabama QuickFacts from the U.S. Census Bureau
- Alabama State Fact Sheet
- Geographic data related to Alabama at OpenStreetMap