Alabama

Capital: Montgomery

State abbreviation/Postal code: Ala./AL

Governor: Robert Bentley, R (to Jan. 2015)

Lieut. Governor: Kay Ivey, D (to Jan. 2015)

Senators: Jeff Sessions, R (to Jan. 2015); Richard C. Shelby, R (to Jan. 2017)

U.S. Representatives: 7

Historical biographies of Congressional members

Secy. of State: Beth Chapman, R (to Jan. 2015)

Treasurer: Young Boozer, R (to Jan. 2015)

Atty. General: Luther Strange, R (to Jan. 2015)

Organized as territory: March 3, 1817

Entered Union (rank): Dec. 14, 1819 (22)

Present constitution adopted: 1901

Motto: Audemus jura nostra defendere (We dare defend our rights)

State symbols:

flower	camellia (1959)
bird	yellowhammer (1927)
song	“Alabama” (1931)
tree	Southern longleaf pine (1949, 1997)
salt water fish	fighting tarpon (1955)
fresh water fish	largemouth bass (1975)
horse	racking horse (1975)
mineral	hematite (1967)
rock	marble (1969)
game bird	wild turkey (1980)
dance	square dance (1981)
nut	pecan (1982)
fossil	species Basilosaurus Cetoides (1984)
official mascot and butterfly	eastern tiger swallowtail (1989)
insect	monarch butterfly (1989)
reptile	Alabama red-bellied turtle (1990)
gemstone	star blue quartz (1990)
shell	scaphella junonia johnstoneae (1990)

Nickname: Yellowhammer State

Origin of name: From Alabama River by early European explorers and named "Alibamu" after the local Indian tribe

10 largest cities (2010): Birmingham, 212,237; Montgomery, 205,764; Mobile, 195,111; Huntsville, 180,105; Tuscaloosa, 90,468; Hoover, 81,619; Dothan, 65,496; Decatur, 55,683; Auburn, 53,380; Madison, 42,938

Land area: 50,744 sq mi. (131,427 sq km)

Geographic center: In Chilton Co., 12 mi. SW of Clanton

Number of counties: 67

Largest county by population and area: Jefferson, 657,229 (2005); Baldwin, 1,596 sq mi.

State forests: 21 (48,000 ac.)

State parks: 22 (45,614 ac.)

Residents: Alabamian, Alabaman

2010 resident census population: 4,779,736

2010 resident census population (rank): 4,779,736 (23). Male: 2,320,188; Female: 2,459,548. White: 3,275,394 (68.5%); Black: 1,251,311 (26.2%); American Indian: 28,218 (0.6%); Asian: 53,595 (1.1%); Other race: 96,910 (2.0%); Two or more races: 71,251 (1.5%); Hispanic/Latino: 185,602 (3.9%). 2010 percent population 18 and over: 62.5; 65 and over: 14.1; median age: 37.9.

See additional census data

Area codes

Tourism office

Map of Alabama

Spanish explorers are believed to have arrived at Mobile Bay in 1519, and the territory was visited in 1540 by the explorer Hernando de Soto. The first permanent European settlement in Alabama was founded by the French at Fort Louis de la Mobile in 1702. The British gained control of the area in 1763 by the Treaty of Paris but had to cede almost all the Alabama region to the U.S. and Spain after the American Revolution. The Confederacy was founded at Montgomery in Feb. 1861, and, for a time, the city was the Confederate capital.

During the later 19th century, the economy of the state slowly improved with industrialization. At Tuskegee Institute, founded in 1881 by Booker T. Washington, Dr. George Washington Carver carried out his famous agricultural research.

In the 1950s and '60s, Alabama was the site of such landmark civil-rights actions as the bus boycott in Montgomery (1955–56) and the “Freedom March” from Selma to Montgomery (1965).

Today paper, chemicals, rubber and plastics, apparel and textiles, primary metals, and automobile manufacturing constitute the leading industries of Alabama. Continuing as a major manufacturer of coal, iron, and steel, Birmingham is also noted for its world-renowned medical center. The state ranks high in the production of poultry, soybeans, milk, vegetables, livestock, wheat, cattle, cotton, peanuts, fruits, hogs, and corn.

Points of interest include the Helen Keller birthplace at Tuscumbia, the Space and Rocket Center at Huntsville, the White House of the Confederacy, the restored state Capitol, the Civil Rights Memorial, the Rosa Parks Museum & Library, and the Shakespeare Festival Theater Complex in Montgomery; the Civil Rights Institute and the McWane Center in Birmingham; the Russell Cave near Bridgeport; the Bellingrath Gardens at Theodore; the USS Alabama at Mobile; Mound State Monument near Tuscaloosa; and the Gulf Coast area.

Thirty-seven years after the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing which killed four young girls in Birmingham, the FBI released the name of four men—self-proclaimed Cahaba Boys, a branch of the Ku Klux Klan—responsible for the dynamite attack: Robert Chambliss, Herman Cash, Thomas Blanton and Bobby Cherry. Cash died in 1994; Blanton and Cherry were tried and convicted in 2001 and 2002 respectively (Cherry died in prison in 2004). Chambliss, originally charged alone, was acquitted of murder in 1963, but was sentenced to life in prison when the case was reopened in 1977. He died in prison in 1985.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused major flooding and destruction along the coast of Alabama; flood waters reached 11 ft in Mobile. Twenty-two counties were declared federal disaster areas.

See more on Alabama:
Encyclopedia: Alabama
Encyclopedia: Geography
Encyclopedia: Economy
Encyclopedia: Government
Encyclopedia: History
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