Harvey Edward Glance
Harvey Edward Glance (born March 28, 1957) is a former American athlete, winner of gold medal in 4x100 m relay at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Born in Phenix City, Alabama, Harvey Glance equaled the 100 m world record of 9.9 twice in 1976. At first in April 3, he ran 9.9 in Columbia and then a month later in Baton Rouge. As an Auburn University student, Glance won the NCAA 100 m championships in 1976 and 1977 and 200 m championships in 1976.
At the Montreal Olympics, Glance was fourth in 100 m and ran the opening leg in the gold medal winning American 4x100 m relay team. At the 1979 Pan American Games, Glance was second in 100 m and won the gold medal as a member of American 4x100 m relay team. He was also second in 4x100 m relay in 1979 IAAF World Cup.
Due the boycott, he didn't compete at the 1980 Summer Olympics, but won the gold medal at the 1985 IAAF World Cup, 1987 Pan American Games and 1987 World Championships as a member of American relay team.
After his sporting career, Glance was a head coach at Auburn University until 1997 and since then is a head coach at the University of Alabama.
Helen Keller
Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was a deaf blind American author, activist and lecturer.
Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Her disabilities were caused by a fever in February, 1882 when she was 19 months old. Her loss of ability to communicate at such an early developmental age was very traumatic for her and her family.
In 1888, Helen attended the Perkins School for the Blind. In 1894, Helen and Anne moved to New York City to attend the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf.
In 1898 they returned to Massachusetts and Helen entered The Cambridge School for Young Ladies before gaining admittance, in 1900, to Radcliffe College. In 1904 at the age of 24, Helen graduated from Radcliffe cum laude, becoming the first deaf and blind person to graduate from a college.
Nat King Cole
Born Nathaniel Adams Coles in 1917, at four he moved to Chicago when his father was called to the True Light Baptist Church. Even at that age he could sing "Yes, We Have No Bananas" as he accompanied himself on the piano. His first public performance as a pianist was at four in Chicago's Regal Theater. His mother, who was his first music teacher, wanted him to become a classical pianist.
Although as early as 12 he played the organ and sang in his father's church, his interests were with jazz - an interest and type of music that displeased his parents because of Jazz's connection with nightclubs and the sporting life. However, three of Nat's brothers - Eddie, Fred and Isaac - were already jazz musicians, and Nat first played piano in Eddie Coles's jazz band, the Rogues of Rhythm.
In 1936 he moved to Los Angeles where he formed a group that later became the King Cole Trio. In 1943, he recorded his first national hit record, "Straighten Up and Fly Right," which was based on one of his father's sermons and on a traditional black folktale.
Success followed with "It's Only a Paper Moon" in 1945, "The Christmas Song" in 1947, "Nature Boy" in 1948, "Mona Lisa" in 1949 and "Too Young" in 1951.
Cole was the first black jazz musician to have his own weekly radio show (1948-49).
In early 1956, Cole returned to Alabama, where his integrated group played to a segregated audience in the municipal auditorium in Birmingham. Four members of the White Citizens Council attacked him on the stage. Although hurt, Cole returned to the stage and completed his performance for the audience of 4,000. Cole, who had frequently visited in Montgomery, vowed never to return to the South, and he did not.
Later that year he became the first black to have a weekly show on network television (1956-57), but the show was canceled because it could not find a national sponsor. Although Nat 'King' Cole moved away from jazz, and is best known as a melodious, smooth singer of such popular songs as "Pretend," "Route 66," "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" and "Rambling Rose," his stronger claim to a place in musical history is as a jazz pianist. He is also known as an actor in "St. Louis Blues" (1958) and "Cat Ballou" (1964).
Rosa Parks
Most historians date the beginning of the modern civil rights movement in the United States to December 1, 1955. That was the day when an unknown seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. This brave woman, Rosa Parks, was arrested and fined for violating a city ordinance, but her lonely act of defiance began a movement that ended legal segregation in America, and made her an inspiration to freedom-loving people everywhere.
Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama to James McCauley, a carpenter, and Leona McCauley, a teacher. At the age of two she moved to her grandparents' farm in Pine Level, Alabama with her mother and younger brother, Sylvester. At the age of 11 she enrolled in the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls, a private school founded by liberal-minded women from the northern United States. The school's philosophy of self-worth was consistent with Leona McCauley's advice to "take advantage of the opportunities, no matter how few they were."
Opportunities were few indeed. "Back then," Mrs. Parks recalled in an interview, "we didn't have any civil rights. It was just a matter of survival, of existing from one day to the next. I remember going to sleep as a girl hearing the Klan ride at night and hearing a lynching and being afraid the house would burn down." In the same interview, she cited her lifelong acquaintance with fear as the reason for her relative fearlessness in deciding to appeal her conviction during the bus boycott. "I didn't have any special fear," she said. "It was more of a relief to know that I wasn't alone."
After attending Alabama State Teachers College, the young Rosa settled in Montgomery, with her husband, Raymond Parks. The couple joined the local chapter of the NAACP and worked quietly for many years to improve the lot of African-Americans in the segregated south.
"I worked on numerous cases with the NAACP," Mrs. Parks recalled, "but we did not get the publicity. There were cases of flogging, peonage, murder, and rape. We didn't seem to have too many successes. It was more a matter of trying to challenge the powers that be, and to let it be known that we did not wish to continue being second-class citizens."
The bus incident led to the formation of the Montgomery Improvement Association, led by the young pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The association called for a boycott of the city-owned bus company. The boycott lasted 382 days and brought Mrs. Parks, Dr. King, and their cause to the attention of the world. A Supreme Court Decision struck down the Montgomery ordinance under which Mrs. Parks had been fined, and outlawed racial segregation on public transportation.
In 1957, Mrs. Parks and her husband moved to Detroit, Michigan where Mrs. Parks served on the staff of U.S. Representative John Conyers. The Southern Christian Leadership Council established an annual Rosa Parks Freedom Award in her honor.
After the death of her husband in 1977, Mrs. Parks founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development. The Institute sponsors an annual summer program for teenagers called Pathways to Freedom. The young people tour the country in buses, under adult supervision, learning the history of their country and of the civil rights movement. President Clinton presented Rosa Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. She received a Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.
When asked if she was happy living in retirement, Rosa Parks replied, "I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don't think there is any such thing as complete happiness. It pains me that there is still a lot of Klan activity and racism. I think when you say you're happy, you have everything that you need and everything that you want, and nothing more to wish for. I haven't reached that stage yet."
Mrs. Parks spent her last years living quietly in Detroit, where she died in 2005 at the age of 92. After her death, her casket was placed in the rotunda of the United States Capitol for two days, so the nation could pay its respects to the woman whose courage had changed the lives of so many. She was the first woman in American history to lie in state at the Capitol, an honor usually reserved for Presidents of the United States.
There are many unique activities in the state of Alabama.
Music
Blues and country music are very popular in Alabama.
In addition the blues and country, Appalachian folk music, fiddle music, gospel, spirituals, mariachi and polka have had local scenes in parts of Alabama. The Tuskegee Institute's School of Music (established 1931), especially the Tuskegee Choir, is an internationally renowned institution. There are three major modern orchestras, the Mobile Symphony, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra; the last is the oldest continuously operating professional orchestra in the state, giving its first performance in 1955.
The state song of Alabama is titled "Alabama". It was written by Julia S. Tutwiler and composed by Edna Gockel Gussen. It was adopted as the state song in 1931.
Shakespeare Festival
The Alabama Shakespeare Festival (ASF) is one of the largest Shakespeare festivals in the world. It attracts more than 300,000 annual visitors from all 50 states and over 60 countries, to its home in Montgomery, Alabama.
ASF operates year-round, producing 12-14 world-class productions annually, typically including three works of William Shakespeare. The remaining plays sample various genres and playwrights, sometimes with an emphasis on Southern playwrights. ASF's Southern Writers Project nurtures the creation of new plays that reflect Southern themes.
U.S. Space Camp
The U. S. Space Camp is hosted by the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The camp revolves around themes of space travel and exploration. Space Camp offers a variety of programs year-round, providing adventures for kids and adults alike.
National Peanut Festival
This nine-day celebration of the peanut harvest includes a variety of competitions, including recipe contests and beauty pageants. A large parade is held on the last Saturday of the festival. The fall event attracts more than 120,000 visitors. Noted as the nation's largest peanut festival, the event has been held in Dothan for over 50 years.
USS Alabama
The third USS Alabama (BB-60) of the United States Navy was the South Dakota-class battleship. On February 1, 1940, Alabama was laid down by the Norfolk Navy Yard sponsored by Mrs. Lister Hill. On November 11, 1942, Alabama commenced her shakedown cruise in Chesapeake Bay. In the beginning of 1943, the new battleship headed north to conduct operational training out of Casco Bay, Maine. She returned to Chesapeake Bay on January 11, 1943 to carry out the last week of shakedown training.
Following a period of availability and logistics support at Norfolk, Alabama was assigned to Task Group 22.2, and returned to Casco Bay for tactical maneuvers on 13 February 1943.
With the movement of substantial British strength toward the Mediterranean theater, to prepare for the invasion of Sicily, the Royal Navy lacked the heavy ships necessary to cover the northern convoy routes. The British appeal for help on those lines soon led to the temporary assignment of Alabama and South Dakota (BB-57) to the Home Fleet.
On 2 April 1943, Alabama, as part of Task Force 22, sailed for the Orkney Islands with her sister ship and a screen of five destroyers. Proceeding via Little Placentia Sound, Argentia, Newfoundland, the battleship reached Scapa Flow on 19 May 1943, reporting for duty with TF 61 and becoming a unit of the British Home Fleet. She soon embarked on a period of intensive operational training to coordinate joint operations.
Early in June, Alabama and her sister ship, along with British Home Fleet units, covered the reinforcement of the garrison on the island of Spitzbergen, which lay on the northern flank of the convoy route to Russia, in an operation that took the ship across the Arctic Circle. Soon after her return to Scapa Flow, she was inspected by Admiral Harold R. Stark, Commander, United States Naval Forces, Europe.
Shortly thereafter, in July, Alabama participated in Operation Governor, a diversion aimed toward southern Norway, to draw German attention away from the real Allied thrust, toward Sicily. It had also been devised to attempt to lure out the German battleship Tirpitz, the sister ship of the famed, but short-lived, Bismarck, but the Germans did not rise to the challenge, and the enemy battleship remained in her Norwegian lair.
Alabama was detached from the British Home Fleet on 1 August 1943, and, in company with South Dakota and screening destroyers, sailed for Norfolk, arriving there on 9 August. For the next ten days, Alabama underwent a period of overhaul and repairs. This work completed, the battleship departed Norfolk on 20 August 1943 for the Pacific Ocean. Transiting the Panama Canal five days later, she dropped anchor in Havannah Harbor, at Efate, in the New Hebrides, on 14 September.
Following a month and a half of exercises and training, with fast carrier task groups, the battleship moved to Fiji on 7 November. Alabama sailed on 11 November to take part in operation "Galvanic", the assault on the Japanese-held Gilbert Islands. She screened the fast carriers as they launched attacks on Jaluit and Mille atolls, Marshall Islands, to neutralize Japanese airfields located there. Alabama supported landings on Tarawa on 20 November and later took part in the securing of Betio and Makin. On the night of 26 November, Alabama twice opened fire to drive off enemy aircraft that approached her formation.
On 8 December 1943, Alabama, along with five other fast battleships, carried out the first Pacific gunfire strike conducted by that type of warship. Alabama's guns hurled 535 rounds into enemy strong points, as she and her sister ships bombarded Nauru Island, an enemy phosphate-producing center, causing severe damage to shore installations there. She also took the destroyer Boyd (DD-644), alongside after that ship had received a direct hit from a Japanese shore battery on Nauru, and brought three injured men on board for treatment.
She then escorted the carriers Bunker Hill (CV-17) and Monterey (CVL-26) back to Efate, arriving on 12 December. Alabama departed the New Hebrides for Pearl Harbor on 5 January 1944, arrived on the 12th, and underwent a brief drydocking at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard. After replacement of her port outboard propeller, and routine maintenance, Alabama was again underway to return to action in the Pacific.
Alabama reached Funafuti, Ellice Islands, on 21 January 1944, and there rejoined the fleet. Assigned to Task Group 58.2, which was formed around Essex (CV-9), Alabama left the Ellice Islands on 25 January to help carry out Operation "Flintlock," the invasion of the Marshall Islands. Alabama, along with sister ship South Dakota and the fast battleship North Carolina (BB-55), bombarded Roi on 29 January and Namur on 30 January; she hurled 330 rounds of 16 inch (406 mm) and 1,562 of 5 inch (127 mm) toward Japanese targets, destroying planes, airfield facilities, blockhouses, buildings, and gun emplacements. Over the following days of the campaign, Alabama patrolled the area north of Kwajalein Atoll. On 12 February 1944, Alabama sortied with the Bunker Hill task group to launch attacks on Japanese installations, aircraft and shipping at Truk. Those raids, launched on 16 and 17 February, caused heavy damage to enemy shipping concentrated at that island base.
Leaving Truk Alabama began steaming toward the Marianas to assist in strikes on Tinian, Saipan and Guam. During this action, while repelling enemy air attacks on 21 February 1944, 5 inch (127 mm) mount No. 9 accidentally fired into mount No. 5. Five men died, and 11 were wounded in the mishap.
After the strikes were completed on 22 February, Alabama conducted a sweep looking for crippled enemy ships southeast of Saipan, and eventually returned to Majuro on 26 February 1944. There she served temporarily as flagship for Vice Admiral Marc Mitscher, Commander, TF 58, from 3 to 8 March.
Alabama's next mission was to screen the fast carriers as they hurled air strikes against Japanese positions on Palau, Yap, Ulithi, and Woleai, Caroline Islands. She steamed from Majuro on 22 March 1944 with TF 58 in the screen of Yorktown (CV-10), On the night of 29 March, about six enemy planes approached TG 58.3, in which Alabama was operating, and four broke off to attack ships in the vicinity of the battleship. Alabama downed one unassisted, and helped in the destruction of another.
On 30 March, planes from TF 58 began bombing Japanese airfields, shipping, fleet servicing facilities, and other installations on the islands of Palau, Yap, Ulithi and Woleai. During that day, Alabama again provided antiaircraft fire whenever enemy planes appeared. At 2044 on the 30th, a single plane approached TG 58.3, but Alabama and other ships drove it off before it could cause any damage.
The battleship returned briefly to Majuro, before she sailed on 13 April with TF 58, this time in the screen of Enterprise (CV-6). In the next three weeks, TF 58 hit enemy targets on Hollandia, Wakde, Sawar, and Sarmi along the New Guinea coast; covered Army landings at Aitape, Tanahmerah Bay, and Humboldt Bay; and conducted further strikes on Truk.
As part of the preliminaries to the invasion of the Marianas, Alabama, in company with five other fast battleships, shelled the large island of Ponape, in the Carolines, the site of a Japanese airfield and sea lane base. As Alabama's Capt. Fred T. Kirtland subsequently noted, the bombardment, of 70 minutes' duration, was conducted in a "leisurely manner." Alabama then returned to Majuro on 4 May 1944 to prepare for the invasion of the Marianas.
After a month spent in exercises and refitting, Alabama again got under way with TF 58 to participate in Operation Forager. On 12 June, Alabama screened the carriers striking Saipan. On 13 June, Alabama took part in a six-hour pre-invasion bombardment of the west coast of Saipan, to soften the defenses and cover the initial minesweeping operations. Her spotting planes reported that her salvoes had caused great destruction and fires in Garapan town. Though the shelling appeared successful, it proved a failure due to the lack of specialized training and experience required for successful shore bombardment. Strikes continued as troops invaded Saipan on 15 June.
On 19 June, during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, Alabama operated with TG 58.7, providing antiaircraft support for the fast carriers against attacking Japanese aircraft. In the first raid that approached Alabama's formation, only two planes managed to penetrate to attack her sistership South Dakota, scoring one bomb hit that caused minor damage. An hour later a second wave, composed largely of torpedo bombers, bore in, but Alabama's barrage discouraged two planes from attacking South Dakota. The intense concentration paid to the incoming torpedo planes left one dive bomber nearly undetected, and it managed to drop its load near Alabama; the two small bombs were near-misses, and caused no damage.
Alabama continued patrolling areas around the Marianas to protect the American landing forces on Saipan, screening the east carriers as they struck enemy shipping, aircraft, and shore installations on Guam, Tinian, Rota, and Saipan. She then retired to the Marshalls for upkeep.
Alabama - as flagship for Rear Admiral E. W. Hanson, Commander, Battleship Division 9-left Eniwetok on 14 July 1944, sailing with the task group formed around Bunker Hill. She screened the fast carriers as they conducted preinvasion attacks and support of the landings on the island of Guam on 21 July. She returned briefly to Eniwetok on 11 August. On 30 August she got underway in the screen of Essex to carry out Operation Stalemate II the seizure of Palau, Ulithi, and Yap. On 6 through 8 September, the forces launched strikes on the Carolinas.
Alabama departed the Carolines to sail to the Philippines and provided cover for the carriers striking the islands of Cebu, Leyte, Bohol and Negros from 12 to 14 September. The carriers launched strikes on shipping and installations in the Manila Bay area on 21 and 22 September, and in the central Philippines area on 24 September. Alabama retired briefly to Saipan on 28 September, then proceeded to Ulithi on 1 October 1944.
On 6 October 1944 Alabama sailed with TF 38 to support the liberation of the Philippines. Again operating as part of a fast carrier task group, Alabama protected the flattops while they launched strikes on Japanese facilities at Okinawa, in the Pescadores and Formosa.
Detached from the Formosa area on 14 October to sail toward Luzon, the fast battleship again used her antiaircraft batteries in support of the carriers as enemy aircraft attempted to attack the formation. Alabama's gunners claimed three enemy aircraft shot down and a fourth damaged. By 15 October, Alabama was supporting landing operations on Leyte. She then screened the carriers as they conducted air strikes on Cebu, Negros, Panay, northern Mindanao, and Leyte on 21 October 1944.
Alabama, as part of the Enterprise screen, supported air operations against the Japanese Southern Force in the area off Surigao Strait then moved north to strike the powerful Japanese Central Force heading for San Bernardino Strait. After receiving reports of a third Japanese force, the battleship served in the screen of the fast carrier task force as it sped to Cape Engano. On 24 October, although American air strikes destroyed four Japanese carriers in the Battle off Cape Engano, the Japanese Central Force under Admiral Kurita had transited San Bernardino Strait and emerged off the coast of Samar, where it fell upon a task group of American escort carriers and their destroyer and destroyer escort screen. Alabama reversed her course and headed for Samar to assist the greatly outnumbered American forces, but the Japanese had retreated by the time she reached the scene. She then joined the protective screen for the Essex task group to hit enemy forces in the central Philippines before retiring to Ulithi on 30 October 1944 for replenishment.
Underway again on 3 November 1944, Alabama screened the fast carriers as they carried out sustained strikes against Japanese airfields, and installations on Luzon to prepare for a landing on Mindoro Island. She spent the next few weeks engaged in operations against the Visayas and Luzon before retiring to Ulithi on 24 November.
The first half of December 1944 found Alabama engaged in various training exercises and maintenance routines. She left Ulithi on 10 December, and reached the launching point for air strikes on Luzon on 14 December, as the fast carrier task forces launched aircraft to carry out preliminary strikes on airfields on Luzon that could threaten the landings slated to take place on Mindoro. From 14 to 16 December, a veritable umbrella of carrier aircraft covered the Luzon fields, preventing any enemy planes from getting airborne to challenge the Mindoro-bound convoys. Having completed her mission, she left the area to refuel on 17 December; but, as she reached the fueling rendezvous, began encountering heavy weather. By daybreak on the 18th, rough seas and harrowing conditions rendered a fueling at sea impossible; 50 knot winds caused ships to roll heavily. Alabama experienced rolls of 30 degrees, had both her Vought Kingfisher float planes so badly damaged that they were of no further value, and received minor damage to her structure. At one point in the typhoon, Alabama recorded wind gusts up to 83 knots. Three destroyers, Hull (DD-350), Monaghan (DD-354), and Spence (DD-512), were lost to the typhoon. By 19 December, the storm had run its course; and Alabama arrived back at Ulithi on 24 December. After pausing there briefly, Alabama continued on to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for overhaul.
The battleship entered drydock on 18 January 1945, and remained there until 25 February. Work continued until 17 March, when Alabama got underway for standardization trials and refresher training along the southern California coast. She got underway for Pearl Harbor on 4 April, arrived there on 10 April, and held a week of training exercises. She then continued on to Ulithi and moored there on 28 April 1945.
Alabama departed Ulithi with TF 58 on 9 May 1945, bound for the Ryukyus, to support forces which had landed on Okinawa on 1 April 1945, and to protect the fast carriers as they launched air strikes on installations in the Ryukyus and on Kyushu. On 14 May, several Japanese planes penetrated the combat air patrol to get at the carriers; one crashed Vice Admiral Mitscher's flagship. Alabama's guns splashed two, and assisted in splashing two more.
Subsequently, Alabama rode out a typhoon on 4 and 5 June, suffering only superficial damage while the nearby heavy cruiser Pittsburgh (CA-7O) lost her bow, Alabama subsequently bombarded the Japanese island of Minami Daito Shima, with other fast battleships, on 10 June 1945 and then headed for Leyte Gulf later in June to prepare to strike at the heart of Japan with the 3d Fleet.
On 1 July 1945, Alabama and other 3rd Fleet units got underway for the Japanese home islands. Throughout the month of July 1945, Alabama carried out strikes on targets in industrial areas of Tokyo and other points on Honshu, Hokkaido, and Kyushu; on the night of 17 and 18 July, Alabama, and other fast battleships in the task group, carried out the first night bombardment of six major industrial plants in the Hitachi-Mito area of Honshu, about eight miles (13 km) northeast of Tokyo. On board Alabama to observe the operation was retired Rear Admiral Richard Byrd, the famed polar explorer.
On 9 August, Alabama transferred a medical party to the destroyer Ault (DD-698), for further transfer to the destroyer Borie (DD-704). The latter had been kamikazied on that date and required prompt medical aid on her distant picket station.
The end of the war found Alabama still at sea, operating off the southern coast of Honshu. On 15 August 1945, she received word of the Japanese capitulation. During the initial occupation of the Yokosuka-Tokyo area, Alabama transferred detachments of marines and bluejackets for temporary duty ashore; her bluejackets were among the first from the fleet to land. She also served in the screen of the carriers as they conducted reconnaissance flights to locate prisoner-of-war camps.
Alabama entered Tokyo Bay on 5 September to receive men who had served with the occupation forces, and then departed Japanese waters on 20 September. At Okinawa, she embarked 700 sailors - principally members of Navy construction battalions (or "Seabees") for her part in Operation Magic Carpet. She reached San Francisco at mid-day on 15 October, and on Navy Day (27 October 1945) hosted 9,000 visitors. She then shifted to San Pedro, California, on 29 October. Alabama remained at San Pedro through 27 February 1946, when she left for the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard for inactivation overhaul. Alabama was decommissioned on 9 January 1947, at the Naval Station, Seattle, and was assigned to the Bremerton Group, United States Pacific Reserve Fleet. She remained there until struck from the Naval Vessel Register on June 1, 1962.
Horseshoe Bend National Park
Horseshoe Bend National Military Park is located in east-central Alabama, on AL 49, 12 miles north of the town of Dadeville.
On the morning of 27 March 1814, General Andrew Jackson and an army of 3,300 men consisting of Tennessee militia, United States regulars and both Cherokee and Lower Creek allies attacked Chief Menawa and 1,000 Upper Creek or Red Stick warriors fortified in the "horseshoe" bend of the Tallapoosa River. To seal off the bend of the river, the Upper Creeks built an incredibly strong 400 yard long barricade made of dirt and logs. As the Cherokee and Lower Creek warriors swam the Tallapoosa and attacked from the rear, Jackson launched the militia and regular soldiers against the barricade. Facing overwhelming odds, the Red Sticks fought bravely yet ultimately lost the battle. Over 800 Upper Creeks died at Horseshoe Bend defending their homeland. This was the final battle of the Creek War of 1813-14, which is considered part of the War of 1812. In a peace treaty signed after the battle, both the Upper and Lower Creeks were forced to give the United States nearly 20 million acres of land in what is today Alabama and Georgia. The victory here brought Andrew Jackson national attention and helped him to be elected the seventh President of the United States in 1828. This 2,040-acre park preserves the site of the battle.
Little River Canyon National Preserve
Little River Canyon National Preserve is located in northeast Alabama, 40 miles west of Rome, accessible via AL 35 east of Fort Payne.
Preserve protects Little River, the nation's longest mountaintop river, which flows for almost its entire length down the middle of Lookout Mountain. The river and canyon systems offer spectacular landscapes including upland forest, waterfalls, canyon rims and bluffs, stream riffles and pools, boulders, and sandstone cliffs.
Natural resources and cultural heritage come together to tell the story of the Preserve, a special place in the Southern Appalachians.
Natchez Trace Parkway
This trail lies within the boundaries of the Natchez Trace Parkway, which extends 450 miles from Natchez, Mississippi, to Nashville, Tennessee. The Parkway commemorates the historic Natchez Trace, an ancient path that began as a series of animal tracks and Native American trails. It was later used by early explorers, "Kaintuck" boatmen, post riders, and military men, including General Andrew Jackson after his victory at the Battle of New Orleans. The Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail incorporates existing segments of the original Natchez Trace wherever possible.
Travel the route of the Old Natchez Trace and imagine the experiences of those that have traveled before you. The 444-mile Natchez Trace Parkway commemorates an ancient trail that connected southern portions of the Mississippi River to salt licks in today’s central Tennessee. Over the centuries, the Choctaw, Chickasaw and other American Indians left their marks on the Trace. The Natchez Trace experienced its heaviest use from 1785 to 1820 by the “Kaintuck” boatmen that floated the Ohio and Miss. rivers to markets in Natchez and New Orleans. They sold their cargo and boats and began the trek back north on foot to Nashville and points beyond. Today, visitors can experience this National Scenic Byway and All-American Road through driving, hiking, biking, horseback riding and camping.
Russell Cave
For thousands of years bands of prehistoric Indians came to the area we know today as Russell Cave. The cave provided a shelter. The surrounding forest provided food, tools, and fuel for their fires.
Occupation of the cave shelter continued from the earliest known people to inhabit the southeastern United States, until the time of European explorers. The story of the inhabitants of Russell Cave is one of adaptation and survival.
These people left behind clues to their way of life. These clues help us to have a better understanding of the people who have gone through the mists of time.
Trail of Tears
In 1838, the United States government forcibly removed more than 16,000 Cherokee Indian people from their homelands in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia, and sent them to Indian Territory (today known as Oklahoma). The impact to the Cherokee was devastating. Hundreds of Cherokee died during their trip west, and thousands more perished from the consequences of relocation. This tragic chapter in American and Cherokee history became known as the Trail of Tears, and culminated the implementation of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which mandated the removal of all American Indian tribes east of the Mississippi River to lands in the West.
The Trail of Tears National Historic Trail commemorates the removal of the Cherokee and the paths that 17 Cherokee detachments followed westward. Today the trail encompasses about 2,200 miles of land and water routes, and traverses portions of nine states.
The National Park Service, in partnership with other federal agencies, state and local agencies, non-profit organizations, and private landowners, administers the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. Participating national historic trail sites display the official trail logo.
The Trail of Tears Association is a major partner with the National Park Service. The association is a national organization dedicated to the preservation, public awareness, and appreciation of the Trail of Tears.
Alabama has 67 counties, each having its own elected legislative branch, usually called the Board of Commissioners, which usually also has executive authority in the county. Due to the restraints placed in the Alabama Constitution, all but 7 counties (Jefferson, Lee, Mobile, Madison, Montgomery, Shelby, and Tuscaloosa) in the state have little to no home rule. Instead, most counties in the state have to lobby to the Local Legislation Committee the state legislature to get simple local policies such as waste disposal to land use zoning.
The Alabama branches consists of the Executive branch, Judicial branch, and Legislative branch.
Executive Branch
The Alabama Executive branch consists of the governor, currently Bob Riley, the Cabinet, and the executive staff. The Cabinet consists of the heads of 26 different departments that ranges from the Chief of Staff to Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
Chief of Staff Toby Roth
Communications Director Jeff Emerson
Legislative Affairs Director Robin Stone
Legal Advisor Ken Wallis
Finance Department Jim Allen Main
Banking Department John Harrison
Department of Industrial Relations Phyllis Kennedy
Department of Insurance Walter A. Bell
Department of Labor Jim Bennett
Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation John Houston
Department of Revenue Tom Surtees
Department of Senior Services Irene Collins
Department of Tourism and Travel Lee Sentell
Department of Transportation Joe McInnes
Department of Public Safety Col. Mike Coppage
Alabama Development Office Neal Wade
Emergency Management Agency Bruce Baughman
Alabama Military Department Maj. Gen. Mark Bowen
Department of Homeland Security Jim Walker
Medicaid Agency Carol Herrmann
Department of Human Resources Dr. Page Walley
Alcohol Beverage Control Emory Folmar
Department of Children's Affairs Richard Dorrough
Department of Economic and Community Affairs Bill Johnson
Department of Corrections Donal Campbell
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Barnett Lawley
Judicial Branch
The Court of the Judiciary is created consisting of one judge of an appellate court, other than the Supreme Court, who is selected by the Supreme Court and serves as Chief Judge of the Court of the Judiciary; two judges of the circuit court, who are selected by the Circuit Judges' Association; and one district judge who shall be selected by the District Judges' Association.
The Supreme Court of Alabama is composed of a chief justice (currently Drayton Nabers, Jr.) and 8 associate justices (Harold Frend See, Jr., Champ Lyons, Jr., Robert Bernard Harwood, Jr., A. Woodall, Lyn Stuart, Patricia M. Smith, Michael F. Bolin, and Tom Parker). As the highest state court, the Supreme Court has both judicial and administrative responsibilities.
The Supreme Court has authority to review decisions rendered by the other courts of the state. It also has authority to determine certain legal matters over which no other court has jurisdiction and to issue such orders necessary to carry out its general superintendence over the courts in Alabama. The Alabama Supreme Court has exclusive jurisdiction over all appeals where the amount in controversy exceeds $50,000 and appeals from the Alabama Public Service Commission.
The chief justice is the administrative head of the state's judicial system. The Supreme Court may make rules governing administration, practice, and procedure in all courts. Under this authority, rules of practice and procedure and judicial administration have been adopted to eliminate many of the technicalities which cause delay in the trial courts and needless reversals in the appellate courts.
Legislative Branch
There are 140 members of the Legislature: 105 members of the House of Representatives and 35 Senators whose districts are based on population. The current districts were realigned based on the 2000 census.
The salary of legislators is fixed by the Constitution at $10.00 per day, plus expenses in an amount fixed by the Legislature.
To be eligible for the office of state Senator, a person must be at least 25 years of age; for the office of Representative, at least 21 years of age. Both Senators and Representatives must be qualified voters and must have been resident citizens of Alabama for three years.
There are several committees in the Senate. They include:
Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry
Banking and Insurance
Business and Labor
Children, Youth Affairs, and Human Resources
Commerce, Transportation, and Utilities
Confirmations
Constitution, Campaign Finance, Ethics, and Elections
Economic Expansion and Trade
Education
Energy and Natural Resources
Finance and Taxation Education
Finance and Taxation General Fund
Fiscal Responsibility and Accountability
Governmental Affairs
Health
Industrial Development and Recruitment
Judiciary
Local Legislation No. 1
Local Legislation No. 2
Local Legislation No. 3
Rules
Small Business and Economic Development
Tourism and Marketing
Veterans and Military Affairs
The Alabama House of Representatives is comprised of 105 members. Each member represents a district of approximately 40,000 people. The members of the House are elected to four-year terms. Members of the House must be 21 at the time of their election, and must have been citizens of Alabama for three years, having lived in their respective districts for at least one year immediately preceding their election. The Speaker of the House, currently Seth Hammett, is a member of the body and is elected by his colleagues to serve as the presiding officer.
All revenue raising matters must originate in the House just as in the Congress of the United States. It takes a quorum to conduct business, and a majority of a quorum can pass any bill except a constitutional amendment, which requires a three-fifths vote of all those elected. An appropriation to a non-government organization such as a private college requires a two-thirds vote of those elected.
Members of the House are paid a salary of ten dollars a day plus expenses other than travel in the amount fixed by joint resolution of the legislature.
Standing committees are charged with the important responsibility of examining bills and recommending action to the Senate or House. Usually on days when the Legislature is not in session, the committees of each house meet and consider the bills that have been referred to them to decide if the assigned bills should be reported for a second reading.
For most bills, the recommendations of the committee are followed, although either house is free to accept or reject the action of the committee. Bills reported favorably by a committee are placed on the regular calendar.
After a committee has completed work on a bill, it reports the bill to the house during the reports of committees in the daily order of business. Reported bills are immediately given a second reading. The houses do not vote on a bill at the time it is reported; however, reported bills are given a second reading and are placed on the calendar for the next legislative day. This second reading is made by title only. Local bills concerning environmental issues affecting more than one political subdivision of the state are given a second reading when reported from the local legislation committee and re-referred to a standing committee where they are then considered as a general bill. Bills concerning gambling are also re-referred when reported from the local legislation committee but they continue to be treated as local bills. When reported from the second committee, these bills are referred to the calendar and do not require another second reading.
The regular calendar is a list of bills that have been favorably reported from committee and are ready for consideration by the membership of the entire house.
Bills are listed on the calendar by number, sponsor, and title, in the order in which they are reported from committee. They must be considered for a third reading in that order unless action is taken to consider a bill out of order. Important bills are brought to the top of the calendar by special orders or by suspending the rules. To become effective, the Resolution setting Special Orders must be adopted by a majority vote of the house. These Special Orders are recommended by the Rules Committee of each house. The Rules Committee is not restricted to making its report during the Call of Committees and can report at any time. This enables the committee, especially toward the end of the session, to determine the order of business for the house. This power makes the Rules Committee one of the most influential of the legislative committees.
Any bill, which affects state funding more than $1,000, involving expenditure or collection of revenue must have a fiscal note. Fiscal Notes are prepared by the Legislative Fiscal Office and signed by the chairman of the committee reporting the bill. They must contain projected increases or decreases to state revenue in the event the bill becomes law.
Regardless of how a bill is reached on the calendar, when the bill is considered and adopted, this is called a third reading. It is at the third reading of the bill that the whole house gives consideration to the bill's passage. At this time, the bill may be studied in detail, debated, amended, and read at length before final passage.
After the bill has been discussed, each member casts his/her vote as his/her name is called alphabetically. The Senate is rather small, and voting may be done effectively in that house by manual roll call. The membership of the House is three times larger than that of the Senate, and individual voice votes would require a great deal of time. For this reason, an electronic voting machine is utilized in the House of Representatives. The House members vote by pushing buttons on their desks, and their votes are registered by colored lights which flash on a board in the front of the chamber. The board contains all of their names and shows how each member voted. The votes are electronically recorded in both houses.
If a majority of the members who are present and voting in each house vote against the bill, it has failed passage. If the majority vote for the bill, it is recorded as passed. If amendments are adopted, the bill is sent to the Enrolling and Engrossing Department of that house for engrossment. Engrossment is the process of incorporating amendments into the bill before transmittal to the second house.
A bill that is passed in one house is transmitted, along with a formal message, to the other house. Such messages are always in order and are read (in the second house) at any suitable pause in business. After the message is read, the bill receives its first reading, by title only, and is referred to committee. In the second house, a bill must pass successfully through the same steps of procedure as in the first house. If the second house passes the bill without amendment, the bill is sent back to the house of origin and is ready for enrollment. If the bill is not reported from committee or is not considered by the full house, the bill is dead. However, the second house may amend the bill and pass it as amended. Since a bill must pass both houses in the same form, the bill with amendment is sent back to the house of origin for consideration of the amendment.
The house of origin, upon return of its amended bill, may take any one of several courses of action. It may concur in the amendment by the adoption of a motion to that effect; then the bill, having been passed by both houses in identical form, is ready for enrollment. Another possibility is that the house of origin may adopt a motion to non-concur in the amendment and the bill dies. Finally, the house of origin may refuse to accept the amendment but request that a conference committee be appointed. The other house usually agrees to the request, and the presiding officer of each house appoints members to the conference committee.
A conference committee meets and discusses the points of difference between the two houses and tries to reach an agreement on the bill. If an agreement is reached and if both houses adopt the conference committee report, the bill is finally passed. If either house refuses to adopt the report of the conference committee, a motion may be made for further conference. If a conference committee is unable to reach an agreement, it may be discharged, and a new conference committee may be appointed. Some highly controversial bills may be referred to several different conference committees. If an agreement is never reached in conference, the bill is lost.
When a bill has passed both houses in identical form, it is enrolled (prepared in final form for transmittal to the Governor). The enrolled copy is the official bill, which, after it becomes law, is kept by the Secretary of State for reference in the event of any dispute as to its exact language. After a bill has been enrolled, it is sent back to the house of origin, where it must be read again (unless this reading is dispensed with by a two-thirds vote), and signed by the presiding officer in the presence of the members. The bill is then sent to the other house where the presiding officer in the presence of all the members of that house also signs it. The bill is then ready for transmittal to the Governor.
When the bill reaches the Governor, he may sign it and thus complete its enactment into law.
The possibly of the Governor disapproval of the bill comes to fruition, he may veto it. The event of vetoing they must return it to the house in which it originated with a message explaining his objections and suggesting amendments which will remove such objections. Amendment of the bill can be a possible solution to the save the legislature from death. The bill is then reconsidered, and if a majority of the members elected to both houses agrees to the executive amendments, it is returned to the Governor, as he revised it, for his signature. A majority of the members elected to each house approve a vetoed bill as the Legislature passed it, it becomes a law notwithstanding the Governor's veto.
However, if the Governor fails to return a bill to the legislature which it originated within 6 days after it was presented to him (including Sundays), it becomes a law without his signature. This return can be prevented by recession of the Legislature. In that case the bill must be returned within 2 days after the Legislature reassembles or it becomes a law without the Governor's signature.
The bills that reach the Governor less than 5 days before the end of the session may be approved by him within 10 days after adjournment. The bills not approved within that time do not become law. This is known as a "pocket veto". It is the most conclusive form of veto, for the Legislature, having adjourned, has no chance to reconsider the vetoed measure.
Alabama is one of the states in which the Governor has the power to accept or reject any particular item of an appropriation bill without vetoing the entire bill. In this event, only the vetoed item of the appropriation bill is returned to the house of origin for reconsideration by the Legislature. The remainder of the bill becomes law.
Sometimes what the Legislature wishes to accomplish cannot be done simply by the passage of a bill but requires amending the Constitution. The bill or joint resolution is drafted to propose an appropriate amendment to the Constitution. Such a bill or joint resolution is introduced in the same manner as other bills and resolutions and follows the course of ordinary bills, except that it must be read at length on three different days in each house; it must be passed in each house by a three-fifths vote of all the members elected; and it does not require the approval of the Governor. A constitutional amendment proposed by the Legislature bypasses the Governor and is deposited directly with the Secretary of State. It is then submitted to the voters of the state at an election (the time of which is fixed by the Legislature) held not less than three months after adjournment of the session in which the amendment is proposed. The Governor announces the election by proclamation, and the proposed amendment and notice of the election must be published in every county for four successive weeks before the election. If a majority of those who vote at the election favor the amendment, it becomes a part of the Constitution. The result of the election is announced by proclamation of the Governor.
One of the common misconceptions about the Legislature is that the members work only for the two or perhaps three days which the Legislature meets each week. People usually visit the Legislature on a day when the houses are in session, and wonder how it ever gets anything done in view of the apparently confused, disorganized picture presented by the legislators on the floor. What people fail to realize is that most of the work of the Legislature is done by committees. Actually, they are the backbone of the legislative process. Behind every bill of general importance considered on the floor of each house, lies many hours of careful work by the members of the standing committee to which the bill was referred. The Legislature as a whole relies on its committees to dispose of the frivolous, dangerous, or less important measures and to report out only those bills deserving the consideration of the entire house.
By working through standing committees, the legislature can have each bill considered by a group of members who have special knowledge of the content. Some members of the Legislature have expert knowledge of particular subjects of legislation, and these members are usually placed on committees to take full advantage of this specialized knowledge. For this reason, the Legislature usually accepts the recommendations of the standing committees. As has been noted, however, the Legislature does not completely abdicate its responsibility for the careful consideration of pending bills. If the need arises, the members of either house can force a committee to take action on a bill, or they can ignore the committee's recommendations.
Alabama is a state that is located in the southern part of the United States. The Native American has a strong tie to Alabama. At one point the following Native American people were once present in Alabama: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Koasati, and Mobile.
The French established the first European settlement in the state with the establishment of Mobile in 1702. Southern Alabama was French from 1702–1763, part of British West Florida from 1763–1780, and part of Spanish West Florida from 1780–1814. Northern and central Alabama was part of British Georgia from 1763–1783 and part of the American Mississippi territory thereafter. Its statehood delayed by the lack of a coastline (rectified when Andrew Jackson captured Spanish Mobile in 1814), Alabama became the 22nd state in 1819.
One of the first problems of the new commonwealth was that of finance. Since the amount of money in circulation was not sufficient to meet the demands of the increasing population, a system of state banks was instituted. State bonds were issued and public lands were sold to secure capital, and the notes of the banks, loaned on security, became a medium of exchange. Prospects of an income from the banks led the legislature of 1836 to abolish all taxation for state purposes. This was hardly done, however, before the panic of 1837 wiped out a large portion of the banks' assets; next came revelations of grossly careless and even of corrupt management, and in 1843 the banks were placed in liquidation. After disposing of all their available assets, the state assumed the remaining liabilities, for which it had pledged its faith and credit, and these form a part ($3,445,000) of its present indebtedness.
The Indian problem was important. With the encroachment of the white settlers upon their hunting-grounds the Creek Indians began to grow restless, and the great Shawnee chief Tecumseh, who visited them in 1811, fomented their discontent. When the outbreak of the second war with Britain in 1812 gave the Creeks assurance of British aid they rose in arms, massacred several hundred settlers who had taken refuge in Fort Mims, near the junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, and in a short time no white family in the Creek country was safe outside a palisade. The Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians, however, remained the faithful allies of the whites, and volunteers from Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, and later United States troops, marched to the rescue of the threatened settlements. In the campaign that followed the most distinguished services were rendered by General Andrew Jackson, whose vigorous measures broke for ever the power of the Creek Confederacy. By the treaty of Fort Jackson (August 9, 1814) the Creeks ceded their claims to about one-half of the present state; and cessions by the Cherokees, Chickasaws and Choctaws in 1816 left only about one-fourth of Alabama to the Indians.
In 1832 the national government provided for the removal of the Creeks; but before the terms of the contract were effected, the state legislature formed the Indian lands into counties, and settlers flocked in. This caused a disagreement between Alabama and the United States authorities; although it was amicably settled, it engendered a feeling that the policy of the national government might not be in harmony with the interests of the state--a feeling which, intensified by the slavery agitation, did much to cause secession in 1861. From January 11 until February 18, 1861 Alabama was declared the Alabama Republic.
The early political history of Alabama may be divided into three periods, that prior to 1860, the years from 1860 to 1876, and the period from 1876 onwards.
Until 1832 there was only one party in the state, the Democratic, but the question of nullification caused a division that year into the (Jackson) Democratic party and the State's Rights (Calhoun Democratic) party; about the same time an opposition party emerged, the Whig party. It drew support from plantation owners and townsmen, while the Democrats were strongest among poor farmers and Catholics in the Mobile area. For some time the Whigs were almost as numerous as the Democrats, but they never secured control of the state government. The State's Rights faction were in a minority; nevertheless under their active and persistent leader, William L. Yancey (1814-1863), they prevailed upon the Democrats in 1848 to adopt their most radical views. During the agitation over the Wilmot Proviso which would bar slavery from territory acquired from Mexico, Yancey induced the Democratic State Convention of 1848 to adopt what is known as the "Alabama Platform." It declared that neither Congress nor the government of a territory had the right to interfere with slavery in a territory, that those who held opposite views were not Democrats, and that the Democrats of Alabama would not support a candidate for the presidency if he did not agree with them on these questions. This platform was endorsed by conventions in Florida and Virginia and by the legislatures of Georgia and Alabama. Old party lines were broken by the Compromise of 1850. The State's Rights faction, joined by many Democrats, founded the Southern Rights party, which demanded the repeal of the Compromise, advocated resistance to future encroachments and prepared for secession, while the Whigs, joined by the remaining Democrats, formed the party known as the "Unionists," which unwillingly accepted the Compromise and denied the "constitutional" right of secession. The "Unionists" were successful in the elections of 1851 and 1852, but the feeling of uncertainty engendered in the south by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and the course of the slavery agitation after 1852 led the State Democratic convention of 1856 to revive the "Alabama Platform"; when the "Alabama Platform" failed to secure the formal approval of the Democratic National convention at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1860, the Alabama delegates, followed by those of the other cotton "states," withdrew. Upon the election of Abraham Lincoln, Governor Andrew B. Moore, according to previous instructions of the legislature, called a state convention. On January 11 it adopted an ordinance of secession from the United States; Alabama soon joined the Confederate States of America, whose government was organized at Montgomery on February 4, 1861. Secession had been opposed by many prominent men, and in North Alabama an attempt was made to organize a neutral state to be called Nickajack; but with President Lincoln's call to arms most opposition to secession ended.
In the early part of the Civil War Alabama was not the scene of military operations, yet the state contributed about 120,000 men to the Confederate service, practically all her white population capable of bearing arms, Thirty-nine of these attained the rank of general. In 1863 the Federal forces secured a foothold in northern Alabama in spite of the opposition of General Nathan B. Forrest. In 1864 the outer defenses of Mobile were taken by a Federal fleet, but the city held out until April 1865.
According to the presidential plan of reorganization, a provisional governor for Alabama was appointed in June 1865; a state convention met in September of the same year, and declared the ordinance of secession null and void and slavery abolished; a legislature and a governor were elected in November, the legislature was at once recognized by President Andrew Johnson, but not by Congress, which refused to seat the delegation. Johnson ordered the Army to allow the inauguration of the governor after the legislature ratified the thirteenth amendment in December, 1865. But the passage, by the legislature, of Black Codes or vagrancy and apprenticeship laws designed to control the Freedmen who were flocking from the plantations to the towns, and its rejection of the fourteenth amendment, intensified the congressional hostility to the presidential plan. In 1867 the congressional plan of Reconstruction was completed and Alabama was placed under military government. The Freedmen were now enrolled as voters and large numbers of white citizens were disfranchised. The new Republican party, comprised of Freedmen, Scalawags and Carpetbaggers now took control, two years after the war ended. A constitutional convention, controlled by this element, met in November 1867, and framed a constitution which conferred universal manhood suffrage. Whites who had fought for the Confederacy were disfranchised. The Reconstruction Acts of Congress required every new constitution to be ratified by a majority of the legal voters of the state. The whites of Alabama largely stayed away from the polls, and, after five days of voting, the constitution wanted 13,550 to secure a majority. Congress then enacted that a majority of the votes cast should be sufficient, and thus the constitution went into effect, the state was readmitted to the Union in June 1868, and a new governor and legislature were elected.
The next two years are notable for legislative extravagance and corruption, according to white Alabamians. The state endorsed railway bonds at the rate of $12,000 and $16,000 a mile until the state debt had increased from eight millions to seventeen millions of dollars, and similar corruption characterized local government. The native white people united, formed a Conservative party and elected a governor and a majority of the lower house of the legislature in 1870; but, as the new administration was largely a failure, in 1872 there was a reaction in favor of the Radicals, a local term applied to the Republican party. In 1874, however, the power of the Radicals was finally broken, the Conservative Democrats electing all state officials. A commission appointed to examine the state debt found it to be $25,503,000; by compromise it was reduced to $15,000,000. A new constitution was adopted in 1875, which omitted the guarantee of the previous constitution that no one should be denied suffrage on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude, and forbade the state to engage in internal improvements or to give its credit to any private enterprise.
After 1874 the Democratic party had constant control of the state administration. The Republicans were by now largely a Black party which held no local or state offices, but did have some federal patronage. It failed to make nominations for office in 1878 and 1880 and endorsed the ticket of the Greenback party in 1882. The development of mining and manufacturing was accompanied by economic distress among the farming classes, which found expression in the Jeffersonian Democratic party, organized in 1892. The regular Democratic ticket was elected and the new party was then merged into the Populist party. In 1894 the Republicans united with the Populists, elected three congressional representatives, secured control of many of the counties, but failed to carry the state, and continued their opposition with less success in the next campaigns. Partisanship became intense, and Democratic charges of corruption of the ignorant Black electorate were matched by Republican and Populist accusations of fraud and violence by Democrats. Consequently, after division on the subject among the Democrats themselves, as well as opposition of Republicans and Populists, a new constitution with restrictions on suffrage was adopted in 1901.
Feldman (1999) has shown that the KKK was not a mere hate group; it showed a genuine desire for political and social reform. Alabama Klansmen were among the foremost advocates of better public schools, effective prohibition enforcement, expanded road construction, and other "progressive" measures. By 1925 the Klan was powerful political force in the state, as powerful figures like J. Thomas Heflin, David Bibb Graves, and Hugo Black manipulated the KKK membership against the power of the "Big Mule" industrialists and Black Belt planters who had long dominated the state. In 1926 Bibb Graves, a former chapter head, won the governor's office with KKK members' support. He led one of the most progressive administrations in the state's history, pushing for increased education funding, better public health, new highway construction, and pro-labor legislation. At the same time KKK vigilantes---thinking they enjoyed governmental protection--launched an wave of physical terror across Alabama in 1927, targeting both blacks and whites. The conservative elite counterattacked. The major newspapers kept up a steady, loud attack on the Klan as violent and un-American. Sheriffs cracked down on Klan violence. The counterattack worked; the state voted for Al Smith in 1928, and the Klan's official membership plunged to under six thousand by 1930.