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What is the Confederate monument in Birmingham Alabama?
History – The cornerstone of the Monument plinth was laid during the 1894 Reunion of United Confederate Veterans on Confederate Decoration Day, April 26. and contained a Bible and Confederate flag. The slab of rock was unused for several years, though a surplus artillery piece from the Spanish–American War of 1898 once rested on it.
On May 29, 1896, The United Daughters of the Confederacy held a meeting to decide what to do with the plinth and, in 1900, raised money for construction of the obelisk. The 52 foot high monument was completed on April 27, 1905. In 2017, following widespread concern about the monument being a symbol of historic racism, the Birmingham city council erected a barrier surrounding the memorial, resulting in a lawsuit being brought against it by the state.
In January 2019, an Alabama court declared unconstitutional the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act that prohibited “alteration” of the monument. The lower court’s decision was reversed in November 2019 by the state Supreme Court, which upheld a fine of $25,000 against the city council.
Following protests in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, during which protestors damaged and tried to remove the monument, the city council removed the obelisk, leaving only the plinth. The state Attorney General responded by filing a new lawsuit against the city council saying the removal was in violation of the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act of 2017, a law passed specifically to prevent the removal of this monument.
It was the most prominent Confederate monument in the state. The Alabama Attorney General filed suit against the city of Birmingham for violating the statute. Mayor Randall Woodfin said the expected $25,000 fine for removing the statue would be much more affordable than the cost of continued unrest in the city.
What side of Alabama is Birmingham?
Birmingham Located in the north-central part of Alabama, Birmingham is the state’s most populous city and the seat of Jefferson County, The youngest of the state’s major cities, Birmingham was founded in 1871 at the crossing of two rail lines near one of the world’s richest deposits of minerals,
- The city was named for Birmingham, England, the center of that country’s iron industry.
- The new Alabama city boomed so quickly that it came to be known as the “Magic City.” It later became known as the “Pittsburgh of the South” after the Pennsylvania center of iron and steel production.
- Birmingham has survived booms and busts, labor unrest, and civil rights tragedies and triumphs; today it is home to one of the nation’s largest banking centers as well as world-class medical facilities.
Birmingham has a mayor-council form of government, with its mayor and nine council members being elected every four years. Early History Henley, Robert H. Birmingham is located in Jones Valley, one of the southernmost valleys of the Appalachian mountain chain. Veterans of Gen. Andrew Jackson’s army that defeated the Creeks at Horseshoe Bend were the first settlers to reach the area in 1815.
James Powell Recognizing the area’s potential, a group of investors and promoters of the North and South Railroad (which later became the Louisville and Nashville Railroad) met with banker Josiah Morris in Montgomery on December 18, 1870, and organized the Elyton Land Company for the purpose of building a new city in Jefferson County.
- The company met again in January 1871, and chose as its president James R.
- Powell, who had recently returned from Birmingham, England’s iron and steel center, and suggested that the new Alabama industrial center be given the same name.
- A flamboyant and colorful promoter for the proposed city, Powell became known as the “Duke of Birmingham.” He advertised across the state and nation announcing lots for sale in the new city on June 1, 1871, and six months after the lots sold, the city was chartered by the state legislature on December 19, 1871.
Gov. Robert Lindsay appointed Robert Henley to a two-year term as Birmingham’s first mayor. In 1873, Powell was elected mayor and quickly had the legislature call for a vote to allow Jefferson County residents to choose between Elyton and Birmingham as the county seat.
- In a bitter contest, Powell courted newly enfranchised black residents, who voted overwhelmingly for Birmingham.
- Soon after Birmingham became the county seat, its very existence was threatened by two events.
- In July, a cholera epidemic hit many southern cities, and Birmingham suffered greatly because it had little clean water and few adequate sewage facilities.
Thousands fled the city. Just as cooler fall weather began to bring an end to the epidemic, the economic Panic of 1873 chilled Birmingham’s real estate boom. As no significant industries had yet been established to create a sufficient number of jobs, people were again forced to leave. Bessie Mine Laborers In 1878, Truman H. Aldrich, James W. Sloss, and Henry F. DeBardeleben, owners of the Pratt Coal and Coke Company, provided a major stimulus for Birmingham’s recovery from the 1873 recession and for its future economic growth by opening the nearby Pratt mines.
- Henry Debardeleben then joined with Thomas T.
- Hillman to construct the Alice Furnaces, facilitating the large-scale production of pig iron.
- In June 1881, Sloss began constructing the area’s second set of blast furnaces, known then as the City Furnaces, in eastern Birmingham.
- The Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company ( TCI ) opened facilities in Birmingham soon after and purchased many of the properties held by DeBardeleben and Aldrich.
The Louisville and Nashville Railroad aided these flourishing enterprises by investing money and providing special freight rates. As a result of these events, Birmingham’s production of pig iron increased more than tenfold between 1880 and 1890. Birmingham had become the region’s leading industrial city, evolving from a rough and tumble “boom town” of muddy streets, saloons, fistfights, and shootouts to a civilized city with paved streets, gaslights, telephone service, and a public school system. Birmingham Coal Miners, 1937 The two most important economic developments in Birmingham between 1900 and the Great Depression were the purchase of TCI by U.S. Steel in 1907, which brought financial resources to the city, and the completion of the lock-and-dam system on the Tombigbee and Warrior Rivers in 1915, which provided Birmingham manufacturers with cheap water transportation for their goods all the way to Mobile,
- Birmingham quickly became the transportation hub of the mid-South.
- Just as the city’s economy was beginning to take off again, the stock market crashed in October 1929, throwing thousands of residents out of work and prompting the Hoover administration to call Birmingham “the hardest hit city in the nation.” U.S.
Steel shut down its Birmingham mills and the city remained depressed for eight years. Birmingham recovered from the Depression with the outbreak of World War II as the city’s steel mills became an important part of the nation’s arsenal. After the war, Birmingham diversified its economy with 140 new industries that manufactured farm equipment, chemicals, byproducts used for road building, nails, wire, cement, cottonseed oil, and many other goods.
- With these new industries, along with Hayes International Aircraft and the launch of a modern medical complex, Birmingham in the 1950s had the potential to soar into the 1960s.
- Instead, city officials and residents were faced with a civil rights struggle of epic proportions that left the city’s national reputation in shambles and greatly hampered its ability to attract investors.
Civil Rights Movement Sixteenth Street Church Bombing African Americans began moving into Birmingham to escape the white-owned farms where they had once toiled as slaves and later as sharecroppers, By 1880 African Americans comprised more than half of Birmingham’s industrial workers.
Working and living conditions were bad enough, but black citizens’ lives were made more miserable by Birmingham’s deeply entrenched system of segregation, Nicknamed “Bombingham” for the many racially motivated bombings of black homes, the city became a focal point for the national civil rights struggle after the brutal treatment of the Freedom Riders in 1961.
Later, Fred Shuttlesworth and other leaders of the Birmingham movement invited Martin Luther King Jr. to participate in a protest of segregated downtown businesses in 1963 that came to be known as the “Birmingham Campaign.” King was arrested during these demonstrations and wrote his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” as a response to an opinion piece by white ministers to end the protests. Shuttlesworth, Fred Lee The city was then publicly shamed in the media by Police Commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor ‘s use of fire hoses and police dogs to drive back thousands of youthful demonstrators in early May 1963. Following several weeks of demonstrations, civil rights and business leaders reached an agreement that ended some of the segregationist barriers.
- This spirit of good will was soon shattered by the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which claimed the lives of four young girls.
- That horrific event, more than anything else, prompted the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed racial segregation in public accommodations in America.
Also, with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, African Americans were increasingly able to participate in the city’s civic and governmental affairs, culminating in the 1979 election of Richard Arrington Jr. as the city’s first black mayor. Modern Birmingham UAB’s Heritage Hall Birmingham today is a modern city of the New South boasting one of the finest medical and research centers in the country at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). In addition to the continued presence of several of the nation’s largest steelmakers, including U.S.
- Steel, McWane, and Nucor, Birmingham is now a center of bioscience and technology development and the home to some of the nation’s top construction and engineering firms.
- The Birmingham metropolitan area is Alabama’s largest commercial center and has become one of the nation’s largest banking centers.
Beginning in the mid-1970s, commercial construction in the downtown area gave the city an impressive modern skyline. Between 2006 and 2009, Larry Langford, who was then mayor of Birmingham, and six former members of the Jefferson County Commission were convicted of a variety of corruption charges, including bribery, conspiracy, mail fraud, and money-laundering.
On January 17, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of Langford’s conviction. Demographics According to 2020 Census estimates, Birmingham recorded a population of 210,928,. The greater metropolitan area—which includes numerous surrounding suburb cities such as Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Bessemer, Alabaster, Homewood, Mountain Brook, Hueytown, Center Point, Pelham, Trussville, Gardendale, Fairfield, Forestdale, Leeds, Pleasant Grove, Irondale, Tarrant, and Fultondale —had a population of approximately 1,350,646.
Of that total, 68.3 percent of respondents identified themselves as African American, 26.6 percent white, 4.1 percent Hispanic, 2.0 percent as two or more races, 1.2 percent Asian, and 0.2 percent American Indian. The city’s median household income was $38,832, and the per capita income was $25,725. Alabama Power Building Detail UAB, which boasts one of the finest medical and research centers in the nation, is by far the city’s largest employer, with 18,750 employees. Other leading employers include AT&T, Regions Bank, Birmingham Board of Education, City of Birmingham, Jefferson County Board of Education, Children’s Health System, Wells Fargo (formerly Wachovia), Alabama Power Company, and Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Alabama.
Educational services, and health care and social assistance (27.1 percent) Retail trade (12.6 percent) Arts, entertainment, recreation, and accommodation and food services (10.6 percent) Professional, scientific, management, and administrative and waste management services (10.0 percent) Manufacturing (8.3 percent) Finance, insurance, and real estate, rental, and leasing (6.9 percent) Transportation and warehousing and utilities (5.6 percent) Other services, except public administration (5.0 percent) Construction (4.9 percent) Public administration (3.8 percent) Information (2.5 percent) Wholesale trade (2.4 percent) Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and extractive (0.2 percent)
BBVA Compass Bank Birmingham remains home to several of the nation’s largest steelmakers, including U.S. Steel, McWane, and Nucor and is also host to bioscience and technology development and some of the nation’s top construction and engineering firms.
- Birmingham is also headquarters for the engineering and technical services divisions of several power companies, including Alabama Power Company, ENERGEN Corporation, and SONAT.
- The Birmingham metropolitan area is Alabama’s largest commercial center and is currently one of the nation’s largest banking centers, serving as headquarters for Regions Financial Corporation,
The overall banking structure in the city recently has been altered. Compass Bancshares, which still has headquarters in Birmingham, is now part of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria ( BBVA ), a worldwide financial services group based in Bilbao, Spain. Wachovia, which had a regional office in Birmingham, is now part of Wells Fargo as a result of financial trouble during the banking crisis of 2008. Ruffner Mountain Park The Birmingham City School System oversees a large number of public schools throughout the city. In addition to UAB, the city has two other major institutions of higher learning, Samford University and Birmingham-Southern College,
- Historically black Miles College and Miles Law School, Birmingham School of Law, Jefferson State Community College, and Lawson State Community College provide other educational opportunities in the Birmingham area.
- Southeastern Baptist College, a nondenominational four-year institution, also is located in Birmingham.
Transportation Birmingham is crossed by an extensive network of highways and roadways: Interstates 65, 20, 59, and 459; and U.S. Highways 31, 280, 11, and 78. Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport is the state’s largest and busiest airport, with seven major airlines offering daily flights to many major cities in the United States. McWane Science Center Birmingham’s hallmark attraction is the towering statue of Vulcan that overlooks the city from the top of Red Mountain. Italian sculptor Guiseppe Moretti constructed Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metalworking, in 1904 to serve as a fitting symbol of the industrial city for the St.
- Louis World’s Fair.
- In 2004, after a four-year renovation, Vulcan Park reopened to the public and welcomed more than 100,000 visitors its first year.
- The downtown Civil Rights District also draws many tourists to the Civil Rights Institute, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, and Kelly Ingram Park.
- Other nearby attractions include the McWane Science Center, Arlington Antebellum Home and Gardens, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, the Southern Museum of Flight, the Alabama Theatre, the Sloss Furnaces Historic Landmark, the Birmingham Zoo, Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, and the Birmingham Botanical Gardens,
Other outdoor recreation areas include Oak Mountain State Park, Railroad Park, and Red Mountain Park. The corner of 20th Street and 1st Avenue North in the city is popularly known as “The Heaviest Corner on Earth” after a 1911 magazine article on the construction of the last of four large buildings at the site. Rickwood Field Boasting the third-longest golf course in the world, the Renaissance Birmingham Ross Bridge Golf Resort & Spa, located just a few miles southwest of downtown Birmingham, features an 8,194-yard Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail course, which hosts the Regions Charity Classic, a stop on the PGA Seniors golf tour.
- Birmingham is also home to the Birmingham Barons, a minor league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox.
- Rickwood Field, home of the Barons from 1910-1987, is the nation’s oldest baseball park.
- Legion Field, built in 1926, has been the host to memorable sporting events over the years, including many of the annual Iron Bowl contests between the University of Alabama and Auburn University as well as games by the University of Alabama at Birmingham; the Southeastern Conference and Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship Football Games; bowl games, pro football games, and soccer matches during the 1996 Summer Olympics.
See Gallery Additional Resources Armes, Ethel. The Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama,1910. Reprint, Leeds, Ala.: Beechwood Books, 1987. Atkins, Leah Rawls. The Valley and the Hills: An Illustrated History of Birmingham & Jefferson County.1981. Reprint, Tarzana, Calif.: Preferred Marketing and the Birmingham Public Library, 1996.
Was Alabama part of the Confederacy?
Introduction – Alabama seceded from the United States January 11, 1861. Though Alabama did not have any major battles within its borders, it did contribute about 120,000 white men to the Confederate armed forces. Most served with others from their local areas.
Unknown numbers of slaves were pressed into service to build or repair roads, railroads, and defenses, while others took care of the cooking and cleaning for the armies. About 10,000 slaves escaped and joined the Union forces as well as about 2700 white men who remained loyal to the Union. According to the United States War Department, 2,576 Alabama white men served in the Union Army.
For more information about Alabama in the Civil War, see the Wikipedia article, Alabama in the American Civil War,
What part did Alabama play in the Civil War?
In 1861 Alabama seceded from the Union and joined the Confederate States of America, which established its first capital in Montgomery, The state legislature conscripted soldiers and appropriated several million dollars for military operations and for the support of the families of soldiers.
Some 35,000 of the 122,000 Alabamians who served in the war died. Following the collapse of the Confederacy and the refusal of the state legislature to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (that granted citizenship to people who had formerly been enslaved), Alabama was placed under military rule in 1867.
The next year the state ratified a new constitution that protected the civil rights of Black citizens, and Alabama was readmitted to the Union. From 1868 to 1874 the state was in political turmoil. To many white Alabamians the Reconstruction period was tragic, but to most Black Alabamians it was a period of opportunity and hope.
- The Huntsville Advocate asserted, “This is a white man’s government and a white man’s state,” and the Ku Klux Klan used terror to enforce that view.
- Among white Alabamians, a struggle ensued between those who defied the notion of Black people having political rights and power and those willing to cooperate with the Black community and its Northern allies.
Black Alabamians demanded access to education and were given it, but most of the white majority insisted that schools be racially separate. Although the Black contingent participated in the constitutional conventions and in the state legislatures, its political power was not as strong as that of its counterparts in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana,
- In 1874 the white Democrats of Alabama, most of whom had been supporters of the Confederacy, regained control of the state political machinery.
- Black Alabamians were rendered almost powerless until the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
- Throughout the period, however, some Black citizens worked diligently to stimulate political activity, to enlighten and influence the white community, and to encourage the state and federal governments to guarantee political and social rights to those of African ancestry.
In 1875 a state constitutional convention was held, and a new conservative constitution was ratified. Subsequent conservative political efforts centred on restricting Black participation in government, reducing expenditures and state services, and fostering the expansion of railroads and industry.
By 1901, when another state constitution was ratified—this one disenfranchising the Black population—there was virtually no African American participation in government, and a tide of social and political reaction was in full flood. The economy recovered slowly from the devastation of the war. Sharecropping as a system of land tenure and labour relations emerged, and with it came an even greater dependence on a single crop: cotton.
Depressed agricultural conditions fanned a populist revolt among small farmers in the 1890s. After 15 years of delay because of depression and capital shortages, cotton manufacturing and pig-iron production began to grow steadily in the state from about 1880.
What was found under a Confederate monument?
CNN — While dismantling the pedestal that once held a Jefferson Davis statue in Richmond, Virginia, workers on Wednesday discovered a box encased in stone, the city said. “Until we see what’s inside, it’s just a box, but most historians believe it is a time capsule,” James Nolan, the mayor’s press secretary wrote to CNN on Friday.
Protesters tore down and vandalized the statue of the president of the Confederacy in June 2020, but the pedestal remained. Many statues of Confederate leaders came down that summer in cities across the US as widespread protests denounced racism and oppression. Richmond began removing and transporting the pedestals that formerly held Confederate monuments on February 1, according to a city news release.
The box is being stored in a secure location by the city until the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia figures out what to do with it, Nolan said. The Richmond City Council passed a resolution on January 24 to transfer ownership of all Confederate monuments, pedestals and related artifacts to the Black History Museum.
The museum is partnering with the Valentine, another museum, to determine what to do with these objects. CNN reached out to the Black History Museum about the plans for the box and has not heard back. “Our institution takes very seriously the responsibility to manage these objects in ways that ensure their origins and purpose are never forgotten: that is the glorification of those who led the fight to enslave African Americans and destroy the Union,” Marland Buckner, interim executive director of the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, said in a city news release from December 30.
“We hope this process will elevate public dialog about our shared history and in so doing encourage and invite more citizens into fact-based, respectful conversations about the profound challenges we face as a nation,” he said. Other monuments entrusted to the museums include those of Robert E.
Lee, Stonewall Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart and more, according to the news release. This isn’t the first box to be discovered beneath a Confederate monument in Richmond. In December, two time capsules were found buried under the pedestal of the Robert E. Lee statue. Lee was a Confederate general. The first time capsule included an 1875 almanac, two old books, a coin and a cloth envelope, which historians believe was buried in 1887.
A week later, a Bible with a coin stuck to it and an 1865 edition of Harper’s Weekly magazine with an image of a figure weeping over President Abraham Lincoln’s grave were found in the second time capsule,
Is the Confederate statue still standing?
Statue of Confederate commander Robert E. Lee removed in Virginia capital Sept 8 (Reuters) – A statue of Confederate commander Robert E. Lee was removed from its base in Richmond, Virginia’s capital, early on Wednesday after a yearlong legal battle over a monument that has been the focus of protests over racial injustice.
As onlookers watched, crews secured the 21-foot (6.4-meter) bronze statue of the U.S. Civil War leader to a crane that hoisted it off its 40-foot (12.2-meter) granite pedestal and placed it on the ground. Since 1890, the towering memorial has stood at its location on Monument Avenue in Richmond, the former capital of the pro-slavery Confederacy, a group of Southern states that fought against Union forces in the 1861-65 Civil War.
The Robert E. Lee statue is one of the largest still standing in the United States. Memorials that honor leaders of the Confederate side have become targets of protests against racism. Defenders of the statues say they are tributes to the bravery of those who fought to defend the South.
Officials have said workers will move the statue of Lee, dressed in military attire and mounted on top of a horse, to a secure, state-owned storage site until a decision on its future is finalized. The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, the largest Confederate statue remaining in the United States, is removed by a construction team in Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
September 8, 2021. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
The hoisting of the statue was captured on the Twitter feed of Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, who announced plans to remove it in June 2020, 10 days after a white Minneapolis policeman killed George Floyd, who was Black, sparking nationwide protests.During the last six years, more than 300 symbols of the Confederacy and white supremacy have been taken down, while some 2,000 still stand, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.Streets around the statue were closed on Tuesday evening as crews prepared a viewing area for the public to watch the statue’s removal.
On Thursday, workers will remove plaques from the monument’s base and replace a time capsule believed to be at the site with a new one. The base will remain in place as the community reimagines Monument Avenue. Last Thursday, the Virginia Supreme Court in two cases that Northam could remove the statue.
- In summer 2020, the removal was challenged by nearby residents and a descendant of the family that transferred ownership of the statue to the state.
- Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago and Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Jonathan Oatis Our Standards: : Statue of Confederate commander Robert E.
Lee removed in Virginia capital
Is Birmingham a Democratic or Republican city?
Mayor before election Randall Woodfin Democratic | Elected Mayor Randall Woodfin Democratic |
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The 2021 Birmingham mayoral election was held on August 24, 2021, to elect the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, Incumbent Democratic mayor Randall Woodfin was re-elected to a second term.
Where was the bloodiest single day in the Civil War?
Antietam Antietam, the deadliest one-day battle in American military history, showed that the Union could stand against the Confederate army in the Eastern theater. It also gave President Abraham Lincoln the confidence to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation at a moment of strength rather than desperation.
What was the real name of the Confederacy?
Confederate States of America, also called Confederacy, in the American Civil War, the government of 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union in 1860–61, carrying on all the affairs of a separate government and conducting a major war until defeated in the spring of 1865.
Why was Alabama important to the Confederacy?
– Union Soldiers : 10,000 (7,300 black; 2,700 white) total
Alabama was central to the Civil War, with the secession convention at Montgomery, birthplace of the Confederacy, inviting other states to form a Southern Republic, during January–March 1861, and develop constitutions to legally run their own affairs.
The 1861 Alabama Constitution granted citizenship to current U.S. residents, but prohibited import duties (tariffs) on foreign goods, limited a standing military, and as a final issue, opposed emancipation by any nation, but urged protection of African slaves, with trial by jury, and reserved the power to regulate or prohibit the African slave trade.
What Happened to Baltimore Maryland?
The secession convention invited all slaveholding states to secede, but only 7 Cotton States of the Lower South formed the Confederacy with Alabama, while the majority of slave states were in the Union, Congress voted to protect the institution of slavery by passing the Corwin Amendment on March 4, 1861, but it was never ratified.
Even before secession, the governor of Alabama defied the United States government by seizing the two federal forts at the Gulf Coast ( forts Morgan and Gaines ) and the arsenal at Mount Vernon in January 1861 to distribute weapons to Alabama towns. The peaceful seizure of Alabama forts preceded by three months the bombing and capture of the Union’s Fort Sumter ( SC ) on April 12, 1861.
Alabama was politically divided, voting to secede 61–39%, with most opposition by Unionists in northern Alabama. Citizens would subsequently join Confederate forces, with some Alabamians joining Union forces. Issues of slavery also were divided, with emancipation denied, but slaves protected, allowed trial by jury same as free whites, and African Slave Trade was discouraged in the 1861 Ordinances.
When did Alabama leave the Confederacy?
Secession Cartoon, ca.1861 The Alabama Constitution of 1861 (also known as the “Secession Constitution”) provided a governmental framework for the state of Alabama as it joined the Confederate States of America. It was passed during Alabama’s Secession Convention, which removed the state from the Union on January 11, 1861, in response to the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860.
The 1861 Constitution was a revised version of the state’s original 1819 Constitution that continued to provide for three branches of government as well as afford broad protections to the institution of slavery, The second of six state constitutions written since 1819, it was never ratified by the voters of Alabama and was eventually replaced by the Alabama Constitution of 1865, which allowed for the state’s readmission to the Union after the Civil War,
In 1859, the Alabama legislature adopted a resolution requiring a referendum to elect delegates to a secession convention if a Republican won the presidency. Southerners feared Republicans for their opposition to the spread of slavery in the territories and to the institution in general.
The subsequent election of Lincoln in 1860 led a series of pro-slavery states to secede from the Union and eventually form the Confederate States of America. A slave-based agricultural society, the state of Alabama responded to Lincoln’s election by calling a convention that met in Montgomery, Montgomery County, from January 7 to March 21, 1861, to consider the state’s secession from the Union.
William M. Brooks, a lawyer from Mobile, Mobile County, and former delegate to the 1860 Democratic Party National Convention, was chosen as president of the Alabama State Secession Convention. On January 7, the members of the convention began meeting and drafting the new 1861 Constitution, which was a revised version of the original 1819 Constitution, and an Ordinance of Secession.
- Following South Carolina, Mississippi, and Florida, on January 11, 1865, Alabama adopted its Ordinance of Secession by a 61-39 vote and left the United States of America.
- People in Montgomery celebrated with cannonfire, bell ringing, bonfires, music, and speeches.
- Also, that day, Alabama temporarily established itself as an independent republic until it joined the Confederate States of America on March 13, 1861.
Like its predecessor, the Constitution was ratified by the convention rather than by popular vote. The Convention adjourned on March 21. The Alabama Constitution of 1861 differed from the 1819 Constitution primarily in its declaration of secession from the Union.
- It provided a governmental framework for the newly seceded state that was like that formed under the 1819 Constitution and retained the three branches of government: executive, judicial, and legislative.
- As in the previous document, the executive branch was headed by the governor of the State of Alabama who was elected by the people.
Governors were restricted to two two-year consecutive terms in a six-year period. Other executive appointments were made by the General Assembly, though the governor could fill these positions when the Assembly was in recess. The Judicial Branch included the Alabama Supreme Court and the district circuit courts, with Supreme Court Justices appointed by the General Assembly and district court judges elected by the people.
- Judges served six-year terms of office and the state attorney general served four-year terms of office.
- The legislative branch included a bicameral legislature with a Senate and House of Representatives, called the General Assembly of the State of Alabama, that convened once per year.
- The state was divided into nine congressional districts with one senator elected by the people of each district to the state Senate.
The Senate was divided into two classes, with the first class of senators vacating their seats after two years and the second class vacating at the end of four years, thus leaving half of the Senate being elected biannually. The size of the Senate was never to be less than one-fourth nor more than one-third of the total number of representatives in the House of Representatives.
- Members of the House served two-year terms and the number of representatives was to be based on the number of white inhabitants counted in a census every ten years.
- Written out of fear that anti-slavery Republicans would bring about national emancipation, the Alabama Constitution of 1861 included broad protections for the institution of slavery by forbidding emancipation by the state legislature or any other country, including the United States of America.
It also enshrined more progressive views on race and law compared with other southern states. The constitution allowed for the passage of future laws forbidding participation in the African slave trade and allowed for a trial by jury for slaves convicted of crimes above petty larceny.
Additionally, anyone who murdered a slave would be tried as if they had murdered a free white person except in cases of slave insurrections. Like the 1819 Constitution, the new constitution contained a Declaration of Rights that included religious freedom, freedom of speech, the right to trial by jury, and the right of assembly, among others.
It also reined in the power of the legislature by barring special laws for any person or corporation covered by a general law or by the state courts. As the second of six constitutions for the state of Alabama, it was replaced after the American Civil War by the Alabama Constitution of 1865, which removed the language of secession in order to make the state eligible for readmission to the Union.
After Radical Republicans seized power in the second half of the 1860s, the Alabama Constitution of 1868 replaced the 1865 version and recognized the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, which respectively abolished slavery, established due process and equal protection under the law, and prohibited the denial of the right to vote based on race, color, or previous servitude.
Additional Resources Bridges, Edwin C. Alabama: The Making of an American State. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2016. Rogers, William W., et al. Alabama: The History of a Deep South State Bicentennial Edition. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2018.
What city in Alabama is famous in civil rights history?
Montgomery, Alabama Known for its years at the forefront of the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Civil Rights movement, led by then-pastor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church proved how members of a Black community could unite in resistance to segregation.
What is the largest Confederate monument in America?
Atlanta History Center explores the controversial history of the Stone Mountain carving through a documentary film and online resources. – Monument: The Untold Story of Stone Mountain The carving on the side of Stone Mountain is the largest Confederate monument in the world.
The mountain is engraved with a sculpture of well-known people from the Confederacy: Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate states, and generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Many Georgians recognize the Stone Mountain carving, but few know the full story of its origin. The effort to create a Confederate monument on Stone Mountain began in the 1910s.
Yet, the monument was only completed in 1972. Spanning multiple efforts across more than 50 years, the carving’s history is full of twists and turns. Today, the mountain and surrounding park remain a large tourist and recreational attraction featuring hiking trails, restaurants, campgrounds, a museum, and occasionally a laser show with the carving as the backdrop.
- Atlanta History Center staff have been engaged with the history of the Stone Mountain carving for many years.
- Over the past year, the institution worked with experts and those closest to the issue to explore the history of the Stone Mountain carving from various perspectives for a documentary.
- The result of this work is Monument, a documentary film that delves into the controversial history of Stone Mountain, including the origin of the carving and the complicated relationships between historical events and key players who established the monument.
This documentary is designed to inspire deeper learning and conversation about history that we as a state, and a country, share.
- More than 700 such monuments and memorials have been created on public land, the vast majority in the South during the era of Jim Crow laws from 1877 to 1964.
- Efforts to remove them increased after the Charleston church shooting in 2015, the Unite the Right rally in 2017, and the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
- Lee in Richmond, Va., taken down in September, will be moved to the city’s Black History Museum, Gov.
- Ralph Northam and Mayor Levar Stoney announced Thursday.
- The Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia will take the 21-foot-tall statue of Lee and the pedestal it stood on, which became a rallying point for protests against police brutality in the summer of 2020.
- The removals and renamings come at a time when Americans continue to grapple with whether Confederate monuments belong in public spaces.
- These statues stand as symbols of racism in the US dating back to the Civil War, civil rights activists and some historians say.
- Although the 73 removals do not compare to the data from the previous year, the report’s authors say grassroots campaigns are steps in the right direction.
- Many civil rights activists argued that structures were racist and offensive because they honored leaders who promoted the enslavement of Black Americans.
- A towering statue of Gen. Robert E.
- Lee was removed in Richmond, Virginia, and added to the growing list of Confederate symbols that had been taken down across the country.
- Usually erected by ladies’ memorial associations, these monuments served as centerpieces for activities, such as Confederate Memorial Day.
- The profound impact that the Civil War had on the white Southern population must be considered when examining these monuments.
- At least 20% of all white men of military age in the Confederacy died during the war.
- These monuments often feature celebratory images meant to justify the Confederate cause as a moral victory.
- Put simply: an equestrian statue of a Confederate general in front of a courthouse or capitol building is not about mourning or loss.
- It is about power and who was in charge.
- The strategic placement of monuments at public sites was meant as an official and permanent affirmation of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.
- It discounts the fact that a significant number of Southerners (if not a majority) were opposed to the ideology and concept of the Confederacy, given the stark reality that nearly 40% of the Southern population was enslaved.
- A new period of Confederate monuments (which we call Phase Three monuments) followed the U.S.
- These included Stone Mountain, purchased by the state of Georgia in 1958 specifically to create a Confederate monument.
- Confederate imagery was used as a rallying point for proponents of segregation.
- Understanding the historical context of Confederate monuments is an important starting point when discussing possible actions taken in response to them.
- Vulcan, Birmingham Alabama’s colossal statue is the world’s largest cast iron statue and considered one of the most memorable works of civic art in the United States.
- Designed by Italian artist Giuseppe Moretti and cast from local iron in 1904, Vulcan has overlooked Alabama’s largest city from atop Red Mountain since the 1930s.
- The mountain is engraved with a sculpture of well-known people from the Confederacy: Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate states, and generals Robert E.
- Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.
- Many Georgians recognize the Stone Mountain carving, but few know the full story of its origin.
- The effort to create a Confederate monument on Stone Mountain began in the 1910s.
- Atlanta History Center staff have been engaged with the history of the Stone Mountain carving for many years.
- Over the past year, the institution worked with experts and those closest to the issue to explore the history of the Stone Mountain carving from various perspectives for a documentary.
- The result of this work is Monument, a documentary film that delves into the controversial history of Stone Mountain, including the origin of the carving and the complicated relationships between historical events and key players who established the monument.
What happened to all the Confederate statues?
More than 160 monuments and memorials to the Confederate States of America (CSA; the Confederacy) and associated figures have been removed from public spaces in the United States, all but five since 2015. Some have been removed by state and local governments; others have been torn down by protestors.
Proponents of their removal cite historical analysis that the monuments were not built as memorials, but to intimidate African Americans and reaffirm white supremacy after the Civil War ; and that they memorialize an unrecognized, treasonous government, the Confederacy, whose founding principle was the perpetuation and expansion of slavery,
They also argue that the presence of these memorials more than a hundred years after the defeat of the Confederacy continues to disenfranchise and alienate African Americans, Opponents view removing the monuments as erasing history or a sign of disrespect for heritage; white nationalists and neo-Nazis in particular have mounted protests and opposition to the removals.
Some Southern states passed state laws restricting or prohibiting the removal or alteration of public monuments. By the Washington Post’s count, five Confederate monuments were removed between 1865 and 2014, eight in the two years after the 2015 Charleston church shooting, 48 in the three years after the 2017 Unite the Right rally, and 110 in the two years after Floyd’s 2020 murder.
Was the statue of Robert E. Lee removed?
Crews remove the statue of Robert E. Lee in Richmond on Sept.8. Pending city council approval, the statue and eight other Confederate monuments will be moved to Richmond’s Black History Museum. Steve Helber/AP hide caption toggle caption Steve Helber/AP
Crews remove the statue of Robert E. Lee in Richmond on Sept.8. Pending city council approval, the statue and eight other Confederate monuments will be moved to Richmond’s Black History Museum. Steve Helber/AP The massive statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E.
Eight other Confederate statues that were removed around the city will also be moved to the museum. “Symbols matter, and for too long, Virginia’s most prominent symbols celebrated our country’s tragic division and the side that fought to keep alive the institution of slavery by any means possible,” Northam said in a statement provided to NPR. “Now it will be up to our thoughtful museums, informed by the people of Virginia, to determine the future of these artifacts, including the base of the Lee Monument which has taken on special significance as protest art.” The museum will partner with The Valentine, the city’s oldest museum, to get input from the community on how the statues should be displayed. The decision on what to do with its statues is part of a larger nationwide conversation on removing, replacing and renaming Confederate symbols — and questioning what remembering history looks like in a public space. Richmond was capital of the Confederacy for most of the Civil War, from 1861 until 1865. Andrea Douglas, the center’s executive director, told NPR she hopes Charlottesville’s plans will help guide what other cities do with their Confederate monuments. “Can we create something that defines the community in the 21st century? What does Charlottesville want to be? We describe ourselves as a city that believes in equity, that believes in social justice, so what does that look like in a public space?” Douglas asked.
Why not to remove Confederate statues?
Con –
The statues represent the country’s history, no matter how complicated. Taking them down is to censor, whitewash, and potentially forget that history. Removing statues is a slippery slope that could lead to the brash removal of monuments to any slightly problematic person. The statues do not cause racism and could be used to fight racism if put into historical context.
This article was published on January 20, 2022, at Britannica’s ProCon.org, a nonpartisan issue-information source. Go to ProCon.org to learn more.
How many Confederate statues are left in the US?
73 Confederate monuments were removed or renamed last year, report finds After 73 Confederate monuments were removed or renamed in 2021, there are now 723 left in the US, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The findings were announced Tuesday during the group’s news briefing on the release of the The report is part of the organization’s efforts toward “eradicating hate and white supremacy” in collaboration with activists nationwide.
“Destroying these monuments and these memorials will not erase the legacy of slavery,” said SPLC researcher Kimberly Probolus on Tuesday. “But abolishing these memorials is a first and essential step in combating the white supremacist values of the Confederacy ” After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the SPLC reported that 157 memorials were removed in the US. Amy Spitalnick, the executive director, of Integrity First For America – a civil rights nonprofit – stressed that the existence of Confederate statues continues to have dangerous consequences. “Confederate imagery continues to serve as a rallying cry for far-right extremists, not just across the country, but we’re now even seeing across the globe,” Spitalnick said.
In certain ways that’s what makes it all the more crucial that we tackle this legacy of hate and violence head on and that we not allow these symbols to be glorified.” The SPLC reported that the remaining 723 Confederate monuments are memorials that stand in the US and its territories. That did not account for the 741 roadways, 201 schools, 51 buildings, 38 parks and 22 holidays honoring the Confederacy, the group said.
With the remaining Confederate memorials that “we know of still publicly present across the US, there is still a lot of work to be done,” said Lecia Brooks, the chief of staff and culture for the SPLC and the SPLC Action Fund. The fight to get Confederate monuments removed had been gaining steam before 2020, but the racial and political reckoning accelerated calls for the removals.
, Richmond began the process of removing the pedestals that once held the monuments to the Confederacy, which included Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Jefferson Davis and others, according to CNN affiliate WRIC. “We don’t want our future to be reflective of honoring people that were leaders within the confederacy,” said the Rev.
What is the purpose of Confederate monument?
Confederate Monuments. And Symbolism. – When discussing Confederate monuments, it is useful to group them into three general categories. The first category is Phase One monuments, or early funereal monuments erected from the 1860s through the 1880s. Often placed in cemeteries and taking the form of obelisks, arches, or fountains, these monuments were typically intended to commemorate Confederate dead.
Because almost every white family in the South experienced loss, there was a great desire to create mourning spaces. The majority of remaining Confederate monuments are of a different character and purpose. These Phase Two monuments, erected from the 1890s through the 1930s, coincide with the expansion of the white supremacist policies of the Jim Crow era.
Lost Cause ideology promoted the idea that the Confederacy achieved a moral victory in the Civil War. The belief system denied the role of slavery as the primary cause of the war and ignored freedom as an achievement of U.S. victory. The Lost Cause tries to delete the African American perspective from the historical narrative.
Supreme Court’s decision mandating desegregation in the case Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954. As a show of “massive resistance,” segregationists revived Confederate imagery. For example, the Confederate battle flag was incorporated into the Georgia state flag in 1956, a Confederate battle flag was flown over the state capitol building in South Carolina in 1961, and new monuments were created.
Learn about the historical issues explored in this introduction, as well as Atlanta History Center’s work in this area, in the following books and articles. For more, visit our Resources page.
“Confronting Difficult History,” History Matters, Winter 2020 Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, David Blight “Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy”
- Projects & Initiatives
What is the famous statue in Birmingham Alabama?
Legends aren’t born, they’re forged. – vulcan demo from UAB Media Studies on Vimeo Playing in picture-in-picture Like Add to Watch Later Share Play 00:00 07:30 GoogleCast Settings Fullscreen Settings Quality Auto Speed Normal This opens in a new window. window.playerConfig =,”fastly_skyfire”: },”default_cdn”:”akfire_interconnect_quic”,”separate_av”:true,”streams”:,”streams_avc”:},”hls”:,”fastly_skyfire”: },”default_cdn”:”akfire_interconnect_quic”,”separate_av”:true},”progressive”:},”file_codecs”: },”lang”:”en”,”referrer”:”https://visitvulcan.com/about/”,”cookie_domain”:”.vimeo.com”,”signature”:”e849c6044358a28e42d5335e97cedcea”,”timestamp”:1685378144,”expires”:3600,”gc_debug”:,”thumb_preview”:,”currency”:”EUR”,”session”:”f2bbf19fb913f46b88e91593d788ed7e045efd161685378144″,”cookie”: },”build”:,”urls”: },”flags”:,”country”:”NL”,”client”:,”ab_tests”: },”player_url”:”player.vimeo.com”,”video”:,”lang”:null,”owner”:,”spatial”:0,”live_event”:null,”version”:,”unlisted_hash”:null,”rating”:,”fps”:29.97,”channel_layout”:”stereo”},”user”:,”view”:1,”vimeo_url”:”vimeo.com”,”embed”: },”seo”: } var fullscreenSupported = ‘exitFullscreen’ in document || ‘webkitExitFullscreen’ in document || ‘webkitCancelFullScreen’ in document || ‘mozCancelFullScreen’ in document || ‘msExitFullscreen’ in document || ‘webkitEnterFullScreen’ in document.createElement(‘video’); var isIE = checkIE(window.navigator.userAgent); var incompatibleBrowser = !fullscreenSupported || isIE; window.noModuleLoading = false; window.dynamicImportSupported = false; window.isInIFrame = (function() catch (e) }()); if (!window.isInIFrame && /twitter/i.test(navigator.userAgent) && window.playerConfig.video.url) if (window.playerConfig.request.lang) window.loadScript = function(scriptToLoad) else }; window.loadVUID = function() }; window.loadCSS = function(document, url) ; loadDetails.link.rel = ‘stylesheet’; loadDetails.link.href = url; document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’).appendChild(loadDetails.link); loadDetails.link.onload = function() ; return loadDetails; }; window.loadLegacyJS = function(document, player) player.innerHTML = ‘ ‘; } else ); } }; window.loadVUID(); } }; function checkIE(userAgent) var oldIe = isBrowser(‘msie’) ? parseFloat(userAgent.replace(/^.*msie (\d+).*$/, ‘$1’)) : false; var trident = isBrowser(‘trident’) ? parseFloat(userAgent.replace(/^.*trident\/(\d+)\.(\d+).*$/, ‘$1.$2’)) + 4 : false; return oldIe || trident; } See Vulcan’s timeline from the very beginning.
By 1999, the 50-ton statue was in desperate need of repair. The surrounding 10-acre park was closed. Vulcan was removed from his pedestal. Realizing Vulcan’s importance to the region’s history, city leaders sought public support for its restoration, forming the non-profit Vulcan Park Foundation.
The foundation would oversee a master plan to return this colossal statue to his 1904 grandeur. They also created a dynamic educational park complex interpreting Alabama’s rich industrial history for both residents and visitors from across the globe. Today, thanks to public-private partnerships and a $15.5 million campaign, this beloved symbol of Birmingham and the nation’s iron and steel industry stands preserved and proud as the centerpiece of it rehabilitated and expanded park, now referred to as Vulcan Park and Museum.
Vulcan® Park and Museum is operated by Vulcan® Park Foundation, a non-profit organization with a mission to preserve and promote Vulcan as the symbol for the Birmingham region, to advance knowledge and understanding of Birmingham’s diverse history and culture, and to encourage exploration of the region.
What is the largest Confederate monument in America?
Atlanta History Center explores the controversial history of the Stone Mountain carving through a documentary film and online resources. – Monument: The Untold Story of Stone Mountain The carving on the side of Stone Mountain is the largest Confederate monument in the world.
Yet, the monument was only completed in 1972. Spanning multiple efforts across more than 50 years, the carving’s history is full of twists and turns. Today, the mountain and surrounding park remain a large tourist and recreational attraction featuring hiking trails, restaurants, campgrounds, a museum, and occasionally a laser show with the carving as the backdrop.
This documentary is designed to inspire deeper learning and conversation about history that we as a state, and a country, share.
Why remove Confederate monuments?
Pro –
- The statues misrepresent history, and glorify people who perpetuated slavery, attempted secession from United States, and lost the Civil War. The statues are a painful reminder of past and present institutionalized racism in the United States. There are many other people who could be represented by statues who would better represent the historical progress and diversity of the country.