Place:Montgomery, Montgomery, Alabama, United States

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Montgomery is the capital and third most populous city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Montgomery is notable for its association with the Civil War, for being the first capital of the Confederacy, and for being a primary site in the Civil Rights Movement, including the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott (see below).

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The Montgomery area was originally heavily populated by the Alibamu Indians (after which the state is named). By the year 1800 the Indians had mostly gone and settlers began to permanently reoccupy the area. From 1800-1813 settlers continued to move in, but in 1814, two competing businessmen arrived who would lay the foundation of the capital city. Each seeking fortune on the fertile lands near the river, they both constructed separate towns, East Alabama and New Philadelphia, along the Alabama River. Each was a success, and quickly their proximities caused them to merge. Incorporated together in 1819, upon the founding of Alabama, the new city was named for General Richard Montgomery, who died in the American Revolutionary War attempting to capture Quebec, Canada. Montgomery County, Alabama was named in memory of Major Lemuel P. Montgomery, of Virginia, who fell at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, on March 27 1814. He was shot in the head by a Redstick musketball, becoming the first man to die in the battle. A statue of Major Montgomery graces the entrance of the Montgomery County Courthouse, located at 251 S. Lawrence St.

Soon after Montgomery and Alabama had been founded, Montgomery became a central stage coach station and link to the railroad leading from New York to New Orleans. It also quickly became known for producing cotton and it was likewise a prominent steam boat port along the river. Montgomery didn't initially become the capital of Alabama upon the founding of the state, however. It was actually the fifth. The territorial capital, St. Stephens on the Tombigbee River, had been supplanted by Huntsville, then Cahawba, which flooded, and then Tuscaloosa. Finally, the capital was moved to Montgomery, the legislature likely finding it an ideal location with adequate travel and amenities from which to run the state. As for a capitol building, it has been said that New Philadelphia's founder, the more prominent of the two businessmen who came to found the city, named Andrew Dexter, believed so strongly that his town would one day become capital of a new state, that he actually reserved a spot for a capitol building. Once the capital was moved to Montgomery, his spot was purchased for that very purpose. [1]. From that point on, Montgomery continued to increase in prosperity and prominence in the new United States. When the south finally seceded during the Civil War, Montgomery served as the first capital of the Confederate States of America; Jefferson Davis was inaugurated on the steps of the Capitol. It had a quite well-educated population which was well-off and influential in the prosperity of the nation. It is proper to note that Montgomery's "golden age" was financed by the forced labor and enslavement of millions of Africans.

After the Civil War, Montgomery was left virtually physically undamaged, but times became hard due to the destruction of Alabama's infrastructure. Sights had been turned from it quite early on during the war though, once the capital was moved to Richmond, VA, in an effort to keep the war in the north. Once the railways had been rebuilt, using the opportunity, the city continued to progress, with industrial growth in textiles and agriculture moving in. On March 19 1910 Montgomery became the winter home of the Wright brothers Wright Flying School. The men frequented Montgomery, founding several airfields, one of which is today an air force base--that being around the time the Wrights began working with the government to produce planes for military use. In the years leading up to the Great Depression, Montgomery flourished, with the population growing steadily until. After the depression, WWII revitalized the city once again, but only for a short time before the Civil Rights Movement and economic hardships began to hinder the city once more. During this time, however, there were some noticeable highlights, for example, Montgomery became the first city in the world to install electric street carsTRAM.

Civil rights movement in Montgomery

Rev. Dr. Martin L. King Jr. gained national attention for civil rights issues during his tenure, 1954 to 1960, as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, two blocks from the State Capitol Building. A civil rights memorial has been erected near the still-active church. On December 1 1955 Rosa Parks became a civil rights heroine in the city by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. The reaction to this arrest led to the 382-day Montgomery Bus Boycott which forced the city to desegregate its transit system on December 21 1956. In 1965, Dr. King's nationally-publicized march for justice was conducted from Selma to Montgomery.

Country music pioneer and legend Hank Williams lived part of his life in Montgomery, and is buried here. Country star Alan Jackson eulogizes Williams in a popular song, called Midnight In Montgomery, about a trip to Hank's gravesite. Many other prominent connections can be made to Montgomery as well.

Deadly fire

On February 7 1967, a devastating fire broke out at Dale's Penthouse, a posh restaurant & lounge on the top floor of the Walter Bragg Smith apartment building (now called Capital Towers) at 7 Clayton St. downtown. The fire was reported to have started as a small fire from an unknown source in the cloakroom and early efforts to extinguish it by the staff failed. 25 people lost their lives in the blaze, mainly due to there being only 1 emergency stair exit, which happened to be next to the cloakroom and was blocked by the fire, plus failure to evacuate the restaurant promptly. Many prominent local citizens and some visiting Teamsters in town for a convention perished, and as a result of the national exposure of the tragedy, a nationwide effort to revamp fire code standards was launched.

Recent years

In more recent history, Montgomery has begun to recover from its economic shortfalls of the 20th century. Montgomery is now home to Hyundai and its first assembly plant in the U.S. A revitalization effort has brought a baseball stadium and a riverfront walk to downtown, as well as numerous parks and historical attractions. Montgomery public schools were among the first in the nation to receive city-wide Internet access and the Alabama school system was the first to wire all districts and schools via fiber optics. In 1994, the 22-floor RSA Tower was constructed, which now houses many prominent tenants including Raycom Media, The Capital City Club and Morgan Keegan and Co. Montgomery is also expanding rapidly, with plans to build a second bypass system and with talks of constructing large residential and commercial developments throughout the city. Montgomery is home to one of the U.S.'s minimum security prisons, is a major supply hub for the military, and is home to some of the military's most valuable and critical computer systems. Montgomery also houses one of the military's key air war colleges. Recently, Montgomery has been focusing on further improving local schools. Also, Montgomery is home to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and Fine Arts Museum, the fifth largest in the world.

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