Alabama (U.S. state)

This article is about Alabama (the U.S. state). For other uses of the term Alabama, please see Alabama (disambiguation).

Alabama is located near the Gulf Coast of the southeastern United States, but only a small area around Mobile, Alabama actually reaches the shore of the Gulf of Mexico.

Alabama is a state in the southern United States of America. Montgomery, Alabama is the state's capital, although Birmingham is its largest city.

History

Alabama joined the United States in 1819 as the 22nd state. In the American Civil War of 1861–1865, Alabama was one of the eleven states that seceded the United States to form the Confederate States of America.

Historically, Alabama has a record of racial tension. In the 1960s, Martin Luther King organized civil rights protests in Alabama and was once jailed in Birmingham (where he wrote "Letter from Birmingham Jail"). Alabama was also the site of the notorious incident in which Governor George Wallace stood at a college gate blocking the entry of an African-American student in an attempt to halt desegregation.

See Alabama, history for more information.

Politics

After the Civil War, Alabama was a part of the Solid South that consistently supported the Democratic Party. However, after the Civil Rights Movement in the mid-1900s, along with other Southern states Alabama shifted Republican. The state is considered a bastion of conservatives and the Republican Party dominates Alabaman politics, with senators Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby, Governor Bob Riley, and an overwhelming majority of the House of Representatives being Republican.

See also

U.S. States and Territories