The 1901 Constitution of Alabama included provisions for voter registration that effectively disenfranchised large portions of the population, including nearly all African Americans, Native Americans, and tens of thousands of poor European Americans. It also required racial segregation of ...Read more

Thunderstorms are common in Alabama, especially in the southern part around Mobile Bay, which averages between 70 and 80 days per year with thunder. The far north of the state reports thunder on about 60 days per year.

About three-fifths of Alabama’s land area is part of the Gulf Coastal Plain, a gentle plain that descends towards the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.

The name “Alabama” first appears in written accounts from the Hernando de Soto expedition of 1540, with Garcilaso de la Vega using Alibamo, the Knight of Elvas using Alibamu, and Rodrigo Ranjel using Limamu.

On January 30, 1846, the Alabama legislature announced it had voted to move the capital city from Tuscaloosa to Montgomery. The first legislative session in the new capital met in December 1847.

Alabama is 23rd in the amount of surface water in the United States.

Alabama is nicknamed the Yellowhammer State, after the state bird. It is also known as the “Heart of Dixie” and the “Cotton State.”

Politically, as part of the Deep South, Alabama is predominantly a conservative state and is known for its Southern culture.

Alabama has a range of habitats, including the Tennessee Valley, Appalachian Plateau, Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians in the north, Piedmont, Canebrake, Black Belt in the central region, and Gulf Coastal Plain and beaches along the Gulf of Mexico in the south.

The economy of Alabama’s Black Belt region was built around large cotton plantations whose owners’ wealth grew mainly from slave labor. Southeastern planters and traders from the Upper South brought slaves with them as the cotton plantations in Alabama ...Read more