Hank Williams would grow up to become one of the country's first superstars. He started learning how to sing and play guitar a young age. His early teacher and mentor, a local blues musician named Rufus "Tee tot" Payne, would influence Williams' music for the rest of his life. Williams' first break came in 1941 when he and his band called the Drifting Cowboys were&nbsp;hired to host a short radio show in Montgomery. A few years later, Williams signed his first contract with MGM in 1947 after recording two successful songs for the company. That same year, Williams released a single title "Move it on over", which became an immediate hit and the start of his rise to stardom. He consistently wrote hit songs during the several years and his concerts were in high demand. He dealt with the pressure of his celebrity status led him to abuse alcohol and prescription drugs (he suffered from back pain). As a result, his health suffered greatly, culminating in his death on January 1, 1953 due to heart failure.

Opened in 1999, this museum honors the most famous and revered country singer in American history: Hank Williams (1922-1953). The museum features the most complete collection of William's memorabilia in the country. Items on display include Williams' clothing (boots, hats, suits, ties, etc.), guitars, a Steinway piano, sheet music, the Baby Blue 1952 Cadillac, and many other items. The museum opened thanks to the efforts of a local named Cecil Jackson, who was one of Williams' biggest fans. 

Hank Williams Museum

This walking tour begins at Montgomery's historic railroad depot and winds downtown to the state capitol before turning back towards the starting point. Along the way, you will see a host of historic buildings and sites related to the Confederacy to the Civil Rights Movement. Highlights include the Rosa Parks Museum and sites related to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the state capitol, the first White House of the Confederacy, and the Hank Williams Museum. 

Walking Tour of Downtown Montgomery Alabama

<div>The number of passenger trains using Union Station declined during the 1950s and 1960s. When Amtrak came into existence in 1971, it continued passenger service through Montgomery with a single train (the South Wind, later renamed the Floridian), operating between Chicago and Miami. However, this train was terminated in 1979 and Union Station was closed.&nbsp;After a period of disuse, Union Station was renovated for commercial use and&nbsp;houses the&nbsp;Montgomery Area Visitor Center. The train shed still stands, although tracks under it have been replaced by asphalt parking.</div><div> </div><div> </div>

Union Station, also known as Montgomery Union Station or Montgomery Union Station and Trainshed, in Montgomery, Alabama was built by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and opened in 1898. Erected of brick and limestone on a high bluff along the Alabama River, the station also served passenger trains of Atlantic Coast Line, Western Railway of Alabama, Seaboard Air Line, Central of Georgia, and Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. The station had six tracks under a 600 foot shed, with a coach yard on the south end of the station as well as a Railway Express Agency facility. The station's design segregated passengers by race and incorporated Romanesque Revival elements. It was the largest and most elaborate station in Alabama and an excellent example of late 19th century architecture. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

Montgomery Union Station

Prisons during the Civil War were terrible on both sides. There were roughly 674,000 prisoners during the war; 56,000 of them would die of disease, lack of food, and poor living conditions.&nbsp;

Between April and December 1862, a Confederate prison holding 700 prisoners—most of whom were captured at the Battle of Shiloh—was located near this historical marker, in between the Alabama River and Tallapoosa Street. The building was a cotton depot and only 40 feet wide and 200 feet long. Living conditions were very poor; the men did not have blankets and only the ground or wooden planks to sleep on. Rodents and disease compounded these problems. As a result, almost 200 men died before the prisoners were moved to Tuscaloosa.  

Confederate Military Prison

The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration opened to the public on April 26th, 2018. It is an 11,000 square-foot space in which visitors can be educated on the evolution of slavery and racial segregation. This is done through the various collections of the Equal Justice Institute's critically acclaimed research materials, which include videography, visuals, and exhibits. Visitors are able to hear, see, and get a feel of what it was like to be a slave waiting to be auctioned off at a block. The museum also contains exhibits on lynching, and its relationship to contemporary issues regarding racial injustice.In 1808, the U.S Congress abolished the International (also known as the Atlantic) slave trade in which Africans were kidnapped from their homes and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean where they faced horrendous conditions. Since the beginning of the colonization of American in the 17th Century, there was a demand for servants, which would evolve into the system of slavery that would continue for centuries as the economic system would become dependent on forced labor.When the Domestic slave trade began in the 19th Century, the rise of cotton and the invention of the cotton gin increased the demand for slave labor in the Lower South. For the next fifty years, up until 1860, slaves from the Upper South (in states such as Virginia) would be forcibly removed from their plantations and embark on a long, hard journey to the Lower South (in states such as Alabama). Slaves would have to travel in large chained groups, known as coffles, while marching for hundreds of miles, making the trip slow and tiring. Beginning in the 1840’s slaves were able to travel by steamboat and train which would take them to depots and warehouses where they would be auctioned off.Alabama would have one of the largest slave populations at the start of the Civil War since it had grown into one of the most prominent slave trading communities. Because the Alabama state legislature banned free Black people from entering and residing in the state, enslavement was the only legal status for African Americans during the time. After the slaves would arrive in Montgomery after their long journey, they would be placed in warehouses where they would have to wait to be auctioned off. The slaves would also be held captive in depots, which Montgomery had four of, as much as they had banks and hotels. The slave trade would continue to operate until 1864.The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a private nonprofit organization founded in 1989, continues to strive to challenge racial injustice, discrimination, and poverty. They acknowledge that slavery was a truly upsetting and horrific part of America’s history and this was one of their reason for creation of the Legacy Museum. They realize that not that many people understand and recognize its impact, and why people of color continue to be disadvantaged and mistreated today.

Built at the site where enslaved persons were imprisoned prior to being auctioned in the 19th century, this museum offers exhibits that share the history and legacy of the domestic slave trade, as well as post-slavery issues related to racial inequality. The museum follows the history of enslavement and shows its connection to lynching, the convict lease system, segregation, economic inequality, and the persistence of racial discrimination. The museum is located at the site of a former "slave jail," a holding space between the docks where enslaved persons entered the city and the market where families were separated and auctioned prior to the end of chattel slavery in 1865. In recognition of the fact that Alabama had the second-largest enslaved population of any U.S. state, the museum includes a variety of exhibits that investigate the role of Montgomery and Alabama in the domestic slave trade and the legacy of enslavement. 

The Legacy Museum

John Murphy was born in 1806. He arrived in Virginia in the mid-1820s and eventually made his way to Montgomery in 1844. He bought a warehouse and soon became one of the wealthiest people in the city. He also invested in real estate and was one of the incorporators of the city's first water works in 1854 (he also owned 23 slaves). He died in 1859 but the house remained in the family until 1902. On April 12 1865, just days after the official end of of the Civil War, the Murphy House and the city were&nbsp;occupied by Union forces after General James H. Wilson conducted a cavalry&nbsp;raid into central Alabama beginning on March 22 to destroy the state's arms manufacturing&nbsp;factories and other war-related industries. General Ulysses S. Grant directed Wilson several months earlier to lead the campaign. Over 13,000 cavalry were under his command. They met little resistance as Confederate forces were too low in numbers and spread out in the state (and many were sent to fight General Sherman on his "March to the Sea" campaign). In military terms, Wilson's raid was successful, as it destroyed the last vestiges of the state's arms manufacturing capabilities. However, historians dispute its significance because the Confederacy was already close to defeat, and General Robert E. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865. The Murphy family's wealth declined after the war and were forced to rent the house out. In 1902, they sold it to an Elk's lodge. It was sold to the Montgomery Water Works and Sanitary Sewer Board in 1967, which restored and converted it to office. They&nbsp;continue to own the building&nbsp;today.&nbsp;

This historic home was built by commission merchant John Murphy, a native of Scotland, in 1851. It is one of the finest Greek Revival homes in the city and during the Civil War, was an important social center for the South. Confederates of note including Jefferson Davis and William Yancey attended gatherings here. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, the home was converted to office space for the Montgomery Water Works and Sanitary Sewer Board in 1970.

Murphy House

At this location, slaves of all ages were auctioned publicly alongside other commodities such as land and livestock. Sales were advertised with the slave's&nbsp;gender, approximate age, first names (slaves last names often changed with each sale), skills,&nbsp;price, complexion and the name of the last owner. In 1859, the city had seven auctioneers and four slave depots: one at Market Street (Dexter Avenue) and Lawrence, another at the corner of Perry and Monroe, and two on Market between Lawrence and McDonough. According to historians, slaves shipped from the Alabama River were traded along with mules and other livestock. The&nbsp;marker recounts the story about the telegram to fire on Fort Sumter, sparking the Civil War. This spot also marks the location where Rosa Parks boarded a bus in December 1955,&nbsp;an event that led to her arrest and the Montgomery Bus Boycott. While one side of the marker represents shame and despair, the other side represents a triumphant moment in African American history.In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared in the Emancipation Proclamation stating that all persons being held as slaves in the rebellious states would be recognized by the Union government as being free unless the rebel states returned to the Union. When the Confederacy crumbled under the weight of the Union army, the South agreed to ratify the 13th Amendment which ended slavery. &nbsp;&nbsp; Montgomery's first observation of the Emancipation Proclamation was on&nbsp;New&nbsp;Year’s Day at Wilson’s Grove on Mildred Street. A parade formed at Gilmer’s Warehouse on Commerce Street. There was a brass band, with the governor, legislators, aldermen, businessmen, benevolent societies, churches and fire engine companies in attendance. Peyton Finley, the&nbsp;parade marshal, was the first Black member of the State Board of Education. Speakers of the day included Holland Thompson, first Black alderman and a state legislator, who advised “show by good conduct, industry, and fidelity, that the year 1866 was a year of jubilee, instead of insurrection.” He also told the crowd to acquire land, homes, and education.

This historical marker was erected in 2001 and its two sides represent significant milestones in Montgomery's history. The first side shares the history of this location as home to the Artesian Besin Slave Market. The second side commemorates the first observation of a ceremony commemorating the end of slavery which was led by former slaves at this location in 1866. 

Montgomery’s Slave Markets and First Emancipation Observance Historical Marker

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama to James McCauley and Leona Edwards McCauley. She attended high school at the Alabama State Teachers College Laboratory High School. In 1932 she married Raymond Parks, a barber at the Maxwell Air Force Base and a charter member of the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) branch in Montgomery, AL The couple were active in voting rights campaigns in Montgomery and organized efforts to free the Scottsboro Boys in the 1930s. In 1944, Parks investigated the rape of Recy Taylor, a 24-year African American mother and sharecropper as she walked home from church in Abbeville, Alabama. Mrs. Parks managed the office of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the local NAACP chapter under E.D. Nixon during the 1940s and 1950s. Rosa Parks later became the secretary of the Montgomery chapter. In August 1955, Parks attended the desegregation workshop at the Highlander Folk School, an interracial training center for labor and civil rights activists in Appalachian Tennessee.[1]On December 1, 1955, her civil rights background coupled with her tiredness of racial segregation, led Rosa Park to not vacate her seat for a white male passenger. She was arrested by city police for disorderly conduct. E. D. Nixon and white civil rights activists Clifford and Virginia Durr bailed Parks out of jail. When her case went to trial in the Recorder's Court, the court found her guilty and ordered her to pay a fine of $14, including court costs. The Women's Political Council, led by an English professor, Jo Ann Robinson, used her case to call upon Black residents to not ride city buses in protest. Parks remained active in the boycott as the protest became thirteen months long. Her involvement led to death threats, the loss of her job at the Montgomery Fair department store, and poverty. Though the family relocated to Detroit, Michigan in 1957 due to the hostile treatment, Rosa Parks continued to fight for civil and human rights until her death in 2005.[2]

This historical marker was dedicated in 2008 and marks the location where Rosa Parks boarded a Montgomery bus on December 1, 1955. On that day, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give her seat to a white passenger. A secretary of the Montgomery National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) with a long history of defending the civil rights of Black women in previous years, Parks was a highly regarded member of the Black Montgomery community. Although she was not the first Black woman in Montgomery to challenge segregation that year, news of her arrest led to a mass meeting that inspired Black citizens to boycott the city bus system the following week. When city leaders refused to work with local pastor Martin Luther King, Jr., the Black community launched a boycott that lasted 381 days. Thanks to the economic power of the Black community and a successful court challenge, the Montgomery Bus Boycott ended segregation in Montgomery. In retrospect, the bus boycott also served as a model of successful activism through non-violent strategies of resistance. It is important to note that Rosa Parks was a seasoned civil rights activist at the time of her arrest, and her leadership inspired a young Martin Luther King Jr. She remained active and is sometimes referred to as the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.”

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks / The Bus Stop Historical Marker

Rosa
Parks had a long career of activism for racial equality, but it was her refusal
to give up a bus seat that transformed her into a renowned civil rights icon.
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a member of the NAACP and secretary to the
president of the Montgomery chapter, was returning home from work as a
seamstress at the Montgomery Fair department store. When the bus became
crowded, the driver instructed African American passengers vacate their
designated seats for white passengers coming aboard. Parks refused on the
grounds that she had the right to sit in the “colored” seats. At the bus stop
in front of the Empire Theatre, she was arrested for “refusing to obey orders
of bus driver.” Her act of civil disobedience challenged the city’s segregation
laws and began the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Parks’s arrest was preceded by
Claudette Colvin, who was arrested in Montgomery for refusing to give up her
bus seat nine months earlier. 1955 also saw a number of civil rights court
cases, both overturning or further entrenching segregation, and the murder of
Emmett Till in Mississippi, all of which set the stage for Parks’s protest.

Decades
later, Troy University acquired property near where Parks’s arrest took place. Public
interest in a nearby historical marker about Parks prompted the university to
build a museum, rather than a parking deck, on the property. The Empire Theater
and a neighboring were demolished, considered beyond repair, and a museum and
library complex was built in their place. It was funded through private
donations and a $1 million grant from the U.S. Transportation Department.

The
Rosa Parks Museum opened on December 1, 2000, the 45th anniversary
of Parks’s arrest. The ceremony included Parks along with civil rights leaders Martin
Luther King III, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, former
U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, poet Maya Angelou, and
actress Cecily Tyson. The museum includes six distinct areas that tell the
story of bravery and courage of early civil rights activists, tracing Parks’s
arrest, the bus boycott, and the legacy of her work. A children’s wing invites
young visitors to explore the segregation of public transportation and civil
rights activism dating back to Harriet Tubman and Dred Scott. Visitors to the
museum can attend lectures, tours, and events such as the December 1
Anniversary and Rosa Parks’s birthday celebration on February 4. By remembering
and interpreting the life of Rosa Parks, the museum carries on her legacy.

Opened in 2000, the Rosa Parks Museum and Library honors the civil rights activist who stayed seated on a bus and took a stand for equality. It is located on the site of the old Empire Theatre near the bus stop where Parks was arrested in 1955 for courageously refusing to give up her seat. The Rosa Parks Museum, owned by Troy University, is a major landmark in the revitalization of downtown Montgomery. The interpretive museum occupies the first floor of a building that also contains the Troy-Montgomery Campus Library. 

Rosa Parks Museum and Library

Rosa Parks had served as a field representative of the NAACP and risked her life organizing a variety of civil rights initiatives before moving to Montgomery. It is also significant to point out that she was not the first person to risk her safety and be arrested for challenging Montgomery's segregation laws.Claudette Colvin, a fifteen-year-old girl who attended Booker T. Washington High, was coming home from school when her arrest occurred on March 2, 1955. At that time, Montgomery's buses were divided into two sections; the front end of the bus was reserved for white citizens while the back end was for people of color. When the seats in the front of the bus filled, African American passengers were expected to give up their seats for any white passengers left without a seat. This is what caused the events which unfolded on that fateful day for Colvin.The front section of the bus had become full, and a white woman boarded the bus to find no available seats. The bus driver told Colvin, along with three other girls in the “colored” section, to move to allow the woman a place to sit. Colvin, however, did not move. The bus driver gave her an ultimatum, stating that if she did not move, he would call the police. She remained seated, and the police came and arrested her for violating segregation laws. As she was handcuffed and forced from the bus, she screamed that the incident was a violation of her constitutional rights.The Women's Political Council and other civil rights leaders decided not to use Colvin's case as a rallying point for a variety of reasons including her youth, background, and her eventual pregnancy a few months after her arrest. Despite the less publicized case, Colvin was one of at least two other Black women who were arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus in the months leading up to Rosa Parks' arrest.Aurelia Eliscera Shines Browder, a widow who raised six children while completing her education at Alabama State University challenged the segregation law in April 1955. Browder refused to give up her seat for a white passenger, which led to her arrest. She offered rides to protestors not riding the bus during the boycott and would later serve as the lead plaintiff in Aurelia S. Browder v. William A. Gayle in 1956.On October 21, 1955, police arrested eighteen-year-old Mary Louise Smith for violating Alabama's bus segregation law when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. Her family kept the arrest secret until attorney Fred Gray approached Smith about becoming a plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle lawsuit. Parks' activism is remembered owing to the way that the Black community responded in the wake of her arrest, organizing a court challenge in addition to a city-wide boycott. Eleven months following that incident, and after other women were arrested including Parks, African American plaintiffs filed a federal case with this US District Court. On 1 February 1956, Fred Gray and Charles D. Langford filed a federal district court petition on behalf of four African American women who had been mistreated on city buses. Aurelia S. Browder, Susie McDonald, Claudette Colvin, Mary Louise Smith, and Jeanetta Reese were the plaintiffs in the case all of whom were either arrested or harmed for defying the segregated seating codes on Montgomery buses. Aurelia Shines Browder was the lead plaintiff in the case due to her status as a mature woman with experience participating in the civil rights struggle. After about four months of deliberation, a decision was reached. In June 1956, a three-judge U.S. District Court panel ruled that the segregation codes on intrastate buses were unconstitutional. the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the District Court's judgment and rejected city and state appeals to reconsider the verdict in December 1956.

This federal courthouse was the site of several landmark cases, including Gomillion v. Lightfoot in 1958. The case found that electoral districts were designed to reduce the potential influence of Black voters, thus violating the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Two years prior, the courthouse was home to Aurelia S. Browder v. William A. Gayle, a pivotal case that led to the end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The U.S. District Court ruled that bus segregation violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court, a decision that provided African American plaintiffs with the legal power to challenge segregation in public transportation.

United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama; Browder vs. Gayle (1956)

The Greyhound Bus Station is a small, single-story building constructed in between 1950 and 1951 in Montgomery, Alabama. The station contains elements of Modern style which includes horizontal emphasis, asymmetry, and windows that wrap around the corners. It underwent several alterations since the original construction. It is still recognized as a mid-20th-century bus station.&nbsp;Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, many states legally segregated facilities, schools, and public transportation for Black and white Americans. On May 20th, 1961, a group of integrated 21-year-old college students from Nashville arrived at the bus station. Calling themselves the Freedom Riders, they traveled to deeply segregated parts of the South on an interstate bus to bring an end to racial discrimination and segregation. When they disembarked in Montgomery, a mob attacked the Freedom Riders. Future United States Representative John Lewis, then the student leader of the Freedom Riders, shouted at the mob that attacked them. He said, “Stand together. Don’t run. Stand together!” Several of the students jumped over a wall and ran into a federal building next door. Lewis, William Barbee, and Jim Zwerg were trapped at the bus station and beaten unconscious. Zwerg was a white man who received most of the violent attacks. The Freedom Riders had seven female members. They managed to find a Black taxi owner who would take only the five Black female members. John Seigenthaler, a federal representative, attempted to rescue the other two stranded white women; however, the rioter knocked him unconscious with a metal pipeThe Freedom Riders’ non-violent acts of courage helped end racial segregation and change unjust laws. There is an award-winning exhibit on the building that traces the Freedom Riders’ history. It portrays the words and images from the Freedom Riders, those who supported them, and who opposed them. The interior exhibits provide additional information about the Riders, and the way buildings were designed during the racial segregation era.&nbsp;The property is no longer used as a bus station and closed in 1995; however, it was saved from demolition and restored. In 1996, it was labeled as a historic landmark. In 2011, a museum was opened inside of the old bus station. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2011, the museum won a national preservation award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

At this location on May 20, 1961, a racially integrated group of young civil rights activists calling themselves the Freedom Riders faced violent attacks outside this former bus station. Martin Luther King Jr. and many other civil rights leaders came to Montgomery to support the students and the Freedom Ride continued from this bus station on May 24th as the activists boarded a bus bound for Jackson where they would face more violence but also draw the nation's attention to the injustice of segregation and depth of racism. While these young people were forced to stop their demonstration, hundreds more continued the Freedom Rides throughout the South.    

When the Freedom Riders arrived at the Montgomery Bus Station, an angry mob violently attacked them, with white member Jim Zwerg receiving the most injuries. As the Freedom Riders continued their journey, just outside of Anniston Alabama, one of the buses was firebombed and an angry mob attacked those who tried to flee. Passengers on the second bus were beaten nearly to death in Birmingham Alabama. The Freedom Riders were held hostage by Bull Conner, Birmingham's Public Safety Commissioner, and could not leave the city for five days.

Today, the Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station is a powerful symbol of the civil rights movement and the courage of nonviolent civil rights activists who used interstate buses to travel to segregated cities in the South and advocate an end to segregation in public transportation. The Montgomery Bus Station was closed in 1995; there is currently a museum inside the old station.

Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station and the Freedom Riders Museum 

St. Peter’s was the first Catholic Church built in Montgomery.  And since its beginning in 1834, the church has unceasingly provided an active Catholic presence in Montgomery.  From the eve of the Civil War to the dawning of the civil rights movement, St. Peter’s location has enabled the church to be a witness to monumental events that have shaped Alabama and the nation’s history. The 180th Anniversary of the church was held on April 25, 2014.

St. Peter Catholic Church

The memorial is located at the heart of the Civil Rights Movement, as it is near the church&nbsp;where Martin Luther King served as pastor during the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-1956), and the capitol building, where the Selma-Montgomery voting rights march ended in 1965.The Southern Poverty Law Center was founded in 1971by Morris Dees and Joseph Levin Jr. to help fight bigotry and hate through litigation, education, and other forms of advocacy. The ultimate goal is to create a society in which equality and equal opportunity are realized.&nbsp;

Located outside of the Civil Rights Memorial Center, this memorial honors the men and women who lost their lives during the Civil Rights movement, including Martin Luther King Jr., between 1954-1968. It is located across the street from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which created the memorial. Artist Maya Lin, the creator of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D., designed the memorial. It consists of a circular Black granite table with the names of those who died inscribed on it. Water flows across the top. Behind is a curved Black granite wall featuring a famous quote of Martin Luther King Jr.: "We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Visitors are welcomed to touch the names as they contemplate the nation's struggle for equality. 

Civil Rights Monument at the Southern Poverty Law Center

The Department of Archives and History was housed in the old Senate cloak room at the Alabama State Capitol after its establishment in 1901. It was then moved to the Capitol's new south wing upon its completion in 1906. The current three-story Neoclassical building was built from 1938–40. An east wing was completed in 1970 and a west one in 2005. The museum features many artifacts, others historical items, and photographs&nbsp;on display. The museum is housed on the second and third floors. Exhibits explore a variety of topics including&nbsp;the Selma to Montgomery marches, the history of Native Americans in the state from the Pre-Columbian era to the Indian removal, the history of warfare involving Alabamians from the French Colonial period to the Vietnam War. The Alabama Sampler Gallery contains Alabama-related artifacts ranging from 19th century clothing to a guitar owned by Hank Williams. The Hands-On Gallery contains history-related activities for children. The third floor houses paintings and sculpture.

The Alabama Department of Archives and History is the state's official repository of archival records. Founded in 1901, it was the country's first publicly funded, independent state archives agency. It houses local and state government records, newspapers, maps, church and synagogue records, military records, and many other items. The building also houses the Museum of Alabama, which tells the story of state from prehistoric times to today.

Alabama Department of Archives and History

Confederate President Davis lived in this house from February 1861 until the end of May that same year. President Davis moved this home&nbsp;once the Confederate&nbsp;capitol was moved to Richmond Virginia. The house had several private owners over the years. Efforts to help preserve the house began in the late 1890s by&nbsp;United Daughters of the Confederacy. Some women from this organization established the White House Association to take up the cause to save the building. As a result of a variety of issues, this process to twenty years, during which time it became a boarding house and was not well maintained. The association was able to buy the home and have it moved several blocks to its current location. It opened to the public on June 3, 1921.&nbsp;

The First White House of the Confederacy was believed to have been built in 1825, but was not made famous until it became the primary residence of President Jefferson Davis and his family. This house was located right outside the capitol of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Alabama. This landmark was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. After being placed on the Historic Places list, it has opened up to the public to show what that time period was like and to give more information about Confederate President Davis and family.

First White House of the Confederacy

Beginning in the late 1830s in Macon and then Montgomery Counties, Sims made a living treating enslaved women on plantations during pregnancy and labor. Plantation owners allowed to him to conduct experimental surgeries on the women without any kind of anesthesia, although he did give them opium. In one case, he performed 30 surgeries on a woman named Anarcha, whom he claimed to have cured in the end. During the next decade&nbsp;he created a new&nbsp;speculum (which is named after him and used today), the medical instrument&nbsp;to treat women with incontinence and other problems.&nbsp; In the early 1850s, Sims&nbsp;traveled to Philadelphia and New York City to try to improve his health, since he often had bouts of malaria. There, he met with other doctors and soon gained notoriety for his innovations in gynecology after publishing an article describing his new surgical techniques. He was then appointed head surgeon of the newly created Women's Hospital of New York, which he helped established.&nbsp;During the Civil War, he worked in Europe, where his reputation followed him. He treated women in royal families such as empress of Austria. Sims returned to the New York City&nbsp;after the war and once again worked at the women's hospital. He published his memoir&nbsp;The Story of My Life&nbsp;shortly before his death in 1883. Sims performed hundreds of operations without anesthesia on at least thirty enslaved women. While these experiments collectively allowed Sims to expand his knowledge of the emerging field of gynecology and led to significant medical advances, his methods left at least some of these women with debilitating physical and mental trauma. Only three of Sims' victims are known by name, and each by their first name only. One woman identified as Anarcha endured thirty operations.&nbsp;&nbsp; On April 23, 2018, two Alabama residents&nbsp;offered a historical reenactment where a physician wearing modern-day medical scrubs performed an operation on an African American woman portraying an enslaved woman against her will. The two residents hoped to draw attention to the fact that Sims performed operations on women who could not consent to the procedure.&nbsp;The man who portrayed the physician, 74-year old veteran Jon Broadway, was arrested and taken to jail by capitol police and charged with criminal tampering with a protected landmark after a small amount of ketchup that represented the blood of the enslaved woman was found left on the premises. The female protester who was part of the demonstration was not arrested and Mr. Broadway declined to share her name with reporters who interviewed him after the arrest.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Located on the grounds of the Alabama State Capitol building stands the statue of James Marion Sims, one of the more controversial figures in modern medical history. Sims is considered the "father of gynecology" for his medical and surgical advancements in the field of gynecology. Among his leading accomplishments, Sims developed new ways to treat women suffering from incontinence caused as a result of tearing during labor. These innovations came at high price, however, as he experimented on dozens of enslaved women. As such, though he is credited for making advancements in women's health, his legacy is forever connected to the physical and mental pain he inflicted on the enslaved women who were the victims of his experiments. While this statue remains and is protected from removal by a recent state law intended to make it nearly impossible to remove Confederate monuments, in April 2018 the other statue of Sims was removed by officials in New York City from its prominent location in Central Park to the cemetery where Sims is buried in response to concerns from local citizens. That same month, a protester was jailed for a performance near this statue depicting one of the many operations conducted.

James Marion Sims Statue

The Confederacy began here in early 1861. Delegates from six seceding Southern states met here on February 4, 1861. On February 8, they adopted a "Constitution for the Provisional Government of the Confederate States of America." Jefferson Davis was inaugurated on the west portico on February 18. The Congress of the Confederate States met here until May 22, 1861, when the capital moved to Richmond, Virginia, after the state joined the Confederacy. 

In 1965 the Alabama State Capitol was used again but this
time by civil rights activists during the voting rights struggle. Passed in
1870, the Fifteenth Amendment made it illegal for state governments to disfranchise
it citizens based on the color of their skin. Despite the amendment, many
southern states found ways to keep African Americans away from the polls.&nbsp; Several states required African Americans to
pass literacy tests that were designed to fail any Black person who took them,
a poll tax was implemented, and the threat of violence or death to oneself or
one’s family was also used to discourage voting. This ongoing violation of the
Fifteenth Amendment led civil rights leaders and organizations such as Martin
Luther King Jr. and SNCC to organize a march for voting rights from Selma to
Montgomery, Alabama in March 1965.

There were three marches in the Selma to Montgomery March.
The first two marches did not go beyond Selma after Alabama State Police beat
the marchers on March 7 at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and the second attempt
on March 9 ended with the marchers returning to Selma where later that evening a
Black minister was killed. By March 21, the marchers were granted federal
protection and started their third and final march to Montgomery. After travelling
54 miles along Highway 80, the marchers entered the city of Montgomery. On the
steps of the Alabama State Capitol King delivered his “How Long, Not Long”
speech that described the struggles of the African American in the past but also
the change and hope that was occurring in 1965 and would continue in the
future.

Built in 1851, the current Alabama State Capitol is the state's fifth capitol building. It was designed in the Greek Revival style and incorporates elements of the Beaux Arts style as well. The building is historically significant on a national level for two main reasons: it was the site of the first capitol of the Confederacy during the Civil War, and the end point of the Selma- Montgomery March that ended on the steps on the west side of the building on March 25, 1965. The march, which began on March 7 and led by Martin Luther King and several other leaders of the movement, highlighted the racial injustices still in place in the South. It was a seminal moment in the Civil Rights Movement, helping pave the way for the Voting Rights Act which was signed into law on August 6, 1965. For these reasons, the capitol was declared a National Historic Landmark.

Alabama State Capitol  

James L. Patterson grew up in a farming household. As a teenager, he went to Texas looking for work, finding employment on farms and oil fields. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the army and was sent to France in 1918 where he was wounded badly in a skirmish. He was awarded a&nbsp;France's Croix de Guerre with silver gilt star for his service. He returned to Alabama and earned his teaching certificate. Later, he became principal of Clayton County High School in 1921. In 1924 he earned his B.A. in History from what is now Jacksonville State University and then a law degree in 1926 from Cumberland Law School in Tennessee. Patterson opened up practices in Opelika and Alexander City before settling in Phenix City in 1933.&nbsp; His first steps into politics came in 1937 when he was appointed to the Phenix City&nbsp;Board of Education. In 1940 he became chairman of the Russell County Draft Board, and then in 1946 was elected to the Alabama Senate. In the early 1950s Patterson was one of the first members of the&nbsp;Russell Betterment Association, whose purpose was to fight corruption by electing people who would enact reforms. The local mob stymied these efforts through violence and election fraud. In response, the organization decided to try to elect Patterson into a high legal office, given his legal and political background. Today, Patterson is remembered for his attempt to reduce corruption. In the wake of his death, the Governor of Alabama imposed martial law upon Phenix City and a special investigation and grand jury led to over 700 indictments of police and local officials for corruption. Of these indictments, the only person to serve time was&nbsp;Sheriff Albert Fuller, who was convicted of murder but served only ten years of a life sentence.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;

Born sometime between 1891-1897 (the exact year is not known) in Tallapoosa County, Albert L. Patterson rose to become one of Alabama's prominent political figures during the first half of the 20th century. He served as an officer in France in World War I, became a teacher and later a principal, and then earned a law degree. The day after winning the Democratic primary for Attorney General on June 7, 1954, he was assassinated in Phenix City by a member of the local mafia, which opposed his efforts to eradicate organized crime in the city. The city had a long history of illegal gambling, prostitution, and alcohol sales, so Patterson was considered a serious threat to the mafia's interests. His murder however  spurred state and local officials into action; they took down the local crime syndicate in six months and indicted over 700 people, charging politicians, business owners, and members of law enforcement with crimes. Patterson was replaced on the ballot by his son, John Patterson, who later won the Governorship of Alabama in 1958 with the support of the Ku Klux Klan. As a result of John Patterson's virulent racism and tacit support of white supremacists who led a reign of terror against African Americans in the early years of the civil rights movement, the legacy of the Patterson family remains tied to racial discrimination more than efforts to end corruption in government. 

Albert L. Patterson Statue

Dexter Avenue Baptist Church congregation was organized in 1877 and was first known as the Second Colored Baptist Church. The church trustees paid $270 on January 30, 1879 for a lot at the corner of what now is Dexter Avenue and Decatur Street. The first church building was a small wood frame building. Members saved money and began to replace this wood structure with a brick building in&nbsp;1883. The new brick building was not completed until 1889. The church served as a center of the Black community. For example, on&nbsp;October 3, 1887, &nbsp;it hosted the first registration of students for Alabama State University. The congregation's role in the&nbsp;community continued into the 20th century, and is best-known for its role in hosting meetings related to the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century. Vernon Johns, an early leader of the civil rights movement, served as pastor from 1947 to 1952. He was succeeded by Martin Luther King, Jr., who served as&nbsp;pastor from 1954 to 1960. Owing to the early efforts of&nbsp;E.D. Nixon, Rosa Parks, and many other community members, he was selected to lead the burgeoning&nbsp;Montgomery Bus boycott from his basement office. Near the church is Dexter Parsonage Museum, which served as home to twelve pastors of the church between 1920 and 1992. The church was placed on the&nbsp;National Register of Historic Places in 1982.&nbsp; The church is best known for its role in organizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but years before this protest,&nbsp;Dexter Avenue minister Vernon Johns sat down the "whites only" section of a city bus. When the driver then ordered him off the bus, Johns urged other passengers to join him. On March 2, 1955 a Black teenager named Claudette Colvin dared to defy bus segregation laws and was forcibly removed from another Montgomery bus. Months later,&nbsp;Rosa Parks also refused to give her seat up to white passengers. Like others before her, Parks&nbsp;was arrested.&nbsp; The previous arrests galvanized support for a protest in response to Parks' arrest. Montgomery&nbsp;teacher Joann Robinson created,&nbsp;mimeographed, and organized the delivery of&nbsp;50,000 leaflets calling for a mass meeting in response to Parks' arrest.&nbsp;E.D. Nixon, a local labor leader, organized a December 4th meeting at Dexter Avenue church. At this meeting,&nbsp;local Black leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement Association to spearhead a boycott and negotiate with the bus company. They named Dexter's new minister, Martin Luther King, Jr., as the organization's&nbsp;president. For nearly a year, buses were virtually empty in Montgomery as Black residents withheld their patronage of the city's segregated system. Boycotters&nbsp;walked to work as many as eight miles a day. Others&nbsp;used carpools organized by volunteer&nbsp;drivers and dispatchers. Others used&nbsp;special taxis that operated below cost and were subsidized by donations from local and national supporters.&nbsp;&nbsp; While you are in Montgomery, Alabama, you should also see another historical site just a short distance from the church. The Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station is where the Freedom Riders were attacked on May 20, 1961.

Established in 1877 by former slaves, this congregation was has played an integral role in the long civil rights movement of the past century-and-a-half. Martin Luther King Jr. was the pastor of the church from 1954 to 1960, and its name now reflects his influence. The congregation was established as the Second Colored Baptist Church in 1877. The congregation later changed its name in honor of Andrew Dexter. in 1978, the name was changed to Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, the 20th pastor of the church. During his time in Montgomery, Dr. King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church

In response to Rosa Parks’ arrest on December 1, 1955, African American women in Montgomery called for a mass meeting which led to the creation of the Montgomery Improvement Association. The group launched the now-famous Montgomery Bus Boycott and sustained pressure on the city to end segregation by refusing to use city buses for 381 days.&nbsp;At least half of the city bus riders were African American, so the collective refusal to ride the buses had a great economic impact. This collective action was only possible because of the organization within the African American community. After city authorities went after Black taxi owners, this parking lot became home to an alternative&nbsp;source of transportation led by Black citizens and business owners. The name Posey came from the main operators Eddie L. and Dorothy Posey.&nbsp;
The lot housed over 200 sedans and stations wagons, which came to be called “rolling churches” since many were owned by local Black churches. The parking lot shuttled around 2,000 Black passengers each day for over a year. Integrated bus service began in December of 1956 after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision in Browder v. Gayle, which declared the city’s segregated bus seating unconstitutional. However, the parking lot continued to operate until 1967.&nbsp;
The role that Black businesses, churches, and community leaders played in the organization of the lot underscore not only the power of collective action and organizing but show how Montgomery was home to an active Black community who could mobilize their&nbsp;economic power to force change.&nbsp;

During the Montgomery Bus Boycott, this corner was home to a parking lot that served as a staging ground for cars driven by civil rights activists. Known at the time as "Posey’s Parking Lot” this was one of two major African American community transportation centers during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The historical marker was unveiled by the Alabama Historical Association on December 1, 2010, the anniversary of Rosa Parks’ arrest. 

Posey's Parking Lot, Staging Ground of the Montgommery Bus Boycott 

The congregation was founded in 1834 and first worshipped in other churches while their own church was being built. Completed in 1837, this church became the first brick church building in Montgomery. As Montgomery grew as an important shipping center, the congregation grew as well. The current church was built to accommodate this growth. The first church building became a place of worship for Black Episcopalians. For a &nbsp;year after the war ended, the Union Army closed the church. In 1869, the old church was torn down and used to expand the new building. The education building was constructed in 1955.

Originally constructed in 1855, St. John's Episcopal Church is one of three post-Civil War Gothic churches in the state based on the designs of Frank Willis and Henry Dudley, who were both prominent architects in the 19th century. The church features many interesting decorative elements including ceiling medallions painted in 1869 and chime bells dating to 1885. The church is notable for its association with Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, and his family, who attended services here during between February-May 1861 when Montgomery was the capital of the Confederacy during early months of the Civil War. The church also hosted the Secession Convention of Southern Churches in 1861, which formally separated Episcopalian churches in the South from the United States. 

Walking Tour of Downtown Montgomery Alabama

Hank Williams Museum

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources