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General Information
Nickname: The Heart of Dixie
State bird: Yellowhammer (Flicker)
State flower: Camellia
Capital: Montgomery
Population: 4,447,100 (2000)
Population density: 32.8/sq km
Date of admission to the Union: 14th Dec 1819
2000 total overseas arrivals/US ranking: 78,000/33
Time: Central (GMT - 6). Daylight Saving Time is observed.
The State: Alabama offers mountains, lakes, caverns, woodland and beaches. Birmingham is its largest city and cultural centre. Attractions include the VisionLand theme park and McWane Center (a hands-on science museum); the Birmingham Museum of Art; and the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, dedicated to sporting legends such as Jesse Owens and Joe Louis. Montgomery was the first capital of the Confederacy, and the First White House of the Confederacy is still open to the public. Country music lovers from across the USA make pilgrimages to the Hank Williams Memorial in the Oakwood Cemetery Annex. Fans lay flowers next to the huge cowboy hat that lies on his gravestone. The Alabama Shakespeare Festival is staged at the State Theater.
Alabama played a key role in the American civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr first preached at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in Montgomery, and sites commemorating the struggle can be found across the State. These include the statues in Birmingham’s Kelly-Ingram Park, Selma’s National Voting Rights Museum, and the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery. In Birmingham, visitors can go on the Black Heritage Tour of the city centre and visit the Civil Rights Institute with its impressive display of African-American history. Tuskegee is just an hour’s drive from Montgomery. A former slave, Booker T Washington, founded the Tuskegee Institute to improve educational opportunities for blacks. Today, visitors can take guided tours of the thriving university and a restored version of Washington’s home.
Mobile is a major seaport, home to the Mobile Museum of Art, Battleship Park and a lively Mardi Gras celebration (20 Feb-4 Mar 2003). The city is famed for its diverse architecture resulting from French, Spanish and English rule. For children there is the Exploreum, a science museum, and the Phoenix Fire Museum, which includes antique fire engines. Other Alabama tourist destinations include the US Space & Rocket Center, in Huntsville; Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail; the Russell Cave National Monument, in Bridgeport; and the resort towns of Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.
Copyright © 2003 Columbus Publishing Ltd.
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