Alabama

Alabama's rich southern legacy is reflected from the antebellum homes of Mobile to the limestone caverns of Russell Cave National Monument which were inhabited as early as 10,000 years ago. Huntsville, Alabama, is where rocket research was conducted during WWII. Huntsville is now a key center for USA's NASA activity -- Alabama built Apollo 11 and is the site of the US Space Camp.

Montgomery Alabama, the state capital, was also the capital of the Confederacy during the Civil War era. Montgomery, nearly a century later, was where civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery public bus, a key event as
Martin Luther King Jr. brought US Civil Rights to the forefront of national consciousness.
Alabama is now home to both Civil War and Civil Rights monuments. The First White House of the Confederacy is located in Montgomery, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, in Birmingham Alabama.

Alabama's "Black Belt", a region of fertile dark soil, sustained the state's fortunes during the 19th century, when Cotton was King. Towards the close of the 19th century, industrialization took off in steel manufacturing centers like Birmingham, a city founded in 1870 and named in honor of the British steel center. Industrialization accelerated with the manufacturing boom triggered by World War II, and the trend has continued; contemporary Alabama is a center of high tech manufacturing.

Some content from www.u-s-history.com