BIRMINGHAM

BIRMINGHAM, the largest city in ALABAMA, was first settled in 1813 as the town of Elyton. During the CIVIL WAR, it was the site of a Confederate blast furnace because of its rich iron ore and other mineral deposits. The modern city was laid out in 1870 at the intersection of two railroads and was incorporated in 1871. Steel was first manufactured in the city in 1899, and Birmingham grew rapidly as an industrial center. During the second half of the twentieth century, however, Birmingham suffered in the same shadow of deindustrialization as the cities of the Midwest. In 1949, the IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY provided 20 percent of employment within the metropolitan area; by 1968 that employment had dropped to 10 percent. By 1980, four out of five of the largest employers were service-related industries.

No other city has been more synonymous with civil rights history than Birmingham, where in the 1960s, fire hoses, dogs, and police were vivid symbols of troubled race relations in the United States. Birmingham was the scene of several violent incidents during the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. In 1961, white segregationists assaulted FREEDOM RIDERS in the city, and the bombing of an African American church killed four young girls in 1963, sparking race riots. INTEGRATION came to Birmingham along with other southern cities in 1964, and the city slowly moved toward acceptance. In 1979, Birmingham elected its first black mayor. In 1992 the city opened an institute that documents its role in the struggle for civil rights.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Garrow, David J., ed. Birmingham, Alabama, 1956–1963: The Black Struggle for Civil Rights. Vol. 8, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Carlson Pub., 1989.

Lamonte, Edward Shannon. Politics and Welfare in Birmingham, 1900–1975. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1995.

Lewis, W. David. Sloss Furnaces and the Rise of the Birmingham District: An Industrial Epic. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1994.

McWhorter, Diane. Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001.