Originally home to many native tribes, present-day Alabama was a Spanish territory beginning in the sixteenth century until the French acquired it in the early eighteenth century. The British won the territory in 1763 until losing it in the American Revolutionary War. Spain held Mobile as part of Spanish West Florida until 1813. In December 1819, Alabama was recognized as a state. During the antebellum period, Alabama was a major producer of cotton, and widely used African Americanslave labor. In 1861, the state seceded from the United States to become part of the Confederate States of America, with Montgomery acting as its first capital, and rejoined the Union in 1868. Following the American Civil War, Alabama would suffer decades of economic hardship, in part due to agriculture and a few cash crops being the main driver of the state's economy. Similar to other former slave states, Alabamian legislators employed Jim Crow laws from the late 19th century up until the 1960s. High-profile events such as the Selma to Montgomery marches made the state a major focal point of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. (Full article...)
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Mark Matthews (August 7, 1894 – September 6, 2005) was an American soldier. Born in Alabama and growing up in Ohio, Matthews joined the 10th Cavalry Regiment when he was only 15 years old, after having been recruited at a Lexington, Kentucky racetrack and having documents forged so that he appeared to meet the minimum age of 17. While stationed in Arizona, he joined General John J. Pershing's Mexico expedition to hunt down Mexican general Pancho Villa. He was later transferred to Virginia, where he took care of PresidentRoosevelt and First LadyEleanor's horses and was a member of the Buffalo Soldiers' drum and bugle corps. In his late 40s, he served in combat operations in the South Pacific during World War II and achieved the rank of first sergeant. He was noted as an excellent marksman and horse showman.
Leaving the United States Army a few years before it was integrated, Matthews then took a job as a security guard in Maryland, rising to the rank of chief of the guards and then retiring in 1970. After the war, he told stories of military experiences and grew to become a symbol of the Buffalo Soldiers. In his later years he met with Bill Clinton and Colin Powell and also dedicated a barracks in Virginia in honor of the Buffalo Soldiers. Having experienced excellent health for most of his life, Matthews died of pneumonia aged 111 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. At the time of his death, he was recognized as the oldest living Buffalo Soldier as well as the oldest man, and the second-oldest person, in the District of Columbia. (Full article...)
When Abraham Lincoln was electedPresident of the United States in 1860, the southern states were convinced their slavery-based plantation economy was threatened, and began to secede from the United States. The Confederacy was formed on February 8, 1861, by South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. These states seceded in the first of two waves of secession. They adopted a new constitution establishing a confederation government of "sovereign and independent states". Some Northerners reacted by saying "Let the Confederacy go in peace!", while some Southerners wanted to maintain their loyalty to the Union. The Federal Government in Washington D.C. and states under its control were known as the Union. (Full article...)
... that an Alabama TV station fired nearly its entire news staff and replaced its newscasts with a countdown clock for more than a month?
... that Oakwood Cemetery contains the graves of Confederate soldiers and officers, English, Canadian, and French World War II pilots, and Hank Williams?
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