Montgomery has an amazing history! From the Civil Rights Movement to the Wright Brothers this city is a place of change and innovation!! We went to the zoo too! And that nice cold lemonade tasted great in the 73 degree weather!
Montgomery is the capital and second most populous city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Montgomery is notable for its historic involvement during the Civil War, for being the first capital of the Confederacy, and for being a primary site in the Civil Rights Movement, including the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott.
During the Civil War, Montgomery was left virtually physically undamaged, thanks in part to the Confederate capital having been moved to Richmond, Virginia, early on in the war, in an effort to keep the war in the north. Alabama's infrastructure was, however, damaged with much the rest of the South. Once the railways had been rebuilt, the city moved its focus toward industrial growth in textiles and agriculture. On March 19, 1910, Montgomery became the winter home of the Wright brothers' Wright Flying School. The men frequented Montgomery and founded several airfields, one of which developed into the Maxwell-Gunter AFB after the Wrights began working with the government to produce planes for military use. Montgomery flourished in the years leading up to the Great Depression, having experienced steady population growth. WWII revitalized the city after the Depression, but the city continued to weather some economic hardships. During this time, however, there were some noticeable highlights: for example, Montgomery became the first city in the world to install electric street cars. Montgomery, Alabama, was a central location in the American Civil Rights Movement.
Rev. Dr. Martin L. King Jr. gained national attention for civil rights issues during his tenure (1954 to 1960) as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, two blocks from the State Capitol Building. A civil rights memorial has been erected near the still-active church. On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks became a civil rights heroine in the city by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. The reaction to this arrest led to the 382-day Montgomery Bus Boycott, which forced the city to desegregate its transit system on December 21, 1956. In 1965, Dr. King's nationally publicized march for justice was conducted from Selma, to Montgomery.
