Montgomery, Alabama

City with a population of 205,764 at the 2010 census, the second-largest in Alabama. State capital of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Originally the site of two Alibamu tribe towns: Ikanatchati and Towassa, built on opposite sides of the Alabama River. The first Europeans to explore the area were the Spanish under Hernando de Soto, who traveled through Towassa in 1540. The English passed through in 1697, and the first permanent European settlement was by the Scottish trader James McQueen in 1716. The area was transferred to the United States after the Revolution, and most of the powerful Indian tribes were expelled in 1814.

In the 1810s two American settlements, New Philadelphia and East Alabama Town, were founded on land now in Montgomery. The towns were merged and incorporated as one city in 1819, named for General Richard Montgomery, a general who lead an invasion of Quebec in the War of 1812. The city became the county seat of Montgomery County in 1822 and expanded due to the cotton trade.

The state capital was moved here in 1846 due to its railroad connections to Georgia. The Confederate States of America was formed here by representatives of seceded states in early 1861, and Montgomery served as its national capital from Februrary until May of that year. The city was captured by the Union in April 1865 but was not damaged by the fighting. Montgomery was a major center of civil rights agitation in the mid 20th century. It was the site of Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her bus seat for a white passenger in 1955. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached here and formed the Montgomery Improvement Association here to organize a boycott of the segregated mass transit system. The Freedom Riders protested here in 1961. King and other civil rights protesters marched here in 1965 to protest discrimination in voter registration, and was the site of a major speech by King entitled How Long, Not Long.

www.montgomeryal.gov