Marion, Alabama

Coordinates: 32°37′58″N 87°19′2″W / 32.63278°N 87.31722°W / 32.63278; -87.31722
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Marion County, Alabama.

Marion
FIPS code
01-46768
GNIS feature ID0160038
Websitewww.discovermarion.org

Marion is a city in and the county seat of Perry County, Alabama, United States.[2] As of the 2010 census, the population of the city is 3,686, up 4.8% over 2000. First known as Muckle Ridge, the city was renamed for a hero of the American Revolution, Francis Marion.

Two colleges, Judson College and Marion Military Institute, are located in Marion. This is noted in the city's welcome sign referring to Marion as "The College City".[3]

Of the 573 cities in Alabama, Marion is the 152nd most populous.

History

Early history

Formerly the territory of the

Creek Indians, Marion was founded shortly after 1819 as Muckle Ridge. In 1822 the city was renamed in honor of Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox," hero of the American Revolutionary War. Marion incorporated as a town the same year and later became Perry County's second county seat as the hamlet of Perry Ridge was deemed unsuitable. In 1829 it upgraded from a town to a city.[4]
The old City Hall (1832) is but one of many antebellum public buildings, churches, and homes in the city today.

General

Margaret Lea
of Marion in the city in 1840.

At the 1844 meeting of the Alabama Baptist State Convention in Marion, the "Alabama Resolutions" were passed. This was one of the factors that led to the 1845 formation of the Southern Baptist Convention in Augusta, Georgia.

Founding of colleges

African Americans, the Lincoln Normal School, was founded here in 1867.[5] The associated Lincoln Normal University for Teachers moved to Montgomery and became Alabama State University
. In 1889, Marion Military Institute was chartered by the State of Alabama and today is the oldest military junior college in the nation.

Pre-Civil War

In December 1857,

George Doherty Johnson (May 30, 1832 – December 8, 1910) served as mayor of Marion in 1856, state legislator from 1857 to 1858 and rose to the rank of brigadier general in the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War
.

Civil War era

Nicola Marschall (1829–1917), a German-American artist, is generally credited with designing both the first official Confederate flag and the grey Confederate army uniform while a teacher at the old Marion Female Seminary. With the coming Civil War in 1861, Nicola Marschall was approached in February by Mary Clay Lockett, wife of prominent attorney Napoleon Lockett of Marion, and her daughter, Fannie Lockett Moore, daughter-in-law of Alabama Governor Andrew B. Moore of Marion, to design a flag for the new Confederacy. Marschall offered three designs, one of which became the "Stars and Bars," the first official flag of the Confederate States of America (C.S.A.), first raised in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 4, 1861.

Early 20th century

At the turn of the century in 1900, Perry County peaked in population at 31,783. This is three times the population of the county in the 2010 census.

Hal Kemp, a jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, bandleader, composer and arranger was born in Marion in 1904 and died in Madera, California, following an auto accident in 1940. His band was very popular from 1934 until 1939. Major recordings in 1936 include "There's a Small Hotel" and "When I'm With You" both number one hits for two weeks. In 1937, his number one hits were "This Year's Kisses", which was number one for four weeks, and "Where or When", number one for one week. Other noted recordings were "Got a Date With an Angel" and "Three Little Fishies". In 1992, Hal Kemp was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.

Coretta Scott King, wife of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was born in Marion in 1927 and spent her childhood there. She graduated from Lincoln Normal School as valedictorian in 1945. The couple got married on the front lawn of her mother's home north of Marion in 1953.

Civil Rights era

A number of significant events occurred in Marion relating to the

clemency.[7]

In 1964, Marion was a center of civil rights protests in Alabama. During a

Selma to Montgomery March on March 7.[8][11][12] It was not until 2007 that Fowler was indicted for murder for his role in Jackson's death.[13] In 2010, Fowler pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter.[14]

In 2018, the US Department of the Interior granted Beyond 50 Years – a community non-profit group in Marion – a $500,000.00 grant to convert the historic Perry County Jailhouse into a voting rights museum.[15] The historic jailhouse was the location of Reverend James Orange's incarceration, which sparked the 1965 march that resulted in the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson. The jail is currently under renovation for the conversion into a museum, however a grand opening date has not yet been announced.

Recent events

In 2009, Marion made national news when a three-year-old family feud turned into a 150-man riot outside the town's city hall resulting in the arrest of eight people and the hospitalization of two.[16]

In early 2016, the New York Times reported the city was the center of an outbreak of tuberculosis. In 2014–15 twenty people in the area had contracted active cases of the disease and three had died.[17]

Historical structures

Judson College Historic District
.

Marion has many historic structures, with most listed on historic registers directly or as

Judson College Historic District, Marion Courthouse Square Historic District, and West Marion Historic District. Historic district buildings of special significance include examples such as Reverie.[18]

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau
, the city has a total area of 10.7 square miles (28 km2), of which 10.6 square miles (27 km2) is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km2) (0.94%) is water.

Demographics

Historical population
CensusPop.Note%±
18501,544—
18601,408−8.8%
18702,64687.9%
18802,074−21.6%
18901,982−4.4%
19001,698−14.3%
19101,8348.0%
19202,03511.0%
19302,1415.2%
19402,38211.3%
19502,82218.5%
19603,80734.9%
19704,28912.7%
19804,4674.2%
19904,211−5.7%
20003,511−16.6%
20103,6865.0%
20203,176−13.8%
U.S. Decennial Census[19]
2013 Estimate[20]

2020 census

Marion racial composition[21]
Race Num. Perc.
White
(non-Hispanic) 		859 27.05%
Black or African American
(non-Hispanic) 		2,186 68.83%
Native American
 6 0.19%
Asian
 10 0.31%
Pacific Islander
 1 0.03%
Other/Mixed
 62 1.95%
Latino
 52 1.64%

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 3,176 people, 1,055 households, and 407 families residing in the city.

2010 census

As of the

Latino
of any race.

There were 1,184 households, out of which 31.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.8% were married couples living together, 25.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.8% were non-families. 28.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.57 and the average family size was 3.17.

In the city, the population was spread out, with 27.5% under the age of 18, 15.7% from 18 to 24, 21.5% from 25 to 44, 18.7% from 45 to 64, and 16.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30.7 years. For every 100 females, there were 80.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 72.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $24,142, and the median income for a family was $29,663. Males had a median income of $27,422 versus $20,240 for females. The

poverty line
, including 51.3% of those under age 18 and 15.1% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

References

  1. ^ "2020 U.S. Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved October 29, 2021.
  2. ^ "Find a County". National Association of Counties. Retrieved June 7, 2011.
  3. ^ "Marion Community". MMI. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  4. ISBN 1135948585
    . Retrieved September 30, 2018 – via Google Books.
  5. ^ a b c "About Marion". Judson College. Archived from the original on April 25, 2012. Retrieved November 16, 2011.
  6. ^ Dudziak, Mary L., "The Case of 'Death for a Dollar Ninety-Five: Finding America in American Injustice" Archived December 17, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, University of Southern California Law School, 2007, p.5
  7. ISBN 978-1-4008-3988-9
    .
  8. ^ a b Fleming, John (March 6, 2005), "The Death of Jimmie Lee Jackson", The Anniston Star, archived from the original on August 29, 2008, retrieved January 21, 2008
  9. ISBN 0-393-04592-7
  10. ISBN 978-0-7624-1958-6
    .
  11. ^ "James L. Bevel The Strategist of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement" by Randy Kryn, a paper in David Garrow's 1989 book We Shall Overcome, Volume II, Carlson Publishing Company
  12. ^ "Randy Kryn: Movement Revision Research Summary Regarding James Bevel – Chicago Freedom Movement". cfm40.middlebury.edu. Retrieved September 30, 2018.
  13. Washington Post
    , pp. A08, May 10, 2007, retrieved January 28, 2008
  14. New York Times
    . Retrieved November 16, 2010.
  15. ^ "Marion Non-Profit to Turn Old Perry Co. Jail into Museum". Alabama News. November 1, 2018. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  16. ^ Family feud turns into riot in small Ala. town: Up to 150 people brawl with tire irons, baseball bats; 8 arrested, Associated Press, August 24, 2009
  17. ^ Blinder, Alan (January 17, 2016). "In Rural Alabama, a Longtime Mistrust of Medicine Fuels a Tuberculosis Outbreak". New York Times. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
  18. ^ a b c "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  19. ^ "U.S. Decennial Census". Census.gov. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
  20. ^ "Annual Estimates of the Resident Population: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2013". Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  21. ^ "Explore Census Data". data.census.gov. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  22. ^ "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
  23. ISBN 978-0-8071-2082-8
    .
  24. ^ Hyson Jr., John M. (June 1999). "Doctors Five: African-American Contract Surgeons in the Spanish-American War. James Webb Curtis: A Chicago Doctor" (PDF). Military Medicine. 164 (6): 435–441.
  25. ISBN 978-0-8131-6067-2
    .
  26. ISBN 978-0-313-39361-7
    .
  27. biography.com
    .
  28. ^ "Jackson, Jimmie Lee".
  29. ISBN 978-1-58835-241-5
    .

External links

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