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The state of Alabama is located in the southern region of the United States of America. It shares its borders with Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Mississippi. The capital of Alabama is Montgomery and is well known from films and songs by the name of Sweet Home Alabama. Alabama is the 22nd state in the USA with around 3% of the state’s total area as water. About 60% of the land is made up of plains directing towards the world famous Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. Alabama currently ranks 23rd state for population. The State homes five Native American tribes the Creek, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Choctaw and Seminole. Their cultures and traditions are still being preached even to this day. It was within Alabama that The Civil Rights Movement started over 50 years ago by Rosa Parks, who sadly passed away late 2005. The Movement, led by the renowned Reverend Martin Luther King, Junior, confronted and caused the downfall of all segregation laws that deprived Afro-Americans the same rights as any other fellow countrymen. Today, the United States is a nation that treats all human beings as equal, with the first appointment of a black President. The State has numerous places of tourist interest. These comprise of the Rosa Parks Museum, Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church (the place where Martin Luther King Junior, preached the famous ‘I have a dream’ speech), and The Civil Rights Memorial. Alabama has produced several world known people. A few of them are singer Hank Williams, actor Dean Jones, author Nellee Harper Lee, comedian Paula Poundstone, world famous musician Nat “King” Cole, singer Lionel Ritchie, pop group The Commodores, boxer Joe Louis and athlete Jesse Owens. Alabama is a modern state with a vibrant economy based largely on retail and wholesale trade, real estate, services, insurance, construction, transportation and electrical equipment. Its agricultural productivity consists of poultry, cattle, cotton, forest products, eggs, nursery stock, soybeans and peanuts. Alabama is a heaven on earth with its diverse wildlife that includes Eastern wild turkey, white-tailed deer and several other species that are distinctive to the region. Its landscape is stunning, with the scenic Appalachian Mountains in the North and white sanded beaches that lie near Gulf Coast. With a number of shopping malls, Alabama offers unbelievable opportunities for shopping. There are amazing outdoor activity facilities that include hunting expeditions, biking trails and some of the world’s best known golf courses. The U.S. Space and Rocket Center holds one of the Apollo spacecraft as well as a 363-foot Saturn V Rocket that takes you back to the pioneering works that happened during the 1950s, which ultimately put man on the moon in 1969. The Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery is a literary satisfaction. It hosts a colorful range of classical and contemporary theatrical performances all year round. It is the 6th largest Shakespeare Theater and attracts more than 200,000 visitors every year. |
