Page 9 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

move the state capital from Tuscaloosa
to Montgomery, on January 28, 1846. And then, as Dexter had wished, the new State Capitol was built at Goat Hill. However,
on December 14, 1849, not long after it opened, the building burned to the ground and had to be rebuilt.
In February 1861, Montgomery became the first capital of the Confederate States of America, and Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as President on the steps of the State Capitol.
In 1886 Montgomery became the first city in the United States to install city- wide electric street cars along a system that was nicknamed the Lightning Route.
During the mid-20th century, Montgomery was a major site of events in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give
up her bus seat to a white man, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Martin Luther King, Jr. was then the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
Montgomery has been recognized nationally for its extremely successful and continuous downtown revitalization.
Montgomery’s central location in Alabama’s Black Belt still makes it a processing hub for crops such as cotton, peanuts, and soybeans. Its railroad and freeway connections make it a useful distribution hub for many companies.
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