Sweet Home Alabama

Today we travel to Sweet Home Alabama!



Yellowhammer - Alabama State Bird

Alabama is known as The Heart of Dixie because of it's location in the middle of the southern states, and also as the Yellowhammer State, after it's state bird.  Montgomery is the capital city.  Alabama is know for many things, such as space travel, civil rights, and peanuts!

Here is what the kids have to say.......
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Rosa Parks by Vega
On December 1st, 1955, a black woman called Rosa Parks got on

the bus in Montgomery.  A white man (the bus driver) told her to move, but she refused because she wanted to change the law that said white people should be treated better than black people.  Ms. Parks was arrested, but her action helped start the Montgomery Bus Boycott.  A boycott means not using something, so the bus boycott meant that people walked instead of using the bus.  This almost put the bus company out of business!
I think Rosa Parks was a brave and important part of our history.
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Alabama is home to several great civil rights leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr (although he was born in Georgia) and his wife Coretta Scott King. 

Another famous activist from Alabama is Helen Keller. Keller, who overcame being deaf and blind, was  a social activist for  women's suffrage and labor rights.



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Alabama by NovaLee

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade; that's what the people of Alabama do.  One example of this is that Alabama is the only state to put up a monument dedicated to a pest...the boll weevil.

The Boll Weevil was a blessing in disguise when, in 1915 it destroyed the main farm crop they had, cotton.  When all the cotton was destroyed by this little pest, the farmers, instead of giving up, decided to plant new crops such as peanuts and sweet potatoes.  This was good for two reasons; by rotating crops the soil got better, and the farmers made more money off of the new crops than they had with cotton.  So thanks to the boll weevil, Alabama's farmers never stuck to one crop again. 


Having a variety of crops is also good for Alabama, because Alabamians LOVE food!  Some of their favorites are fried catfish, peanut butter pie, sweet potato pie, BBQ, and pickled pigs feet.  Gosh, they love food so much, they even have food festivals, such as National Peanut Festival, Catfish Festival, the Alabama Crawfish festival.  Another main local food is cracklin', which is fried pig skin.  This is something I've tried, and actually like!

Here are some interesting facts about Alabama:

* The name Alabama means plant gathers. It comes from a local tribe, and actually was the name of a river first.

*Alabama was home to the Civil rights movement of the 1950's and 60's. 

*Over half of the peanuts in the US are grown in Alabama!

*The first rocked to put people on the moon was built in Huntsville Alabama.  If you want to be an astronaut,  Huntsville is the place to be!  There you can attend space camp, and get to float around in zero gravity.

For more information on Alabama, check out these websites:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/alabama/

http://www.sos.state.al.us/kids/emblems.htm

Happy Trails.  And we are off to our next destination....Alaska!