Birmingham

Resting at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, the city of Birmingham, Alabama, developed so quickly that it has earned the nickname the "Magic City." Once the primary industrial and manufacturing center of the South, Birmingham has diversified to include medical research and financial services as part of its economy. More than 1.1 million people reside in greater Birmingham, making it the largest metropolitan area in Alabama. However, it has avoided becoming an "urban jungle," and remains the city with the most green space per capita in the country. While continuing to evolve as a twenty-first century city, Birmingham still embraces its history as a foundational location in the nation's steel and manufacturing industries, as well as a primary major player in the civil rights movement.

Landscape

Occupying 149 square miles in the Jones Valley at the base of the Appalachian Mountains, Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, which encompasses thirty-three separately incorporated municipalities. The greater Birmingham area comprises eight counties, making a metropolitan area that spans an area of 5,332 square miles.

Birmingham is located in central Alabama, about 90 miles north of the capital of Montgomery, and 55 miles northeast of Tuscaloosa. The nearest large cities are Atlanta, Georgia (about 147 miles to the east), and Memphis, Tennessee (about 235 miles to the northwest).

Birmingham's weather is generally warm, averaging 73° Fahrenheit as a high, and 51° Fahrenheit as a low. Temperatures generally reach as high as 90° in the summer and in the low- to mid-30s in the winter. The city has an elevation of 600 feet, and is surrounded by rolling hills.

People

The US Census Bureau estimates that Birmingham's population in 2022 was about 196,910 people, although there are approximately 1.1 million people living in the greater metropolitan area. About 68.6 percent of the city's residents are African American, while 23.4 percent are white and 4.0 percent are Hispanic. The median age of Birmingham's residents in 2020 was about 36.2 years of age, and women represent the majority at 52.9 percent.

A number of celebrities were born in Birmingham, such as former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, jazz musician Lionel Hampton, singer Emmy Lou Harris, and Olympic Gold Medalist Carl Lewis. Other notable Birmingham area natives include professional basketball icon Charles Barkley, baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays, Academy Award-winning actor Louise Fletcher, and National Medal of Arts recipient and folk singer Odetta.

Birmingham has a high concentration of educational institutions, including three large universities, three smaller colleges, four junior colleges, three religious schools and four business schools. According to 2023 US Census Bureau estimates, 88.1 percent of residents older than twenty-five have high school degrees, with 29.4 percent having at least a bachelor's degree. A further 7.7 percent have associate's degrees, meaning that nearly a third of the population has some degree of postsecondary educational attainment.

Birmingham's neighborhoods are myriad and diverse, often reflecting the very social divisions that gave the city notoriety during the 1950s and 1960s. One of the most affluent of these areas is Red Mountain, which is one of the city's wealthiest neighborhoods. Red Mountain also contains the Red Mountain Park, which boasts more space than New York's famed Central Park. Another prominent neighborhood is Southside, which contains many of the city's most popular attractions. The area also contains the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB), the city's largest institution of higher learning, and one of the largest scientific research centers in the southeastern United States. Reflective of its polarized history, however, Birmingham also has neighborhoods with higher concentrations of poverty and crime rates; 26.1 percent of the city's residents live below the poverty line.

Birmingham's relatively low density and large amount of open space works to the benefit of its residents, but presents a problem for them as well. Most people residing in the city need a car (about 80 percent), as the city's spread-out design inhibits the effectiveness of light rail and bus services. Additionally, the state of Alabama does not allocate gas or license revenue to fund public transportation, which has also hampered this development.

Birmingham's cost of living is lower than other areas of Alabama. According to Realtor.com, the median sale price for a home in the city in January 2024 was more than $186,000. The cost of renting is also below the national average. Overall, those who live in Birmingham enjoy a cost of living that is below the national average.

Economy

With ample sources of iron ore, coal, and limestone, the key ingredients to steelmaking, Birmingham's economy, beginning in the late 1800s, was built around the steel industry. Although China has become the dominant steelmaker in the world since the late twentieth century, Birmingham still has a number of steel mills and foundries in successful operation.

Birmingham has seen its economy diversify significantly since the late twentieth century. The strongest employment arena is management, business, science, and arts occupations, which employs around a third of Birmingham's employed population, or about 30,000 people. The University of Alabama–Birmingham is the city's largest employer, providing jobs on every income level for 20,000 residents. A major medical school, hospital, regional clinics, and research facilities are just some of the components of this institution.

The city's banking industry is strong, having rebounded from the 2008–9 global financial crisis. Several bank mergers resulted in the strengthening of Birmingham-based institutions. In fact, BBVA of Spain purchased Compass Bank in 2007, and in doing so, it expanded its US operations and established its US headquarters in Birmingham. Bank consolidations and financial services related to such activities generate some 36,000 jobs in the area.

The relatively low cost of both living and conducting business in Birmingham has served the growth of the city's economy, perhaps most significantly in the health care industry. With medical centers like UAB gaining an increasing international reputation for research and service, they are likely to continue to receive vital research grant funding regardless of economic conditions, according to one economic study.

The second-largest employer in the city is the government. Federal, state and municipal government jobs account for more than 92,400 positions in Birmingham.

Landmarks

As an increasingly cosmopolitan city, Birmingham has an eclectic collection of tourist sites and attractions. They represent Birmingham's history and heritage, and serve a diverse range of interests.

One of the city's most prominent landmarks is one that is visible for miles. Atop Red Mountain, overlooking downtown Birmingham, is a 56-foot, 100,000-pound statue of the god Vulcan. Cast in 1904 and installed in its current position during the 1930s, the world's largest cast-iron statue represents a celebration of the city's industrial heritage.

Birmingham also offers a number of museums with a wide range of themes. Among them are the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Southern Museum of Flight, the McWane Science Center, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Sloss Furnaces National Historical Landmark, the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, and the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

Additionally, in light of the city's warm climate, Birmingham offers a large number of outdoor venues and attractions. For example, Rickwood Field, the oldest baseball field in America, is as popular a draw today as it was when such legends as "Satchel" Paige, Babe Ruth, and hometown hero Willie Mays played there. The Birmingham Zoo, the area's biggest tourist attraction, has over 700 animals on display, and the public, fifty-four-hole Oxmoor Valley Golf Club is part of the larger eight-course Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail that spans the entire state.

History

Prior to its formal incorporation in the nineteenth century, Birmingham was little more than a small settlement whose apparent insignificance was evidenced by the fact that it saw very little damage from the Civil War, as Union forces focused their attentions on the large cities of Montgomery and Mobile.

After the Civil War, however, industrialists saw its potential as railroads crossed the town. In 1871, Birmingham was officially a city, getting its name from the large British industrial city. The city's founders looked to make use of the railways that ran through it and began turning it into a major commercial center. Observers saw its sudden growth and success and therefore nicknamed it "The Magic City."

In the latter nineteenth century, Birmingham used development monies from northern US investors and labor from defunct Alabama plantations to build its mining and metal industries. These industries laid the foundation for the city's economy. The strength of Birmingham's iron and steel industry also helped build the city's resilience in hard economic times.

Over the years, Birmingham's strength has been often tested. An outbreak of cholera in 1873 nearly wiped out the entire population of the city. Then, when the Great Depression set in, Birmingham's single-minded economy was placed in great peril.

At the end of World War II, the city remained mired in economic and fiscal malaise. Until the early 1960s, Birmingham showed very little growth, as the post-war economy sputtered slowly back to life. The city was also enveloped in another growing crisis that would forever leave a mark on Birmingham's history.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the inequalities between whites and African-Americans were painfully clear – business opportunities, schools, and incomes among black and white areas of the city were grossly unequal. The much-publicized civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery only exacerbated the situation in Birmingham, as the city government became further entrenched in its refusal to integrate the city's services.

In the early 1960s, the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights joined with Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. to implement a coordinated series of protests and demonstrations. The city countered with fire hoses, attack dogs, and other tactics that were broadcast on televisions around the world. King was arrested in one protest, and from his cell he wrote his famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail."

In 1963, a bomb detonated in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, killing four girls. The tragic event accelerated anti-segregation lawmaking on the federal level, but like the rest of Alabama, change came slowly. The Alabama legislature and Governor George Wallace contributed to the sluggish evolution, openly defying federal interventions.

In the 1970s, however, change accelerated due in large part to the increased number of African-American political leaders who were elected at the time--as well as the presence of community-based organizations focusing on race relations. The election of the city's first black mayor, Dr. Richard Arrington, as well as the first African-American legislator in the state, Chris McNair, and the city's first black City Councilman, Arthur Shores, signaled that the city's segregationist environment was coming to an end.

The steel industry remained over the decades that followed, but it shrank considerably as globalization took the industry to other countries. This trend meant that African-Americans could have been faced with another trend of socio-economic inequity, as more educated white residents took the growing service and financial jobs that developed in the area. However, the city's government has remained steadfast in ensuring that high-quality jobs are available and accessible to all residents and that the inequalities of the past do not resurface in twenty-first century Birmingham.

Bibliography

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"Birmingham-Hoover, AL." US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16 Feb. 2024, www.bls.gov/eag/eag.al‗birmingham‗msa.htm. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.

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