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Black Belt (region of Alabama)
Encyclopedia
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, and part of the larger Black Belt Region
Black Belt (U.S. region)
The Black Belt is a region of the Southern United States. Although the term originally described the prairies and dark soil of central Alabama and northeast Mississippi, it has long been used to describe a broad agricultural region in the American South characterized by a history of plantation...
of the Southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
, which stretches from Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
to Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. The term originally referred to the region underlain by a thin layer of rich, black topsoil
Topsoil
Topsoil is the upper, outermost layer of soil, usually the top to . It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs.-Importance:...
developed atop the chalk
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....
of the Selma Group
Selma Group
The Selma Group is a geological formation in North America, within the U.S. states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The strata date from the Santonian to the Maastrichtian stages of the Late Cretaceous. The group is composed of, in ascending order, the Mooreville Chalk Formation, Demopolis...
, a geologic unit
Geologic unit
A geological unit is a volume of rock or ice of identifiable origin and age range that is defined by the distinctive and dominant, easily mapped and recognizable petrographic, lithologic or paleontologic features that characterize it....
dating to the Cretaceous Period. The soils have been developing continuously at least since the Pliocene Epoch. Because the underlying chalk is nearly impermeable to groundwater
Groundwater
Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...
, the black soils tend to dry out during the summer. The natural vegetation of the chalk belt consisted mainly of oak-hickory forest interspersed with shortgrass prairie, while the sandy ridges flanking the chalk belt supported pine forest.
For lack of a reliable source of water, the earliest settlers avoided farming the black soil until the discovery that deep artesian wells could be drilled to supply people, livestock, and crops. Beginning in the 1830s, cotton plantations became Alabama's greatest source of wealth. Before the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, these plantations were worked by thousands of African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
slaves. The region attained the highest density of population in the state, although slaves were prevented from voting. The planters and their elected representatives of the Black Belt had political power in the state legislature that they retained after the state began to develop more urbanized areas and an industrial economy.
The Black Belt's largest city, Montgomery
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
, became the capital of Alabama in 1846. Because Alabama was geographically central to the slave states, Montgomery was also the original capital of the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
. The region's distance from the front lines during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
saved it from much of the ravages of war. Many of the Greek Revival mansions of the nineteenth-century planters have survived, as have some of the plantations' slave quarters. Gaineswood
Gaineswood
Gaineswood is a plantation house in Demopolis, Alabama, United States. The house was completed on the eve of the American Civil War after a construction period of almost twenty years. It is the grandest plantation house ever built in Marengo County and is one of the most significant remaining...
in Demopolis and Magnolia Grove
Magnolia Grove (Greensboro, Alabama)
Magnolia Grove is a historic Greek Revival mansion in Greensboro, Alabama. The house was named for the grove of Southern magnolias in which it stands. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 11, 1973, due to its architectural and historical significance...
in Greensboro, Alabama
Greensboro, Alabama
Greensboro is a city in Hale County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 2,731. The city is the county seat of Hale County. It is part of the Tuscaloosa, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
are among those that can be visited by tourists today.
Although the infestation of the cotton crop by the boll weevil
Boll weevil
The boll weevil is a beetle measuring an average length of six millimeters, which feeds on cotton buds and flowers. Thought to be native to Central America, it migrated into the United States from Mexico in the late 19th century and had infested all U.S. cotton-growing areas by the 1920s,...
destroyed much of the plantation system around 1910–20, the lingering effects of a cotton economy remain evident. Many descendants of freed slaves continued to work as sharecroppers and laborers after emancipation. After the boll weevil and increased mechanization of agriculture, thousands of African Americans left Alabama to go to industrial cities of the North and Midwest in the Great Migration
Great Migration (African American)
The Great Migration was the movement of 6 million blacks out of the Southern United States to the Northeast, Midwest, and West from 1910 to 1970. Some historians differentiate between a Great Migration , numbering about 1.6 million migrants, and a Second Great Migration , in which 5 million or more...
of the first half of the twentieth century. African Americans make up the majority proportion of the population in most rural Black Belt counties. Today the term "Black Belt" is commonly used by scholars and the media as a demographic characterization, as well as a geologic one.
Some of the most important events of the American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968) occurred in the Black Belt. These included Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....
' refusal to give up her bus seat, which led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign that started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. Many important figures in the civil rights movement were involved in the boycott,...
; the Selma to Montgomery marches
Selma to Montgomery marches
The Selma to Montgomery marches were three marches in 1965 that marked the political and emotional peak of the American civil rights movement. They grew out of the voting rights movement in Selma, Alabama, launched by local African-Americans who formed the Dallas County Voters League...
; and voter registration reform drives, focusing in Selma, Alabama
Selma, Alabama
Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, Alabama, United States, located on the banks of the Alabama River. The population was 20,512 at the 2000 census....
, to enable African Americans to vote (see Voting Rights Act
Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S....
). They had been largely disfranchised after conservative white Democrats regained political power in the state in the late nineteenth century. Their changes to voter registration rules and electoral procedures also disfranchised many poor whites.
Today, Alabama's Black Belt includes some of the poorest counties in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Along with high rates of poverty, the area is typified by declining populations, a primarily agricultural landscape with low-density settlement, high unemployment, poor access to education and medical care, substandard housing and high rates of crime.
Counties
The list of counties comprising the Black Belt is often dependent on the context but historically includes 18 counties:
|
Greene County, Alabama Greene County is the least populous county in the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island. As of 2010 the population was 9,045... Hale County, Alabama Hale County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is named in honor of Confederate officer Stephen Fowler Hale. As of 2010 the population was 15,760. Its county seat is Greensboro and it is part of the Tuscaloosa Metropolitan Statistical Area.... Lowndes County, Alabama Lowndes County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is named in honor of William Lowndes, a member of the United States Congress from South Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 11,299... Macon County, Alabama Macon County is a county in the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of Nathaniel Macon, a member of the United States Senate from North Carolina. Developed for cotton plantation agriculture in the nineteenth century, it is one of the counties in Alabama within the Black Belt of the South.As... Marengo County, Alabama Marengo County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. It is named in honor of a battlefield near Turin, Italy, where the French defeated the Austrians on June 14, 1800. As of 2010 the population was 21,027... Montgomery County, Alabama Montgomery County is a county in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is the most populous county in the Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area; its population in 2010 was 229,363 .- History :... |
Perry County, Alabama Perry County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. It was established in 1819, and is named in honor of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry of Rhode Island and the United States Navy. As of 2010 the population was 10,591... Pickens County, Alabama Pickens County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of 2010, the population was 19,746. Its county seat is Carrollton, and it is a prohibition, or dry county.-History:... Pike County, Alabama Pike County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of General Zebulon Pike, of New Jersey, an explorer who led an expedition to southern Colorado and discovered Pikes Peak in 1806. As of 2010 the population was 32,899. Its county seat is Troy.- History :In 1819 the State... Russell County, Alabama Russell County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of Colonel Gilbert C. Russell, who fought in the wars against the Creek Indians. As of 2010, the population was 52,947... Sumter County, Alabama Sumter County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama.Its name is in honor of General Thomas Sumter of South Carolina. As of 2010, the population was 13,763. Its county seat is Livingston.-History:... Wilcox County, Alabama Wilcox County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of Lieutenant J. M. Wilcox, who fought in the wars against the Creek tribe. As of 2010, the population was 11,670... |
Clarke
Clarke County, Alabama
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*54.5% White*43.9% Black*0.4% Native American*0.3% Asian*0.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*0.7% Two or more races*1.0% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
, Conecuh
Conecuh County, Alabama
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*51.3% White*46.5% Black*0.3% Native American*0.1% Asian*0.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*1.0% Two or more races*1.2% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
, Escambia
Escambia County, Alabama
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*62.1% White*31.9% Black*4.4% Native American*0.2% Asian*0.0% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*1.5% Two or more races*1.9% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
, Monroe
Monroe County, Alabama
Monroe County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of James Monroe, fifth President of the United States. As of 2010, the population was 23,068. Its county seat is Monroeville. It is a dry county, in which the sale of alcoholic beverages is restricted or...
, and Washington
Washington County, Alabama
Washington County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. The county was named in honor of George Washington, first President of the United States of America. As of 2010, the population was 17,581. Its county seat is Chatom. Washington County is a dry county.-History:The area was long inhabited...
counties are sometimes included in the region, but are usually considered part of Alabama's southern coastal plain. Lamar
Lamar County, Alabama
Lamar County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, member of the United States Senate from Mississippi. As of 2010 the population was 14,564...
does not meet the soil traits but is often included due to its lack of business enterprise.
Demographics
As of the 2000 censusUnited States Census, 2000
The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...
, Alabama's 18-county Black Belt region had a population of 589,041 (13.25% of the state's total population). There were 226,191 households and 153,357 families residing within the region.
The racial makeup of the Black Belt region was 52.24% African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
(307,734 people), 45.87% White
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
(270,175 people), 0.25% Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
(1,472 people), 0.52% Asian
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
(3,067 people), 0.03% Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander American
Pacific Islander Americans, also known as Oceanian Americans, are residents of the United States with original ancestry from Oceania. They represent the smallest racial group counted in the United States census of 2000. They numbered 874,000 people or 0.3 percent of the United States population...
(153 people), 0.31% from other races (1,850 people), and 0.78% from two or more races (4,590 people). Hispanics or Latinos
Hispanic and Latino Americans
Hispanic or Latino Americans are Americans with origins in the Hispanic countries of Latin America or in Spain, and in general all persons in the United States who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino.1990 Census of Population and Housing: A self-designated classification for people whose origins...
of any race were 1.09% of the population (6,404 people).
The median income for a household in the Black Belt region was $27,130, and the median income for a family was $35,698. Males had a median income of $32,226 versus $22,021 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the region was $15,633.
A July 1, 2007 U.S. Census Bureau estimate placed the region's population at 575,783, a decline of 2.25% since 2000.
Politics
In electoral maps of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the Black Belt has appeared as a "Blue Belt" because of the voters' strong support for the Democratic PartyDemocratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
. With the exception of parts of the city of Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
, the outline of Alabama's 7th congressional district
Alabama's 7th congressional district
Alabama's 7th congressional district is a U.S. congressional district in Alabama, which elects a representative to the United States House of Representatives. The district encompasses the counties of Greene, Choctaw, Sumter, Marengo, Dallas, Wilcox, Perry and Hale...
roughly matches the western Black Belt region. Terri Sewell
Terri Sewell
Terrycina Andrea "Terri" Sewell is the U.S. Representative for . She is a member of the Democratic Party and the first black woman elected to Congress from Alabama...
currently represents that district in the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
.
External links
- "Black Belt Fact Book", University of Alabama Institute for Rural Health Research
- "Alabama's Black Belt", Birmingham News special report
- Black Belt Community Foundation