by John Bryant

Created on: May 13, 2008   Last Updated: April 18, 2011

If you have driven quickly in a recent cross country trip through central Alabama without considering a little sightseeing, then you missed beautiful countryside, a look into America's turbulent civil rights history, a variety of sports attractions, and maybe not what many would call fine dining' but just some plain good eating, too. Check this out and I think you'll decide to find the time! A native son now living in the hot and dry Sonora desert of Arizona and who left Alabama as a teenager, I was reminded of these attractions in recent trips to visit my family.

A good starting point is Birmingham , the state's largest city located near the state's geographical center where Interstates 20, 65, and 59 intersect. The city was established shortly after the American Civil War when rich veins of iron ore were found in Red' Mountain overlooking the city. For more than 100 years, Birmingham was a center of the nation's iron and steel industry, smokestacks belching clouds of smoke into the sky. With the decline of America's steel industry, though, Birmingham's largest employer today is the University of Alabama- Birmingham and its world class medical complex. The city's skies are clean now but the world's largest iron statue, a muscular Vulcan, still overlooks the city to remind its residents and visitors of the city's 'steely' past.

Tragically, Birmingham is also remembered for the often violent resistance of many of its white citizens to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. Most infamous of the many incidents was the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in which four young girls were killed as they waited for church services. The use of police dogs and fire hoses to disrupt peaceful demonstrations also led to worldwide condemnation and effectively encouraged more rapid civil rights progress throughout the nation. Birmingham today is a vastly different, more open city. For example, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is a museum providing powerful images of the fight for civil justice and the personal stories of those who fought the fight. The Sixteenth Street Church and Institute are open to visitors. Of lighter' interest, the city is home to the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame where visitors can learn of the accomplishments and legacies of state natives Jesse Owens, Joe Lewis, Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Bart Starr, and Bo Jackson and transplants' who brought to the state such joy and pride, Coach Paul Bear' Bryant and Joe Namath.

And there

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