Founded in 1871, the location for the city was largely decided because of its proximity to nearby deposits of iron ore, coal, and limestone, which are the three principal components for making steel. To emphasize the industrial nature of the city, it was named after Birmingham in England.
The city of Birmingham is best known for the national and international attention it received as a center of the civil rights struggle for African-Americans. A watershed in that movement occurred in 1963 when Martin Luther King, Jr., imprisoned for having taken part in a nonviolent protest, wrote the now famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, a defining treatise in his cause against segregation. However, this is shadowed by a bombing which occurred later that year, killing four black girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church.
All-America City Winner 1970.
All-America City Finalist 1990.
Site of Crusades by Reverend Billy Graham in 1964 and 1972.
Nicknames: The Magic City, Pittsburgh of the South
