Marion is a city in and the county seat of Perry County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2020 census, Marion had a population of 3,176. First known as Muckle Ridge, the city was renamed for a hero of the American Revolution, Francis Marion.

Two colleges, Judson College and Marion Military Institute, are located in Marion. This is noted in the city's welcome sign referring to Marion as "The College City".

History

Early history

Formerly the territory of the Creek Indians, Marion was founded shortly after 1819 as Muckle Ridge. In 1822 the city was renamed in honor of Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox," hero of the American Revolutionary War. Marion incorporated as a town the same year and later became Perry County's second county seat as the hamlet of Perry Ridge was deemed unsuitable. In 1829 it upgraded from a town to a city. The old City Hall (1832) is but one of many antebellum public buildings, churches, and homes in the city today.

General Sam Houston, while between terms as 1st and 3rd president of the Republic of Texas, married Margaret Lea of Marion in the city in 1840.

At the 1844 meeting of the Alabama Baptist State Convention in Marion, the "Alabama Resolutions" were passed. This was one of the factors that led to the 1845 formation of the Southern Baptist Convention in Augusta, Georgia.

Founding of colleges

Judson College, a private, Baptist college for women, was founded in 1838 and closed July 31, 2021. Marion Military Institute was founded in 1842. as Howard College. Howard College moved to Birmingham in 1887, later becoming Samford University. Wilson's case became an international cause célèbre, covered in newspapers worldwide and inspiring over 1000 letters per day to the office of governor Jim Folsom. Finally, after the Alabama Supreme Court upheld Wilson's conviction, at the urging of the Congress of Racial Equality, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles wrote to Folsom explaining the damage that the case was doing to the international reputation of the United States and Folsom quickly granted Wilson clemency.

In 1964, Marion was a center of civil rights protests in Alabama. During a Southern Christian Leadership Conference march on the evening of February 18, 1965, during the height of the Selma Voting Rights Movement, Marion resident Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot and killed by Alabama State Trooper James Bonard Fowler. These events were depicted in the 2014 film Selma. Jackson died on February 26 of an infection stemming from his wounds at nearby Good Samaritan Hospital in Selma. Martin Luther King Jr. preached a sermon at Jackson's funeral on March 3, and Jackson's death is recognized as the catalyst for James Bevel to call and organize the first Selma to Montgomery March on March 7. It was not until 2007 that Fowler was indicted for murder for his role in Jackson's death. In 2010, Fowler pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter.

In 2018, the US Department of the Interior granted Beyond 50 Years – a community non-profit group in Marion – a $500,000.00 grant to convert the historic Perry County Jailhouse into a voting rights museum. The historic jailhouse was the location of Reverend James Orange's incarceration, which sparked the 1965 march that resulted in the death of Jimmie Lee Jackson. The jail is currently under renovation for the conversion into a museum, however a grand opening date has not yet been announced.

Recent events

In 2009, Marion made national news when a three-year-old family feud turned into a 150-man riot outside the town's city hall resulting in the arrest of eight people and the hospitalization of two.

In early 2016, the New York Times reported the city was the center of an outbreak of tuberculosis. In 2014–15 twenty people in the area had contracted active cases of the disease and three had died.

Historical structures

thumb|Jewett Hall at Judson College, part of the [[Judson College, Alabama|Judson College Historic District.]]

Marion has many historic structures, with most listed on historic registers directly or as contributing buildings. The Chapel and Lovelace Hall at Marion Military Institute, First Congregational Church of Marion, the Henry House, Marion Female Seminary, Phillips Memorial Auditorium, President's House at Marion Institute, Siloam Baptist Church are all individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It has one National Historic Landmark, Kenworthy Hall.<br>2013 Estimate

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2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Marion had a population of 3,176. The median age was 35.0 years. 19.2% of residents were under the age of 18 and 18.1% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 95.8 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 93.7 males age 18 and over.

0.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 100.0% lived in rural areas.

There were 1,115 households in Marion, of which 32.5% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 26.8% were married-couple households, 21.1% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 47.6% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 35.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. There were 407 families in the city. of 2010, there were 3,686 people, 1,184 households, and 819 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 1,418 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 63.9% Black or African American, 32.9% White, 0.26% Native American, 0.09% Asian, 0.09% Pacific Islander, 0.26% from other races, and 0.60% from two or more races. 1.9% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 1,184 households, out of which 31.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.8% were married couples living together, 25.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.8% were non-families. 28.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.57 and the average family size was 3.17.

In the city, the population was spread out, with 27.5% under the age of 18, 15.7% from 18 to 24, 21.5% from 25 to 44, 18.7% from 45 to 64, and 16.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30.7 years. For every 100 females, there were 80.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 72.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $24,142, and the median income for a family was $29,663. Males had a median income of $27,422 versus $20,240 for females. The per capita income for the city was $11,934. About 28.4% of families and 33.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 51.3% of those under age 18 and 15.1% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

  • Lee Cooke, fifty-first Mayor of Austin, Texas
  • Alexander H. Curtis (1829–1878), Reconstruction era Black politician
  • James Webb Curtis (1856–1921), Black physician, and volunteer military personnel in the Spanish–American War
  • Pauline E. Dinkins (1891–1961), Black physician born in Marion
  • T. J. Goree (1835–1905), Confederate Lieutenant and aide to Lt. General James Longstreet
  • Byron Gunner (1857–1922), American minister and activist; born and raised in Marion
  • Margaret Lea Houston (1819–1867), third wife of Sam Houston
  • Jimmie Lee Jackson (1938–1965), civil rights activist whose death inspired the Selma to Montgomery marches
  • Hal Kemp, jazz bandleader, musician, arranger, and composer
  • Coretta Scott King (1927–2006), civil rights activist and wife of Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Porter King, thirty-fourth Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia
  • Willie McClung (1930–2002), former NFL offensive lineman
  • Walthall M. Moore, politician and the first African American to serve in the Missouri state legislature
  • Jimmy Wilson, robber whose case received national attention

References

  • Alabama Women's Hall of Fame
  • Alabama Demographics web site
  • Marion Military Institute web site
  • City of Marion Website