Perry County is a county located in the Black Belt region in the central part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,511. Its county seat is Marion. The county was established in 1819 and is named in honor of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry of Rhode Island and the United States Navy. Perry County was the only county in Alabama, and one of 40 in the United States, not to have access to any wired broadband connections.
History
The Perry County town of Marion was the site of a 1965 killing of an unarmed Black man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, by a white state trooper, James Bonard Fowler, which sparked the Selma to Montgomery marches. In 2008, the county voted to establish a Barack Obama Day, a legal holiday, every second Monday of November.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.6%) is water. The county boasts a diverse geography, with the southern half of the county being located in the Gulf Coastal Plain region, and the northern half of the county being located in the far southern extensions of the foothills of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians. This area is mainly forested, with some hills and valleys.
Major highways
- 20px U.S. Highway 80
- 20px State Route 5
- 20px State Route 14
- 20px State Route 61
- 20px State Route 175
- 20px State Route 183
- 20px State Route 219
- 20px State Route 289
Adjacent counties
- Bibb County (north)
- Chilton County (northeast)
- Dallas County (east)
- Marengo County (southwest)
- Hale County (west)
National protected area
- Talladega National Forest (part)