Finding History At An Alabama Rest Stop

You might think it strange to begin a civil rights tour of Alabama at a rest stop, but that is just what we did last week. When I first started doing these tours the rest stop still flew a Confederate flag. This time we were treated to a brand new facility, but the reason we make this particular stop remains the same.

Located in front of the building is a marker that features the Alabama state motto: “We Dare Defend Our Rights.” The state motto was revised in 1923 and replaced an earlier motto that dates to Reconstruction: “Here We Rest.”

I suspect that most visitors don’t give this marker much thought at all, but for my group it helps to raise some fundamental questions that will guide us throughout our journey.

I asked them to think about the choice of words. Who is the “We” in this bold statement? What “Rights” are being referred to here? Why “Defend” as opposed to a more forceful ‘…Fight For Our Rights”?

In many ways the state motto helps to encapsulate much of Alabama’s turbulent history, beginning with the conflict with the federal government and the Creek Indians in the 1830s—the very ground on which we were now gathered. In this case it was a defense of property rights and the belief that white Alabamians were entitled to Creek land.

Throughout the antebellum period white Alabamians defended their rights to own and sell Black people and in 1861 they ‘dared defend their rights’ by seceding from the United States and creating an independent slaveholding republic.

White Alabamians defended their rights and freedom against military occupation during Reconstruction and terrorized African Americans in order to reestablish white supremacy. The 1901 state constitution further defined the “We” in the state motto through disfranchisement.

In the state as a whole only 3,654 Black voters remained of roughly 182,000, who had been registered in 1900. Roughly 10,000 Black residents of Dallas County were registered to vote in 1900, while only 52 Black residents remained on the voter rolls after the new state constitutio was ratified.

White Alabmians continued to ‘defend their rights’ through disfranchisement and lynching during the Jim Crow era and resisted tooth and nail through the 1950s and 60s.

In many ways the long civil rights movement in Alabama has been a battle over the meaning of the state motto. It represents the darkest days of the state’s history as well as some of its most inspiring moments that have brought the state and the rest of the nation closer to fully embracing and living out its founding creed.