'' about a lynching in Aliceville In 1902 the settlement that would become Aliceville was founded with the opening of a single store. The city was named in honor of Alice Dearing Cochrane (1876-1922), the wife of John T. Cochrane, founder of the
Alabama, Tennessee and Northern Railroad and moving force behind the construction of the short line from
Carrollton, Alabama to Aliceville. Within two years of the completion of the short line, Aliceville had grown to what the
Montgomery Advertiser called in 1905 "a town of considerable pretensions. There are about a dozen stores, a bank, public buildings and numerous enterprises." In 1907, an election was scheduled to allow the citizens of Aliceville to decide whether their community should be incorporated. Incorporation was approved by the voters. In March 1907, a municipal election was held to choose municipal officers, including a mayor and five aldermen: T.H. Sommerville, J.M. Summerville, A. Hood, J.D. Sanders, W.E. Stringfellow, and J.B. Cunningham, respectively. In August 1907 a black man named Gibson was
lynched in Aliceville, which caused civil disturbances in the community. Rumors swirled that "the negroes were arming themselves," and a group of blacks on horseback were fired on in the street. Property owners were to be responsible for building the sidewalks in front of their parcels.
Camp Aliceville During
World War II, a
Prisoner-of-war camp was set up in Aliceville to hold 6,000
German prisoners, most from the
Afrika Korps. The population of the camp rarely exceeded 3,500. The camp operated between June 2, 1943 Prisoners were brought to the camp via the
St. Louis – San Francisco Railway. which retains documentation from the camp including maps, photographs, camp publications, letters, and artwork.
Civil rights movement 1960 During the
civil rights movement, organizing in small communities such as Aliceville was often more dangerous for activists than it was in larger cities because of their isolation. As late as 1965, according to James Corder, a
Primitive Baptist minister from Aliceville, Pickens County had not yet experienced any civil unrest related to the movement. Two of the city's all-black schools were closed on September 4 due to the demonstrations, and they reopened the next day under National Guard supervision.
1970s and 1980s In 1982, Aliceville native Maggie Bozeman testified at
Congressional hearings held in
Montgomery, Alabama, concerning proposed amendments to the
Voting Rights Act of 1965. She testified that as late as 1980 in Aliceville and Pickens County, voting took place in the open rather than in private booths, and that white police officers were stationed in polling places, taking photographs of people who assisted black voters. This revelation outraged Republican congressman
Henry Hyde, who had previously been unconvinced of the necessity of amending the law. arrest, conviction, and sentencing for vote fraud. Bozeman and fellow political activist Julia Wilder of
Olney, Alabama were given "the sternest sentences for a vote fraud conviction in recent Alabama history": five years for Wilder and four for Bozeman.
And after In November 2013, three tanker cars carrying
crude oil exploded when an
Alabama and Gulf Coast Railway train derailed near Aliceville. In March 2014, the cleanup of the spilt oil was still not complete, despite four months of work. About 750,000 gallons of
Bakken crude was released. ==Geography==