"ALABAMA": STORY OF A SONG

JULIA STRUDWIGK TUTWILER, a highly recognizable figure in Alabama state history, earned her position in the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame by her contributions to Alabama's educational system. She successfully lobbied for admission of ten female students to the University of Alabama in 1893, established the first technical school for women (now known as the University of Montevallo), and became one of the most famous presidents of the Alabama Normal College (now the University of West Alabama). Because of her achievements in education, nearly every institute of higher learning in the state has a building named in her honor.

But Tutwiler's name can be found on more than college dormitories and libraries. The state women's prison also bears her name because she was instrumental in establishing separate prisons for male and female inmates. Tutwiler fought for other penal reforms, including the separation of juveniles from hardened criminals in prisons, the establishment of prison boards and programs for sanitation and inspection of all prisons, and the institution of schools and religious services in prisons. While the list of Tutwiler's achievements goes on, one accomplishment has been all but forgotten.

When at rest from her crusades, Julia Tutwiler was a poet. As the South was struggling with Reconstruction, Tutwiler penned the poem that would become the state song, "Alabama." She found the inspiration for writing the lyrics after returning to her home state from Germany, where she was studying new educational methods for women at the Institute of Deaconesses in Kaiserwerth. A former director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History explained that, while abroad, Tutwiler came to admire the manner in which the Germans used "spirited songs" to inspire patriotism. "She thought that it would be helpful toward restoring the spirits of her own people to give them a new patriotic song, so she wrote a fatherland song and called it Alabama."

The first official publication of the state song appeared on Sunday, April 24, 1881, in the Montgomery Advertiser. But this was not the first time Tutwiler's "Alabama" had appeared in black and white. The song had actually made its way into print several years earlier without her permission. In January 1875, while Tutwiler was again studying abroad in Germany, an inaccurate version of "Alabama" appeared in the Tuscaloosa Times. When she returned in 1876, "Miss Tutwiler evidently found the poem printed and quoted more and more often, and she desired to have it correct," the Advertiser noted.

The Montgomery paper printed Tutwiler's corrected version, and it has remained unchanged since. The unauthorized 1875 version reportedly had many deviations from Tutwiler's original. The Advertisers revised version included two additional verses and replaced the word "the" with "thy." The Tuscaloosa Times, however, had managed to get one thing right: Tutwiler had intended for her verses to be sung to the Austrian hymn, "Deutschland, uber alles."

Unfortunately for Tutwiler, when the official 1881 version was published, the tune to a popular hymn entitled "Harwell" accompanied her words. "Alabama" continued to be sung to that tune until its official adoption as the state song in 1931. The Montgomery Advertiser article described the attempt by a professor at the University of Alabama to teach Tutwiler's preferred melody to a group of young women at the Capstone. "It was more difficult, however, than 'Harwell,' and it was impossible to lure the girls away from the old familiar tune, and so the Austrian Hymn never met with popular favor."

Before it was officially declared the state song, the accompaniment changed again. Edna Gockel-Gussen wrote what has become the official tune in 1917 for a contest at the annual Alabama Federation of Music Clubs convention in Gadsden. In March 1931, through the efforts of the Music Club, House Joint Resolution 74 was adopted, establishing Tutwiler's words and Gockel-Gussen's music as the official state song of Alabama.

Since 1931, the state song has been taught to schoolchildren across the state. It is just another one of the many ways that Alabamians-aware of it or not-pay tribute to the many contributions of Julia Strudwick Tutwiler.

Kristen Record, a native of Marietta, Georgia, is a journalism major at the University of Alabama and a former intern for Alabama Heritage.

Copyright University of Alabama Press Spring 2004
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