La Fayette, Alabama
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La Fayette is the county seat of Chambers County , Alabama , United States , 76 kilometers northwest of Columbus , Georgia . In the census of 2010 , the population was 3,003 of the city.
history
Chambers County was founded in 1832. The newly elected county officials chose to locate the county seat as close to the center of the county as possible. In October 1833, lots were auctioned for the new town, with the proceeds from the sale funding the construction of a courthouse and prison. The city was first called "Chambersville", but at the time of incorporation on January 7, 1835, the place name was changed to "Lafayette", named after the Marquis de Lafayette . Its spelling was changed to "LaFayette" because newspaper editor Johnson J. Hooper created a fictional character named Captain Simon Suggs, a southern hillbilly who pronounced the city's name as "La Fait". The city newspaper The LaFayette Sun was founded in April 1841 under the name The Alabama Standard and took its current name on August 3, 1881.
In 1898, John Anderson, a black man, was hanged in LaFayette by a mob for a murder he did not commit.
Scenes from the Mississippi Burning movie were filmed in the Chambers County Courthouse and downtown LaFayette.
Lafayette is the birthplace of boxing world champion in the heavyweight Joe Louis . A five-foot bronze statue by sculptor Casey Downing Jr. of Mobile , Alabama, was erected in honor of Louis in front of the Chambers County Courthouse. It is also the hometown of Hoyt L. Sherman , one of the foremost art professors of the artist Roy Lichtenstein at Ohio State University .
Three structures and sites in La Fayette are listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) as of July 5, 2019, including the Chambers County Courthouse Square Historic District .
geography
According to the US Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 23 square kilometers (239 square kilometers), of which 0.027 square miles (0.07 square kilometers), or 0.31 percent, is water.
education
The Chambers County School District provides public education for the city. Within the city limits there are two high schools ( Lafayette High School and Chambers County Career Technical School ), a middle school ( JP Powell Middle School ) and an elementary school ( Eastside Elementary School ).
Chambers Academy (grades K through 12) is a private school in the city.
sons and daughters of the town
- Dave Butz (born 1950), American football player
- Hal Finney (1905-1991), baseball player
- Perry Griggs (born 1954), American football player
- Joe Louis (1914-1981), boxer
- Leon Renfroe Meadows (1884–1953), President of East Carolina University
- Arthur W. Mitchell (1883–1968), politician
- Gertrude Morgan (1900–1980), artist, musician, poet and preacher
- Hoyt L. Sherman (1903–1981), artist, designer and professor of fine arts
- James Still (1906–2001), poet, romance scholar and folkloreist
- Mike Williams (born 1959), American football player
Web links
- La Fayette in the Encyclopedia of Alabama
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (G001): La Fayette city, Alabama
- ↑ a b Schmidt, Greg. LaFayette . Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved January 12, 2010.
- ↑ Spell it with a capital 'F' . The LaFayette Sun blog. January 2, 2013. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ↑ A History of The Sun LaFayette . The LaFayette Sun. August 22, 2012. Retrieved January 13, 2013.
- ↑ May Have Hanged Wrong Man
- ↑ Joe Louis statue unveiled today will honor an icon
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↑ Search mask database in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed July 5, 2019.
Weekly List on the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed July 5, 2019.
Coordinates: 32 ° 54 ′ N , 85 ° 24 ′ W