Montgomery is the capital of the state of Alabama in the United States. It is the second largest city in the state with 201,568 inhabitants in the year 2000. It is located on the Alabama River in the county of Montgomery County. Montgomery was for a short time the capital of the Confederate States of America. The city is named after General Richard Montgomery, who died during the American Revolutionary War. Maxwell Air Force Base is close to town.
In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to stand up for a white man on the bus. The incident led to a boycott of the entire bus system in Montgomery, and became an important issue in the American civil rights struggle.