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is the county seat of Perry County, Alabama. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 3,511. First called Muckle Ridge, the city was renamed after a hero of the American Revolution, Francis Marion.
because of the dominating presence of its colleges, of which Judson College and Marion Military Institute remain. Howard College was founded in Marion in 1842, and moved to Birmingham in 1887, later becoming Samford University. A groundbreaking school for African Americans, the Lincoln Normal School, was founded here in 1867. The associated Lincoln Normal University for Teachers moved to Montgomery and became Alabama State University. The high school merged with Marion High School during the federally-ordered desegregation of the 1960s. Civil rights leader Coretta Scott King attended Lincoln Normal School. She was born in the neighboring town of Heiberger.
Marion was not damaged during the American Civil War, although its citizens were active participants. The first Confederate flag and the Confederate uniform were designed here by Nicola Marschall, then a teacher at the old Marion Female Seminary.
In 1958 Jimmy Wilson, a black man, was sentenced to death by a jury in Marion for stealing $1.95 from Estelle Barker.
In 1964, Marion was a center of Civil Rights protests in Alabama. During the course of one march, Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot by Alabama State Trooper James Bonard Fowler. Jackson later died of an infection stemming from the wounds at nearby Good Samaritan Hospital in Selma. Jackson's death is recognized as the catalyst for the Selma to Montgomery March later that year. In 2007, Fowler was indicted for murder for his role in Jackson's death.
Marion has over ten structures on the National Register of Historic Places and one National Historic Landmark, Kenworthy Hall. It also has several historic districts, including the Marion Courthouse Square Historic District.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 10.7 square miles (27.7 km²), of which, 10.6 square miles (27.4 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.3 km²) of it (0.94%) is water.