Alabama Front Porches: The official website for Alabama's Black Belt

Food is creativity for rural  southerners. The raw ingredients are there at hand. There is instant gratification for both the cook and the recipients of her bounty. Food is the language everybody speaks and understands. Discovering the hidden culinary gems of Rural Southwest Alabama is an adventure in itself.  This is a sampler of the [...]

The Ghosts of the Black Belt: visit any town in Alabama and you will most likely hear a local ghost story. You will hear stories of civil war soldiers, haunted riverboats, spectral visitors at university campuses and many tales of apparitions that either met an early or unwarranted death. Learn more about our ghost stories and watch video interviews and tales.

The town of Gainesville was incorporated in 1838. It grew rapidly as a commercial center and cotton shipping port on the Tombigbee River. As trains replaced steamboats in commercial transportation, the town’s lack of rail connections contributed to its decline in the late 19th century. Take time to explore the many historic sites in this [...]

Demopolis, Alabama is where the “City of the People” and two rivers meet. Demopolis is located on the white bluffs just below where the Tombigbee River and Black Warrior River come together. It was founded by a group of political exiles who had been banished from France following the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte. This group [...]

The Furman Civic Club sponsoring this celebration of Small towns in Alabama on April 17, 2011, and the subsequent driving tour of homes, churches, schools, and other historic sites in this east Wilcox County town. Furman was designated a National Historic District in 1999 along with the nearby towns of Pine Apple and Oak Hill. [...]