Historians from Alabama

Winston Francis Groom Jr. (March 23, 1943 – September 17, 2020) was an American novelist and non-fiction writer. He is best known for his 1986 novel Forrest Gump, which was adapted into the popular 1994 film Forrest Gump directed by Robert Zemeckis. The film was considered a cultural phenomenon and won six Academy Awards. He published a sequel, Gump and Co., in 1995. He also wrote numerous non-fiction works, on diverse subjects including the American Civil War and World War I.

George Marcus Cruikshank (March 15, 1857 – September 15, 1936) was an American educator, newspaper editor, and historian active mostly in Birmingham, Alabama. He had political appointments on staff at Congress and as US Postmaster of Birmingham.

The Reverend George Evans Brewer (October 31, 1832 – January 23, 1922) was an American historian, educator, legislator, and Baptist minister from the State of Alabama. He held office in the Alabama State Senate (1859–1863) and the Alabama House of Representatives (1857–1859), was elected to the office of Superintendent of Education of the County of Coosa, Alabama in 1856, and was appointed Adjutant General of Alabama by Governor Robert M. Patton in 1866.

David Edwin Harrell Jr. (February 22, 1930 – March 15, 2021) was an American historian best known for his scholarship of religion in the United States.

Thomas Perkins Abernethy (August 25, 1890 – November 12, 1975) was an American historian and academic. He served as a professor of early American history at a number of universities throughout the South and Southwest United States. He mainly taught early American colonial history that concentrated on southern states, their notable figures, frontier life, the move westward, and how it impacted the social, economic and political fabric of colonial America and its transition into an independent nation.

Idella Jones Childs (June 21, 1903 – August 8, 1998) was an American educator, historian and civil rights activist. Childs worked as a teacher for 35 years in Perry County in Alabama. During the civil rights movement, her home was a meeting place for activists. She was the mother of Jean Childs Young, who later married Andrew Young who went on to become mayor of Atlanta. Childs worked as historian, helping to put two places in Alabama on the National Register of Historic Places. She also became the first black woman to sit on the city council in Marion. Childs was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 2002. An award named after Childs is given out from the Alabama Historical Commission for the recognition of those who have contributed to the preservation of historic African American places.

Mary Ann Neeley (died 29 August 2018) was an author and official historian for the city of Montgomery, Alabama. She served as executive director of Landmarks Foundation of Montgomery, a non-profit organization dedicated to historic preservation, from 1979 until 2003. Mrs. Neely's walking tours of downtown Montgomery and Oakwood Cemetery were a very popular activity for locals and tourists alike. She developed an annual conference that brought together academics, writers, and other historians, which explored numerous historical topics and drew together attendants from across the region. Along with being an author and a local historian, Neeley also taught courses at both Auburn University and Huntingdon College.

Henry Sale Halbert (January 14, 1837 – May 9, 1916) was an American historian. He is known for writing The Creek War of 1813 and 1814. The book is a well known source for Choctaw and Creek Indian history.

Mary Clabaugh Wright (born Mary Oliver Clabaugh; Chinese name 芮瑪麗 Ruì Mǎlì; September 25, 1917 – June 18, 1970) was an American sinologist and historian who specialized in the study of late Qing dynasty and early twentieth century China. She was the first woman to gain tenure in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yale University, and subsequently the first woman to be appointed a full professor in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Yale.

David T. Beito (born 1956) is a historian and professor of history at the University of Alabama. He is the author of Taxpayers in Revolt: Tax Resistance during the Great Depression (1989); From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890–1967 (2000); The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society (2002); and T.R.M. Howard: Doctor, Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Pioneer (2018) which was co-authored by Professor Linda Royster Beito of Stillman College). It is a biography of civil rights leader, surgeon, entrepreneur and self-help advocate, T. R. M. Howard, who was a mentor to Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer, and was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Harper's Magazine, and other publications.