A Brief History of AAUW in Alabama

A Half-Century of AAUW in Alabama 1927-1977, a compilation of reports of Alabama Division Presidents and histories of branches in the state, gives a portrait of the first fifty years of AAUW in the state. The book was compiled by Ms. Fidelia Gormley, who chaired the Committee on History of the Alabama Division.

A second book, covering the history of AAUW in Alabama from 1976 to 1991 was also compiled.  Now our state and branches are beginning to gather the information needed to bring our state history up to date, for the period from 1991 – 2011.  We hope to digitalize our prior histories and combine the information into a digital version that will be easier to update in the future.

The first branches of AAUW to be chartered in Alabama were the Birmingham and Montgomery branches, which were both chartered in 1921. Before the end of the 1920’s, four other branches had been formed in Alabama–Auburn (1925), The Shoals (1925), Montevallo (1927), and Tuscaloosa (1928). From 1930 to 1959, two branches were added in each of the three decades: Marion (1936), Mobile (1936), Decatur (1944), Huntsville (1949), Jasper (1953), and Scottsboro (1959). In the 1960’s, four other branches, Jacksonville (1964), Troy (1965), Tuskegee (1965), and Enterprise (1969) were added.

Over the years, several other branches were disbanded.  These include Montgomery, Jasper, Troy, Tuskegee, and Auburn.  However, since then, we have re-established the Montgomery branch and we are looking to reopen branches in any of our previous locations where there are AAUW members who are willing to participate.