August 15, 1841
Education and prison reformer Julia Tutwiler was born in Tuscaloosa. Known as the “Angel of the Stockade,” Tutwiler worked tirelessly to improve Alabama’s prison system. Her efforts convinced the state to appoint a state prison inspector, fund teachers for Sunday and night schools in prison, create separate prisons for women, and establish the South’s first juvenile reform school for white boys. She also worked closely with the state to innovate women’s education and helped found the University of West Alabama and the University of Montevallo. Tutwiler was inducted into the Alabama Hall of Fame and the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame, and her poem “Alabama” is immortalized as the official state song.
encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1112
