Marion, AL

Marion is Perry County’s seat in Alabama’s Black Belt, a city first known as Muckle Ridge and later named for Revolutionary War figure Francis Marion. The 2020 census counted 3,176 residents. The city calls itself the College City for good reason: Judson College and Marion Military Institute shaped its streets, its student population, and its reputation across central Alabama.

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Judson began in 1838 as a college for women and closed in 2021; Marion Military Institute began in 1842 and remains the city’s oldest continuing college presence. Lincoln Normal School, founded in 1867, later became part of the history of Alabama State University. Add the courthouse square, Green Street, and the city’s civil-rights history, and Marion’s identity is bigger than a college slogan. It is a county seat where schools, historic houses, and Alabama’s Black Belt story sit close together. The result is a place with a strong academic past and a civic history that reaches well beyond campus across generations.