Julia Tutwiler Legacy

Julia Tutwiler fame came from her devotion in education, prison reform, and writing. Julia Tutwiler has been said to been fifty years ahead of her time with the legacy she left behind. The legacy Julia Tutwiler has left behind is still notice today in the education system, prison reform, and her writings. In the education system Tutwiler forced ten girls entry into the University of Alabama overruling protest that the university would lose prestige. She would also later help establish a technical school for girls called the University of Montevallo. Tutwiler also changed by her many prison reforms. She reformed prisons by separating men from women and juveniles from criminals. She also implemented sanitation, inspection of all prisons, instituted schools, and even religious services for inmates. Tutwiler’s contribution in writing can easily be seen by her poem “Alabama” which became timeless after being adopted as Alabama’s state song. Tutwiler’s life can be seen as a life full of accomplishments, even being one of the first women being inducted into the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame. (Hall of Fame).

Julia Tutwiler was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1841. Julia was the third born of eleven children of Henry and Julia Tutwiler. Henry Tutwiler was the chair of ancient languages at the University of Alabama. Julia’s mother was the university business manager. Henry Tutwiler believed that women were the intellectual equals of men and should be educated as such. He sent his daughter to Philadelphia to a boarding school that was based on the French system of education and offered instruction in modern languages and culture as well as art and music. (Encyclopedia). The way Henry brought up Julia was as an educated intellectual equal. Thi...

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... articles for St. Nicholas Magazine and Appleton's Journal. She also wrote opinion pieces. In an 1882 essay in the National Journal of Education, she addressed the limited and poorly paid employment opportunities for women despite the shortage of male workers brought on by the Civil War. She advocated for federal and state financing of trade schools modeled on French ecoles professionelles, which taught women various skills and handicrafts in addition to a general literary and cultural education. Tutwiler also wrote poems.(Encyclopedia). In 1931, the state adopted her poem "Alabama," which she composed while in Germany, as lyrics to the state song. These words written by Tutwiler were part of what later became the Alabama state song. She gave the "little--hand, brain, spirit" and left behind her numerous evidences of her work to build a better state. (hall of fame).