[1] Its rapid growth as an industrial city in the 20th century, based on heavy manufacturing in steel and iron, established its dominance.

Legislators from rural counties kept control of the legislature and, to avoid losing power, for decades refused to reapportion the seats or redistrict congressional districts.

Nearby Bessemer, Alabama, located 16 miles by car to the southwest, also grew based on industrialization.

The white-dominated legislature passed a new constitution in 1901 that disenfranchised most blacks and many poor whites, excluding them totally from the political system.

It was a rough environment of mill and mine workers in Birmingham and Bessemer, and the Ku Klux Klan was active in the 20th century, often with many police being members into the 1950s and 1960s.

White mobs committed 29 lynchings in the county, most around the turn of the century at a time of widespread political suppression of blacks in the state.

In the 1950s KKK chapters bombed black-owned houses in Birmingham to discourage residents moving into new middle-class areas.

[7][8] In 1963 African Americans led a movement in the city seeking civil rights, including integration of public facilities.

In the late summer, city and business officials finally agreed in 1963 to integrate public facilities and hire more African Americans.

This followed the civil rights campaign, which was based at the 16th Street Baptist Church, and an economic boycott of white stores that refused to hire blacks.

Whites struck again: on a Sunday in September 1963, KKK members bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church, killing four young black girls and injuring many persons.

Sewerage and water rates had increased more than 300% in the 15 years before 2011, causing severe problems for the poor in Birmingham and the county.

In addition, county officials, encouraged by bribes by financial services companies, made a series of risky bond-swap agreements.

[12] In late February 2008 Standard & Poor's lowered the rating of Jefferson County bonds to "junk" status.

[13] In early March 2008, Moody's followed suit and indicated that it would also review the county's ability to meet other bond obligations.

[14] On March 7, 2008, Jefferson County failed to post $184 million collateral as required under its sewer bond agreements, thereby moving into technical default.

[15] In February 2011, Lesley Curwen of the BBC World Service interviewed David Carrington, the newly appointed president of the County Commission, about the risk of defaulting on bonds issued to finance "what could be the most expensive sewage system in history.

"[10] Wall Street investment banks, including JP Morgan and others, arranged complex financial deals using swaps.

The largest self-reported European ancestries in Jefferson County, Alabama are English 9.7%(64,016), "American" 9.6%(63,015), Irish 8.6%(56,695), German 7.2%(47,690).

Demographers estimate that roughly 20–23% of people in Alabama are of predominantly English and related British Isles ancestry.

Having been classified in the South as black under racial segregation, some of these families are beginning to use DNA tests to learn about and acknowledge European ancestors.

In 2007 Jefferson County had the highest rate of syphilis cases per 100,000 in the US, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The complexity of Birmingham and Jefferson County urban conditions required more local management, as it was a major industrial center.

[citation needed] On March 16, 2011, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that Jefferson County's 2009 occupational tax law was passed unconstitutionally.

The Sheriff's Department has two county jails, one in Birmingham and one in Bessemer, which are used to detain suspects awaiting trial (who cannot afford to post bail), and convicted criminals serving sentences less than one year in length.

The split did not take place because the area of the proposed county would have been smaller than the minimum of 500 square miles set forth in the state constitution.

[44] School districts in the county include:[45] As a reaction to the US Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v Board of Education in 1954, that segregated public schools were unconstitutional, both state and local officials took steps to preserve de facto educational segregation.

[47] Cities in the county that have established their own school systems are Gardendale, Bessemer, Fairfield, Midfield, Trussville, Homewood, Leeds, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Tarrant, and Mountain Brook.

[49] In 2020, Joe Biden received 55.7% of the vote in Jefferson County, the best performance by a Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt in 1944.

[50] Birmingham is the location of the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, which provides service, either direct or connecting, to most of the rest of the United States.