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Official Alabama Motto
Audemus Jura Nostra Defendere
"Audemus jura nostra defendere" is a Latin phrase on the state coat of arms
completed in 1923. It has been translated as: "We Dare Maintain Our Rights"
or
"We Dare Defend Our Rights."
The idea for a motto came from Marie Bankhead Owen, the second director
of the
Alabama Department of Archives and History. She came up with
the idea
while searching for a phrase to be put on the state coat of arms.
A part of a
poem by the 18th-century author Sir William Jones includes the
stanza, "What
constitutes a state? . . . Men who their duties know, but know
their rights, and
knowing, dare maintain." The motto was translated into
Latin by Professor W.
B. Saffold, of the University of Alabama.
Sources:
Act 39-140, Acts of Alabama, March 14, 1939
Birmingham News- Age Herald, April 23, 1939.
Return to Kids' Emblems pageUpdated: March 29, 2007
http://www.archives.alabama.gov/kids_emblems/st_motto.html
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