Alabama State Motto: Audemus jura nostra defendere

Alabama's state motto is Audemus jura nostra defendere, Latin for We dare defend our rights. The Alabama Legislature adopted it on March 14, 1939, the same day it adopted the state coat of arms.

The motto has an unusual origin. Marie Bankhead Owen of the Alabama Department of Archives and History chose the English wording from a 1781 poem, and a University of Alabama professor translated it into Latin.

In 1923, Marie Bankhead Owen, Director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, contacted B. J. Tieman, a New York heraldry expert, to design a coat of arms for Alabama. Owen chose the motto herself, selecting an English line from Sir William Jones's 1781 poem An Ode in Imitation of Alcaeus. She then asked Professor W. B. Saffold of the University of Alabama to translate it into Latin.

The design, along with the motto, existed without official status for sixteen years. In 1939, Juliet Perry Dixon, wife of Governor Frank Dixon, pushed for the Legislature to act. State representative James Simpson of Jefferson County introduced the bill. Both houses passed it without a single dissenting vote on March 14, 1939.

The 1939 act formally designated Audemus jura nostra defendere as Alabama's official state motto on the same day it adopted the coat of arms. The motto has not changed since.