It's unfortunate that people's perception of Alabama has been so destroyed- and I can't really disagree with them.
Huntsville, AL is a tech mecca in the southeast- home to companies like Boeing, Lockheed, General Dynamics, NASA, Kratos, Dynetics, and now Amazon. It's a highly competitive tech market full of people from around the world that excel at what they do. It has a vibrant open source community and is home to some genuinely innovative tech- by far the jewel of the State. I was happy to work there for the decade or so I did before moving back home.
The people there are wonderful, open-minded individuals but unfortunately they don't represent the State as a whole. I hope this changes one day. Part of that change is attracting new business and talent to the State- something difficult to do while the State government is being used by the Republican party to push a nationwide agenda at the cost of the people and State's image.