Res Ipsa Loquitor

29 November 2004



Alabama Recount May Yet Undo Racist Constitution

There is an old joke that asks, “If it’s six pm in New York, what time is it in Birmingham, Alabama?” The punch line answer is “1953.” When it comes to matters of race and the state constitution, that is not a joke so much as an accurate description of facts. Amendment 2 would have rid the state constitution of language that required separate schools for "white and colored children" and language that dealt with poll taxes that were traditionally used to keep blacks from voting. The “Yes” camp lost by 1,850 votes out of 1.38 million cast. The good news is that this is close enough to trigger a recount and give the state a chance to redeem itself. The bad news is that there were votes against the amendment at all.

A further shreds of good news exist because the US constitution supersedes the state’s and separate schools have been held unconstitutional since Brown v. Board of Education a half century ago. Moreover, the people of Alabama removed language from the state constitution that forbade interracial marriage four years ago. And finally, one of the arguments against the proposed amendment noted that there was a second objective in the proposal, one to add the right to a public education. As twisted as the logic behind it was, this formed the basis of an anti-tax argument; so one may cling to the desperate hope that a few thousands votes swung against human rights on the grounds to taxation.

Last year, Governor Bob Riley, a conservative Republican, tried to raise taxes by $1.2 billion to cover a budget deficit and improve schools. He got beat. Alabama is one of the lowest taxed states in the union, and it seems the fear was that the right to a public education would encourage activist judges to raise taxes to pay for it – despite the will of the people. Never mind that the activist judges in Alabama until recently included former Judge Roy Moore, who had the Ten Commandments placed in the rotunda of the state Supreme Court, in violation of a federal court order.

Part of the problem is the Alabama constitution itself – it’s the longest such document anywhere in the world. At 310,000 words, it is 40 times longer than the US constitution. With 745 amendments as of November 2, it is one of the most impenetrable. And since it was largely written to protect large landowners and disenfranchise recently freed slaves when it was first drafted during Reconstruction, it inherently runs counter to the egalitarian words common in the 21st century.

In the end, however, there is absolutely no excuse for a vote that retains “separate but equal” and the racist poll tax. There is a streak of racism that remains in the US and in the South – America is not unique in this. What is appalling is that the racists seem to be in the majority in Alabama. Alabama Christian Coalition President John Giles, whose group opposed the amendment, said he had no problem with racial equality but didn’t like the tax threat. Mr. Giles should be taken at his word, and judged by his future actions to get rid of the obscene racism in his state’s constitution. The whole world is watching, and so is Jesus.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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