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Thomas Spencer
October 17, 2002

MARION — This November, voters statewide will decide on a constitutional amendment to allow members of the sheep and goat industry to pool their money for a program to promote their industry. It's one of 33 amendments that could be added to Alabama's Constitution, which is believed to be the world's longest constitutional document.

   On Wednesday, Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform kicked off a statewide bus tour hoping to rally support for a new constitution, one that would throw the current constitution into the dustbin of history. More immediately, the tour will call attention to an amendment on the ballot requiring that any new constitution, whether drafted by the Legislature or by a convention, be submitted to a vote of the people.

   Auburn University history professor Wayne Flynt told an audience of about 100 high school and college students gathered in Judson College's auditorium that Alabama's Constitution has been remarkably effective in its negative aims.

   First, it stripped blacks and poor whites of voting rights, kept taxes low and concentrated power in Montgomery. Federal intervention restored voting rights, but the constitution's limits on taxation have kept Alabama's taxes the lowest per person in the nation. Its limits on local control still force local governments to seek constitutional amendments to make even basic changes. The constitution has been amended more than 700 times.

   "There has never been a more successful constitution than this one," Flynt said. While reminding his predominately black audience of the racist aims of the 1901 constitution, Flynt told the students not to fixate on the past, but to look toward the future.

   Flynt quoted his father, saying, "You cannot plow a straight furrow if you're always looking back over your shoulder to see where you've come from."

   The bus tour arrives in Birmingham today for a 6:30 p.m. rally at Homewood Public Library. The tour culminates in Montgomery on Nov. 4th.

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