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By Jack Smith
April 14, 2003

   Most of the civic-minded Barbour County residents who came to hear Dr. Wayne Flynt weren't surprised to hear how the 1901 Alabama Constitution-in Flynt's view at least-hampers progress in the state.

   They may not have known the story's roots reach back to Eufaula.

   "In a way this story begins in Eufaula, Alabama," Flynt said at Friday's forum, sponsored by the Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform, The Eufaula Tribune and the Eufaula/Barbour County Chamber of Commerce.

   Reuben Kolb of Eufaula was riding the crest of a Populist wave a few decades after the Civil War.

   As leader of the Populists, Kolb wanted "to try to change the course of tax and constitutional structure in this state," Flynt said.

   Kolb ran for governor twice. He lost both times. Or at least that's what history records.

   "He probably was elected governor twice," Flynt said, in 1892 and 1896.

   The Auburn University distinguished professor of history believes both elections were stolen.

   "I'm pretty convinced we actually won those gubernatorial elections."

   The landed gentry and the state's wealthy revolted against the Reconstruction era Republicans and the Populists in Alabama. Their property taxes had risen by 300 percent in years after the war.

   Property taxes soared because a tax on slaves that had funded government disappeared once President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

   "The one thing left to tax was property," Flynt said.

   As property taxes soared, "there was a howl in the 1870s."

   It was directed at the Republican Reconstruction government. Wealthy white Democrats wanted to control government, even though 46 percent of the state population was black.

   They wrote a new state constitution to limit property tax rates to seven mills, strip local governments of practically all their power and disenfranchise blacks and poor whites.

   They put forward a new constitution in 1901 that essentially stripped all blacks and poor whites of voting rights, turned back the surging Populist party and guaranteed that property taxes couldn't be raised to a level landowners didn't accept.

   The vision of the 1901 constitution, Flynt said, "was how can you disenfranchise the hordes of followers of Reuben Kolb from Eufaula, Alabama."

Fraudulent charter?

   In 54 of 66 counties, voters rejected the racist constitution.

   "It failed," Flynt said.

   Strangely, though, 12 counties in the Black Belt, with an overwhelming majority of black voters, gave supporters the margin they needed to ratify it-if one believes the results.

   "Almost every historian," Flynt says, "believes it was a fraudulently ratified constitution that would've been defeated if the vote had been fair."

   Flynt points to Lowndes County as proof the vote was probably rigged.

   There were 5,000 blacks and 1,000 whites in the county. They voted overwhelmingly in favor of ratifying a constitution that took away their right to vote.

   "They voted to disenfranchise themselves, if you believe the returns," Flynt said.

   Alabama's previous constitution had actually been quite liberal for the time. It allowed males 21 and older to vote, whether or not they owned land, could read or write or even if they didn't believe in God.
That all changed with the 1901 constitution.

   It only allowed citizens who owned 40 acres or at least $300 in other property to vote. It mandated a new $1.50 a year poll tax that most couldn't afford.

Citizenship denied

   "The right of citizenship was effectively denied because of the poll tax," Flynt said.

   Before the 1901 constitution was ratified, 181,000 blacks age 21 and older could vote. One year after its adoption, only 3,000 blacks could vote. The number of registered white males dropped, too, from 232,000 to 190,000.

   Voter turnout in the 1890s reached 80 percent. After the 1901 constitution, it fell to under 50 percent.

   The new state charter also "stripped local counties of all political power."

   Landowners who wanted to protect the status quo and didn't want new industry made it harder for the state to recruit any new businesses. The new constitution didn't allow local governments to offer incentives to lure industry like railroads.

Problems persist

   Flynt said the movement to reform Alabama's constitution has grown the past few years because of persistent problems linked to the 1901 charter. It's now the longest in the nation with 742 amendments. Most are local issues.

   Flynt said about 50 percent of the bills the Alabama Legislature considers every year deal only with one municipality or county, because the constitution doesn't allow limited home rule.

   As a result, the Legislature spends half its time on local issues, and local bills "clog the Legislature."

   "This is no way to run a modern state," Flynt said.

   The Auburn history professor also said the current stalemate in the state Senate may prevent important local issues that must first go through the Legislature from ever making it to local votes. In Shelby County, for example, leaders want to vote on a property tax increase because the schools are over-crowded due to explosive growth there.

   They may never get to vote on more money to build new classrooms, though.

   "It may very well not get through the state Senate, because the state Senate is blocking everything," Flynt said.

   Flynt says the Alabama constitution essentially disables county commissions and prevents them from acting on local issues like planning and zoning or economic development without constitutional amendments.

   "You might as well abolish the county commission," Flynt said.

Protecting status quo

   Flynt said his history students at Auburn are usually dumbfounded when they learn about the 1901 constitution, its fraudulent origins and how it hampers progress.

   "The typical reaction is, 'who did this?'"

   The answer?

   "People who have a stake in keeping it," Flynt said.

   That includes special interest groups like the Alabama Farmers Federation (ALFA) and large timber companies, many out of state, Flynt added.

The road to reform

   Flynt said the Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform, a grassroots organization, is helping educate the state about the need for reform.

   It could happen in one of three ways:

* An article-by-article rewrite by the Alabama Legislature

* A citizens' convention

* A "blue-ribbon" commission appointed by the governor and Legislature could draft a constitution could write a new constitution and submit it to the Legislature for approval

   He says ACCR prefers a convention.

   "I think it would be great," Flynt said. "It would open up democracy in the state."

   Flynt said ACCR recognizes a convention may never happen because of special interests and their control over Montgomery. That's why the group now only pushes broad criteria for reform. They want to ensure there's widespread representation among any group charged with rewriting the constitution, give counties some form of home rule and clean up the racist language in the 1901 constitution.

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