Our Future Dimmed by Yellow Paper?

MONTGOMERY -- “No real or permanent progress is possible in Alabama until the present fundamental law is thoroughly revised and adapted to meet present conditions.” Sound like a stump speech for a new state constitution?

It is—from 1915. Gov. Emmet O’Neal made that pitch to the Alabama Legislature on Jan. 15, 1915, hoping to drum up support for a new constitution. It didn’t work.

   Just 14 years old at the time, the constitution with its regressive tax structure and language that limits local government authority was already hindering state progress, its critics argued.

   Opined O’Neal in his 1915 speech to state lawmakers: “Many of the provisions...constitute insuperable barriers to most of the important reforms necessary to meet modern conditions and secure greater economy and efficiency in the administration of every department of the state government.”

    Nearly a century later, many politicians and an increasing number of citizens are again pushing for a new state constitution. They argue that the present one is outdated, cumbersome and burdened with provisions that have been either struck down by the courts or rendered moot through federal and state constitutional amendments.

   Bill O’Connor, president of the Business Council of Alabama, thinks the biggest selling point for a new constitution this time around—there were numerous unsuccessful attempts throughout the last century—is the need for home rule for local governments. Giving community leaders more authority would allow state lawmakers to focus on tougher, statewide matters, he said. “We spend a lot of time in Montgomery on issues that ought to be decided at city hall and in the courthouses. If legislators could devote more of their attention to the broader issues facing the people of this state, we could have a more progressive government.”

   One thing in favor of continuing with the Alabama constitution is, ironically, also one of its problems: its length. Because the document is too massive to be printed in any generally available source, most Alabamians have little familiarity with their state constitution. Several past constitutional reform efforts have been killed, largely by special interest groups that want to maintain their influence on state government. Some in state government warn that overhauling the constitution at once via a constitutional convention would be risky because those same special interests would take an active role in electing delegates.

   A wholesale rewrite also would be difficult because of the maze of laws, codes, constitutional amendments, allowances and restrictions that are all intertwined. Such skeptics usually hold the view that any revision should be done by the Legislature article-by-article.

   Said Sen. Lowell Barron, the Senate president pro tem, whose North Alabama district includes a piece of Madison County: “This constitution has been around 100 years, and I would not expect us to be able to revise it in a matter of weeks or months. It needs to be a slow process where we take it up article by article, have full deliberations, and then put it back out for a vote of the people.”

   Rep. Jack Page, D-Gadsden, said legislators, despite their interaction with special-interest lobbies, still must answer to their constituents.

   “Call us lawmakers,” he said, “but we’re representatives. We’re down here looking after the best interests of the people we represent. We were elected. Not anointed.”

   “Big Mama” as some described the Alabama constitution, is almost 40 times as long as the U.S. Constitution and 12 times as long as the average state constitution. It has been amended 664 times—each change requiring voter approval on county or statewide ballots. Most of those amendments in volve mundane matters such as whether a county can kill mosquitoes, allow bingo, regulate a hog farm or cut weeds. All these issues take up the time of state legislators who must deal with budgets, education, crime and environmental and social issues.

   Voters will soon see several new constitutional amendments on the ballots: a measure officially repealing the poll tax, which the 24th Amendment to the federal Constitution voided in the early 1960s; removing the ban on dueling and interracial marriages, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in the ‘60s. Rep. Chris Pringle, sponsor of the dueling and poll tax proposed amendments, said he hopes the latest proposed revisions will draw attention to the need for a new constitution. “It’s a way for me to continually put things before the Legislature, hoping they’ll realize, ŒWhy in the world are we dealing with that? Why is that in the constitution?’’ said Pringle, R-Mobile.

   Huntsville’s grassroots rally Tuesday will be one of several around the state to drum up public support for constitutional reform. Leadership Huntsville- Madison County, a local Chamber of Commerce affiliate, is sponsor. Tuscaloosa held a similar rally last month. A new foundation, headed by Samford University President Thomas Corts, is aimed at educating the public on why an overhaul is needed. O’Connor, of BCA, said the grassroots movement is real. “It is truly bubbling from the ground up,” he said. “It’s not a manufactured movement.”

   State Rep. Mac Gipson, a major proponent for a statewide constitutional convention, said more citizens and politicians would support a new constitution if they realized how much this one hampers progress. “I’m not a constitutional scholar,” he said. “I’m just a small businessman with a common-sense approach to business. I certainly wouldn’t manage my business with a plan my grandfather or great-grandfather adopted.”

   The House Elections Committee last month derailed a bill by Gipson, R-Prattville, calling for a constitutional convention. A similar measure was killed earlier by the committee. Freshman state Rep. Todd Greeson, sponsor of that measure, said legislative opponents to a citizen constitutional convention simply don’t want to give up control.

   “I think the biggest fear of the legislators is they don’t know what the delegates will do,” said Greeson, R-Ider. Rep. Johnny Curry, R-Hueytown, said legislators like having groups beholden to them and don’t want to relinquish that power. “A constitutional convention might decide to come with a unicameral body, or change the size of the Statehouse, or have different lengths of terms, limit terms, reduce pay, allow initiative and referendum,” said Curry, who also wants a constitutional convention.

   “All of those would definitely have a huge impact on the current members of the body. It’s human nature to not want those things that are beyond our reach.”

   Written largely by wealthy white landowners and industrialists, the constitution was artfully constructed to protect the interests of the state’s ruling class while relegating blacks and poor whites to a century of secondary status and perpetual conflict with each other.

   Wayne Flynt, history professor at Auburn University and an expert on Alabama’s constitution, noted that the 1901 constitution was preceded by two decades of political and economic strife between an alliance of black and white small farmers and workers against their planter-industrialist bosses. Populist insurgents had won control of many North Alabama counties and the Wiregrass and had twice elected their candidate governor, Flynt said, only to see the election both times stolen by powerful planter interests in the Black Belt. The 1901 rewrite came on the heels of a particularly heated power struggle in the 1890s, prompted by Gov. Joseph Johnston’s call for disenfranchisement as a way to rid voters who were a ”constant menace” to Alabama’s growth and the security of property.

   “The one democratic decision made in 1901 was allowing the populace to vote on the new constitution,” Flynt said in a recent interview. “And that was a near-fatal mistake” for its supporters. The final vote to ratify the 1901 constitution was 109,000 for and 82,000 against. But election returns in black-majority counties suggest ballot fraud. Twelve black-majority counties voted to ratify by a margin of 32,000 for to 5,000 against.

   “And in those 12 counties, more than half the vote to disenfranchise was cast by blacks, if we believe the numbers,” Flynt said.

   Lowndes County, for instance, with a population of 1,000 white and 5,600 black voters, cast 5,300 votes for ratification—and the document’s black disfranchisement—and 340 against. Outside those 12, the other 54 counties in Alabama voted 76,000 to 72,000 against ratification. “So not only was the 1901 constitution racist and undemocratic, it was also fraudulently enacted,” Flynt said.

Return to: A State Buried in Paper, Introduction

Next: ‘The Negro Problem’

Reprinted with Permission from The Huntsville Times.

Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 34
Montgomery, Alabama 36101-0034

E-mail: accr@constitutionalreform.org

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Our future dimmed by yellow paper? By John Peck Critics of state constitution say it makes progress impossible. The Huntsville Times, Friday, May 12, 2000
MONTGOMERY -- “No real or permanent progress is possible in Alabama until the present fundamental law is thoroughly revised and adapted to meet present conditions.” Sound like a stump speech for a new state constitution? It is—from 1915. Gov. Emmet O’Neal made that pitch to the Alabama Legislature on Jan. 15, 1915, hoping to drum up support for a new constitution. It didn’t work. Just 14 years old at the time, the constitution with its regressive tax structure and language that limits local government authority was already hindering state progress, its critics argued. Opined O’Neal in his 1915 speech to state lawmakers: “Many of the provisions...constitute insuperable barriers to most of the important reforms necessary to meet modern conditions and secure greater economy and efficiency in the administration of every department of the state government.” Nearly a century later, many politicians and an increasing number of citizens are again pushing for a new state constitution. They argue that the present one is outdated, cumbersome and burdened with provisions that have been either struck down by the courts or rendered moot through federal and state constitutional amendments. Bill O’Connor, president of the Business Council of Alabama, thinks the biggest selling point for a new constitution this time around—there were numerous unsuccessful attempts throughout the last century—is the need for home rule for local governments. Giving community leaders more authority would allow state lawmakers to focus on tougher, statewide matters, he said. “We spend a lot of time in Montgomery on issues that ought to be decided at city hall and in the courthouses. If legislators could devote more of their attention to the broader issues facing the people of this state, we could have a more progressive government.” One thing in favor of continuing with the Alabama constitution is, ironically, also one of its problems: its length. Because the document is too massive to be printed in any generally available source, most Alabamians have little familiarity with their state constitution. Several past constitutional reform efforts have been killed, largely by special interest groups that want to maintain their influence on state government. Some in state government warn that overhauling the constitution at once via a constitutional convention would be risky because those same special interests would take an active role in electing delegates. A wholesale rewrite also would be difficult because of the maze of laws, codes, constitutional amendments, allowances and restrictions that are all intertwined. Such skeptics usually hold the view that any revision should be done by the Legislature article-by-article. Said Sen. Lowell Barron, the Senate president pro tem, whose North Alabama district includes a piece of Madison County: “This constitution has been around 100 years, and I would not expect us to be able to revise it in a matter of weeks or months. It needs to be a slow process where we take it up article by article, have full deliberations, and then put it back out for a vote of the people.” Rep. Jack Page, D-Gadsden, said legislators, despite their interaction with special-interest lobbies, still must answer to their constituents. “Call us lawmakers,” he said, “but we’re representatives. We’re down here looking after the best interests of the people we represent. We were elected. Not anointed.” “Big Mama” as some described the Alabama constitution, is almost 40 times as long as the U.S. Constitution and 12 times as long as the average state constitution. It has been amended 664 times—each change requiring voter approval on county or statewide ballots. Most of those amendments in volve mundane matters such as whether a county can kill mosquitoes, allow bingo, regulate a hog farm or cut weeds. All these issues take up the time of state legislators who must deal with budgets, education, crime and environmental and social issues. Voters will soon see several new constitutional amendments on the ballots: a measure officially repealing the poll tax, which the 24th Amendment to the federal Constitution voided in the early 1960s; removing the ban on dueling and interracial marriages, which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in the ‘60s. Rep. Chris Pringle, sponsor of the dueling and poll tax proposed amendments, said he hopes the latest proposed revisions will draw attention to the need for a new constitution. “It’s a way for me to continually put things before the Legislature, hoping they’ll realize, ŒWhy in the world are we dealing with that? Why is that in the constitution?’’ said Pringle, R-Mobile. Huntsville’s grassroots rally Tuesday will be one of several around the state to drum up public support for constitutional reform. Leadership Huntsville- Madison County, a local Chamber of Commerce affiliate, is sponsor. Tuscaloosa held a similar rally last month. A new foundation, headed by Samford University President Thomas Corts, is aimed at educating the public on why an overhaul is needed. O’Connor, of BCA, said the grassroots movement is real. “It is truly bubbling from the ground up,” he said. “It’s not a manufactured movement.” State Rep. Mac Gipson, a major proponent for a statewide constitutional convention, said more citizens and politicians would support a new constitution if they realized how much this one hampers progress. “I’m not a constitutional scholar,” he said. “I’m just a small businessman with a common-sense approach to business. I certainly wouldn’t manage my business with a plan my grandfather or great-grandfather adopted.” The House Elections Committee last month derailed a bill by Gipson, R-Prattville, calling for a constitutional convention. A similar measure was killed earlier by the committee. Freshman state Rep. Todd Greeson, sponsor of that measure, said legislative opponents to a citizen constitutional convention simply don’t want to give up control. “I think the biggest fear of the legislators is they don’t know what the delegates will do,” said Greeson, R-Ider. Rep. Johnny Curry, R-Hueytown, said legislators like having groups beholden to them and don’t want to relinquish that power. “A constitutional convention might decide to come with a unicameral body, or change the size of the Statehouse, or have different lengths of terms, limit terms, reduce pay, allow initiative and referendum,” said Curry, who also wants a constitutional convention. “All of those would definitely have a huge impact on the current members of the body. It’s human nature to not want those things that are beyond our reach.” Written largely by wealthy white landowners and industrialists, the constitution was artfully constructed to protect the interests of the state’s ruling class while relegating blacks and poor whites to a century of secondary status and perpetual conflict with each other. Wayne Flynt, history professor at Auburn University and an expert on Alabama’s constitution, noted that the 1901 constitution was preceded by two decades of political and economic strife between an alliance of black and white small farmers and workers against their planter-industrialist bosses. Populist insurgents had won control of many North Alabama counties and the Wiregrass and had twice elected their candidate governor, Flynt said, only to see the election both times stolen by powerful planter interests in the Black Belt. The 1901 rewrite came on the heels of a particularly heated power struggle in the 1890s, prompted by Gov. Joseph Johnston’s call for disenfranchisement as a way to rid voters who were a ”constant menace” to Alabama’s growth and the security of property. “The one democratic decision made in 1901 was allowing the populace to vote on the new constitution,” Flynt said in a recent interview. “And that was a near-fatal mistake” for its supporters. The final vote to ratify the 1901 constitution was 109,000 for and 82,000 against. But election returns in black-majority counties suggest ballot fraud. Twelve black-majority counties voted to ratify by a margin of 32,000 for to 5,000 against. “And in those 12 counties, more than half the vote to disenfranchise was cast by blacks, if we believe the numbers,” Flynt said. Lowndes County, for instance, with a population of 1,000 white and 5,600 black voters, cast 5,300 votes for ratification—and the document’s black disfranchisement—and 340 against. Outside those 12, the other 54 counties in Alabama voted 76,000 to 72,000 against ratification. “So not only was the 1901 constitution racist and undemocratic, it was also fraudulently enacted,” Flynt said. Return to: A State Buried in Paper, Introduction Next: ‘The Negro Problem’ Reprinted with Permission from The Huntsville Times.
Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform Foundation, Inc. P.O. Box 34 Montgomery, Alabama 36101-0034 E-mail: accr@constitutionalreform.org
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