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Here are some of the thwarted efforts
to win a replacement for the 1901 Alabama Constitution:
• The constitution is only 14 years old, but Gov. Emmet O’Neal
calls for a new one as he leaves office.
• Gov. Thomas Kilby says Alabama needs another constitution, but
as in the case with O’Neal, his call comes late in his term. The
constitution will survive him.
• A Brookings Institution report suggests that Alabama write a
new constitution. Alabama, however, has been made destitute by the Depression
and politicians are consumed with the financial crisis.
• Jim Folsom’s election as governor sets the stage for him
to seek a constitution that would knock down voting barriers and reapportion
the Legislature. He has political fights aplenty, and this is one fight
that he loses.
• Elected again, Folsom again gets nowhere in trying for a constitutional
convention. The state, obsessed anew with maintaining segregation, fears
change.
• Legislators give the new governor, Albert Brewer, a commission
to study a new constitution. The commission report emerges in 1973,
but Brewer is no longer governor.
• A committee formed at the urging of Gov. Fob James prepares a
new constitution for legislators to consider. Senators accept it, but
the revised constitution dies in the House. Lobbyists have worked hard
to protect their interestgroup clients. James goes on to other issues
in the remainder of his term.
• A modernized constitution advanced by Lt. Gov. Bill Baxley and
legislative allies is supposed to be decided by voters in November.
The state Supreme Court blocks the vote, ruling that the Legislature
could not place the wholesale revision on the ballot as a single amendment.
Return to: The
Legacy of Misplaced Power - Contents
Next: No Easing of Amendment Rat Race
Reprinted with Permission from the Mobile Register.
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