VOTING FOR YESTERYEAR: ALABAMA DREAMIN'

By Mumia Abu-Jamal

[Col.Writ. 12/9/04]

Much has been written and said about the recent elections; about the 'values' driving certain segments of the nation to the polls.

Hidden in the steamy land of Alabama, voters were poised to begin the 21st century by voting to repeal a part of the state's constitution that dated back to the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education case. Shortly after Brown was decided, ordering desegregation in the nation's public schools, political leaders in Alabama moved to enact new amendments to the Constitution, which starkly opposed the Supreme Court decision. The Amendments read as follows:

Separate schools shall be provided for white and colored children, and no child of either race shall be permitted to attend a school of the other race.

To avoid confusion and disorder and to promote effective and economical planning for education, the legislature may authorize the parents or guardians of minors, who desire that such minors shall attend schools provided for their own race, to make election to that end, such election to be effective for such period and to such extent as the legislature may provide.

But nothing in this Constitution shall be construed as creating or recognizing any right to education or training at public expense, nor as limiting the authority and duty of the legislature in furthering or providing for education, to require conditions or procedures deemed necessary to the preservation of peace and order.

The voters were asked to repeal this obviously unconstitutional and indeed, racist language from Alabama's state constitution, by voting for Amendment 2. According to Alabaman press reports, 1.38 million votes were cast either for, or against Amendment 2, and the opponents, led by former state Supreme Court Chief Justice, Roy Moore, won the day, by 1,850 votes.

That means what you have just heard, essentially legalizing racial segregation, is still a part of Alabama's Constitution!

Under Alabama law, any vote margin less than 1/2 of 1 percent activates an automatic recount. No matter the result of the recount, that it could win at all, in November, 2004, gives us deep insights into the thinking of some of the modern American electorate.

While opponents of the repeal charged that it would open the door to new, higher taxes for education by what Justice Moore and his followers called "left-wing judges", many believe it really reflects what it seems to reflect -- deep and abiding racist feelings in the hearts of white Alabamans towards their Black fellow citizens (I mean, c'mon, how many 'left-wing judges' do you think are in Alabama? Two?). Of course, this is but one state, a relatively poor, (only 7 states have a lower per capita personal income. Alabama: $22.946), southern state, but how many of us would have predicted that such a repeal of such an overtly unlawful constitutional amendment would have lost in 2004?

There is, within the American soul, a deep wish to go back to the old days, often called the 'good ole days', when things were not good for millions of people born in this land. Feelings such as these no doubt fueled the vote for George W. Bush, as well as other conservatives. This viewpoint, which is at the heart of white nationalism, longs for a mythic, halcyon past; a past of whiteness. We don't like to admit this these days, but it is the truth. We are supposed to be living in a 'color-blind' society, where race does not matter, and we all enjoy the same rights, immunities and privileges.

The great W.E.B. DuBois, in (one of) his classic(s), Black Reconstruction (1935), wrote about the American predilection to rewrite history with nice, sweet lies:

One is astonished in the study of history at the recurrence of the idea that evil must be forgotten, distorted, skimmed over. We must not remember that Daniel Webster got drunk but only remember that he was a splendid constitutional lawyer. We must forget that George Washington was a slave owner... and simply remember the things we regard as creditable and inspiring. The difficulty, of course, with this philosophy is that history loses its value as an incentive and example; it paints perfect men and noble nations, but it does not tell the truth.

We should not be surprised at what happened in Alabama. It is but an echo of our history

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