Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - Bibb Graves, the education governor

  Most states have one General Fund Budget. We are only one of five states that have two.

  Some of you have asked why we have two budgets – one for the General Fund and one for Education. Here is why.

  During the era of the Great Depression and even afterward, education in Alabama was woefully underfunded, and that is really being generous to simply say underfunded. Our schools were similar to those of a third-world country. We had two separate systems, one for white students and one for black students. Many rural schools were one-room shanties like folks used in the 1800s, like "blab" schools - no air conditioning and wood-burning stoves for heat. There were no buses to transport children, so they really did walk to school - barefoot - many times miles to and from. This was for the white schools. You can only imagine what an abysmal education was afforded to black kids. Many times teachers were not even being paid. They were given script notes in hopes of getting paid in the future.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - George Wallace stories

  I became acquainted with Governor George Wallace when I was a young page in the Alabama Legislature.  

  I was elected to the legislature in 1982. Ironically, my district was comprised of my home county of Pike and also the portion of Barbour County that was Wallace’s home, including Clayton and Clio.

The past that Alabama chooses to honor says a lot about us

  When you come out from under the rusty monoliths inscribed with the names of lynching victims and the counties that bear the guilt of their deaths at Montgomery’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice, you come to another set of monoliths lying on the ground.

  They’re duplicates of what you’ve just seen. The Equal Justice Initiative, which runs the memorial, has offered them to each American county where a lynching took place. It’s a reminder that the past lines our paths and runs beneath our feet.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - Legislator votes to abolish his own county

  Our Alabama Constitution is very antiquated. One of the flaws inherent in the document is that it does not allow local county governments much authority or power.

  Therefore, the county governments must channel most changes or actions into local acts, which must be advertised in their local paper for four weeks and then taken to the Alabama Legislature to be enacted.  Thus, the entire state legislature has to act on a local bill for Fayette County that might involve something as mundane as whether to pave a road or buy a tractor.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Governor Jim Folsom Jr. has a legacy

  Our Alabama Public Television system was one of the first public television networks in the nation. Today it is one of the best. They continue to produce premiere documentaries, especially surrounding Alabama history.

  Under the auspices of director/producers Pete Conroy and Seth Johnson, they are set to release “A Legacy of Progress. The Jim Folsom Jr. Story.” The premiere of the documentary on Folsom will be February 27 at the Stone Center at Jacksonville State University, Folsom’s alma mater, and a second will be on March 6 at the Hoover Library. 

Sketches #1962: We must remember Jimmie Lee Jackson

  We must remember Jimmie Lee Jackson. He is a critical force in our history. He is a key reason we celebrate and commemorate the Bridge Crossing Jubilee. Let me tell you about Jimmie Lee Jackson. We must remember Jimmie Lee.

  It was February 18, 1965. Rev. James of Orange of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was in the Perry County Jail in Marion, Alabama. The word was out that the Ku Klux Klan intended to get him out of jail late at night and murder him. The local voting rights movement leaders called a night mass meeting and a rare night march. Marches were very dangerous in the daytime and even more dangerous at night. We must remember Jimmie Lee.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Siegelman shows Fob the door

  Old Fob James had an unusual political personality. When he was out of the governor’s office, he showed a tremendous yearning to get back. The proof is that he sought the office in 1986 and lost in the Democratic primary and lost again in 1990 in the primary. However, he came back and won in 1994 as a Republican. However, once he got the job, he acted as if he did not want it.

  James set a new standard for alienating his friends and supporters during his first term.

Steve Flowers: Inside The Statehouse: The end of old fashioned retail politics in Alabama

  I have a cadre of political friends around the state with whom I love to visit and talk politics. We swap stories of old campaigns and reminisce about tidbits of tales of Big Jim Folsom, George Wallace, Howell Heflin, and other legendary icons, and we even embellish them a bit.

  Recently, we have lamented how politics has changed. In the old days, Wallace and Folsom would go from town to town with a country band and make 15 speeches a day, shake as many as 1000 hands daily, and look folks squarely in the eye and ask them for their vote.

Seve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - The Free State of Winston

  When Alabama was being settled in the early 1800s, our first settlers were diverse in their origins. Our river regions were the most desirable lands. Indeed this is where the Indians lived. They realized the importance of water and the abundant fishing for their sustenance besides the natural advantage offered by these waters. The river basins also offered the most fertile soil for cultivation.

Alabama as a rage room

  You probably know what a rage room is. People fork over cash and spend time destroying household items like dishes and furniture cabinets.

  They’re marketed as stress relief. But getting violent isn’t a path toward tranquility. It just encourages you to be violent.

  Smash a plate or a teacup or a TV as much as you want. It might feel like you’ve released something. But that’s not calm. It’s a fleeting sense of power, easily confused with catharsis.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - 1948 was the only year political party leadership mattered in Alabama

 All politics is now nationally party-driven in most of the country and definitely in Alabama.  Alabama is a one-party state when it comes to national and state general elections. For about 80 years, we were a one-party Democratic state. For the past 60 years, we have become a one-party Republican state in presidential elections.

  Republican candidates are always going to win state offices in Alabama, and the Republican nominee is always going to carry Alabama. It is because of the philosophy of the two parties regarding national affairs. All politics are national. 

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - The Shorty Price story

  Since this is Alabama vs. Tennessee week, allow me to share the story of Shorty Price.

  Alabama has had its share of what I call “run for the fun of it” gubernatorial candidates. The most colorful of all these perennial “also ran” candidates was Ralph “Shorty” Price. He ran for governor every time. His slogan was “Smoke Tampa Nugget cigars, drink Budweiser beer, and vote for Shorty Price.”

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - Frank Johnson and the legend of the Free State of Winston

  Those of us who are Baby Boomers remember the tumultuous times of the 1960s. We lived through the Civil Rights revolution. Those of us who grew up here in the Heart of Dixie witnessed the transpiring of racial integration firsthand. Most of the crusades and struggles occurred here in Alabama, especially in Montgomery.

  A good many of the landmark Civil Rights court decisions were handed down in the Federal Court in Montgomery. The author and renderer of these epic rulings was Frank M. Johnson, Jr., who served as the federal judge in the Middle District of Alabama for 24 years from 1955 through 1979.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse – Alabama’s 1940s congressional delegation

   Recently I came across a copy of an old congressional directory from 1942. It is always fun for me to read about this era in American political history.

  Franklin Delano Roosevelt was first elected in 1932 in the depths of the Great Depression. He would go on to be reelected in 1936, 1940, and 1944 and would have been reelected into perpetuity. However, he died in Warm Springs, Georgia in April of 1945, only four months into his fourth term. He was the closest thing we Americans have ever had to having a king. Nobody has or ever will serve four terms as president. After FDR's omnipotent reign, the U.S. Constitution was changed to limit our presidents to two four-year terms.

Want better voter turnout? Ditch the 1901 Alabama Constitution

  Lots of Alabamians don’t vote.

  And it’s hard to blame them.

  As Ralph Chapoco reported August 6, about 4 out of every 10 eligible Alabamians don’t vote for president. And when it comes to choosing our state leaders, 6 out of every 10 voters (and sometimes more) take a pass.

  There are many reasons for this. But they all originate in our state government.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Squatlow and the Cuban Missile Crisis

  Fall is my favorite time of year, and October is my favorite month. The pristine air, glorious foliage, and football season are enthralling. Every October, I think of a traumatic experience for our nation. It was 62 years ago this month that the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred. I remember it like it was yesterday. It appeared imminent that we were headed for a nuclear holocaust.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Fobbed again

  When Guy Hunt won the governor’s race over Bill Baxley in 1986, it was well publicized that he was a part-time Primitive Baptist preacher. He was also billed as a part-time Amway salesman. These common man vocations appealed to the average Alabama voter. It was Hunt’s calling as a Baptist preacher that resonated warmly with his constituency. Alabamians are very religious and very Baptist.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - Population and political power now rests in north Alabama

  Growing up as a teenager in the 1960s, I served as a page in the Alabama Legislature. One day when I was around 13 years old, I was looking around the House of Representatives and it occurred to me that north Alabama, as well as the state’s largest county, Jefferson, was vastly underrepresented. Even at that early age, I knew that the U.S. Constitution required that all people be represented equally and that the U.S. Constitution superseded our state constitution. Both Constitutions clearly state that the U.S. House of Representatives and the Alabama House of Representatives must be reapportioned every 10 years, and the representation should be based on one man, one vote. In other words, all districts should be equally apportioned. That is why the census is taken every ten years.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - Negative ads work and always have

  Over the years, many of you have said to me, “I am so tired of seeing all negative ads with candidates lambasting each other in political campaigns. Why don’t candidates say what they are going to do when they are elected rather than bashing their opponent mercilessly?”  People also suggest that campaigns are more negative today than in bygone years. Allow me to answer the question in the reverse order.  

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - Lister Hill, one of Alabama greatest U.S. Senators

  We had a very distinguished congressional delegation from Alabama during the 30-year-span of 1934-1964. The congressmen from the Heart of Dixie appeared to be born to serve in Congress. Their pedigrees were all similar. They had pretty much been born and raised in the town that they would eventually represent in Congress. Almost all of them had gone to the University of Alabama for their education, and most had graduated from Alabama’s Law School. While at the Capstone, most had been members of Greek fraternities.