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.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - Big Jim’s run for congress

  We're continuing with the saga of Alabama’s most colorful governor, the legendary Big Jim Folsom. 

  Jim Folsom, Jr. shared a story about his father’s early political life.

  Big Jim always knew that he wanted to go into politics, so he jumped right in. His hometown of Elba in Coffee County was in the sprawling old third congressional district which encompassed the southeastern part of the state. It was referred to as the “Wiregrass” district.