Get 'em Wayne!

Professor Wayne Flynt, my old advisor, the dean of Alabama historians, and long a voice of reform in his state and region, is leading an effort to overturn the Alabama Constitution. Ratified by a tainted constitutional convention in 1901, this constitution not only disfranchised African American men, but also placed city and county governments at the mercy of the state legislature. Alabama's is the nation's longest state constitution --longer, Wayne says, than Moby Dick and The Bible -- and has over 800 amendments. This is because any time a county needs to pass a law of local interest -- almost as minor as naming a street -- they often must propose a constitutional amendment which voters across the state must ratify. It also enshrines a tax system that places the public burden on the poor and propertyless.

You can read the lawsuit, Wayne's statement, and hear an NPR interview with him here.

I have known about his efforts for years, but read about these recent developments today on the Cliopatria blog of the History News Network, a great resource.

Get'em Wayne!

Obama and the Lessons of History

There seems to be something of a movement among professional historians and other scholars to teach President Obama the lessons of history. More specifically, there have been a number of op-eds which have sought to point out historical lessons to apply to governing. One example is this essay by David T. Beito and Jonathan Bean which offers the new president lessons from Booker T. Washington. Others have used FDR, Lincoln, Churchill, the Great Depression, and countless other subjects to offer Obama historical insight into the myriad of tasks before him. If he read all these, he might not have time to do his job. I find this interesting. I agree that it is important to learn the lessons of history, but which lessons? Identifying the right lessons is at least as important as selecting a topic that might have contemporary significance. I'm still thinking about this...

Lincoln and Obama

The Presidential campaign and the inauguration were alive with reference to the Lincoln legacy. The train trip retracing Lincoln's journey to Washington, the rhetorical references, and the constant comparison in the press between Lincoln and Obama. In the days leading up to the election, the First Family even made a nighttime visit to the Lincoln Memorial, an act that seemed to solidify the link between the two men from Illinois. In the New York Times, Henry Louis Gates and John Stauffer offer an interesting op-ed speculating on what Lincoln might think about a black president. Interesting and thought-provoking.

The Culmination of the Dream?

In a piece in Newsweek, historian David Garrow notes that, in the rush to make President Obama's inauguration the fulfillment of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream, the new administration and the media ignore that King moved well beyond voting rights in his quest for equality. Will we see anyone beat the drum for full social and economic justice? That's a much harder dream to realize, something King knew all too well.

An Anniversary of a Forgotten Amendment

In the lead-up to President Obama's historic inauguration, the media has plumbed the depths of civil rights movement history to point out how far America has come in the quest for racial equality. The president retraced Lincoln's train route on his way to the capital and Rev. Joseph Lowry took the podium after the inaugural address and preached a sermon of a benediction, as only an old Civil Rights preacher can, about how far we have come and how far we have to go in the quest for equality. ABC News even unearthed an old BBC interview with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. predicting the election of an African American president. The ghosts of the civil rights movement were certainly felt from the election to the inauguration.

But, an anniversary seems to have been missed as the media and the new administration strummed the mystic chords of memory. On January 23, 1964, the 24th Amendment gained ratification. Most Americans probably can't name six of the top ten amendments, so it's easy to understand why one so far down the list has escaped attention. The 24th Amendment outlawed the poll tax, an institution designed in the wake of Reconstruction to strip the right to vote away from African American men in the South. Now, you might say, the 15th Amendment gave African American men the right to vote. Right you are, but there are rights and then there are rights. After Reconstruction, southern states began to enact voting restrictions as soon as federal authorities turned their attentions elsewhere.The tax, however minimal it may have been, created an artificial barrier between the citizen and his right to vote. The poll tax, as part of a package of nasty and ingenious state voting requirements, effectively ended African American voter participation in the South until the 1960s. But the 24th Amendment ended the practice, and Congress soon followed with the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, both of which sought to extend political and social equality to every American, Nevertheless, the 24th Amendment remains something of a forgotten landmark of the civil rights movement. So 45 years (minus three days) after it became unconstitutional to use a tax to limit voting rights, our first African American president takes office. Powerful stuff. We all know that for President Obama, the hard stuff comes after the band packs up at the inaugural ball. But at a time of political transition, it is right and proper to pause and reflect.

How far have we come? All or part of eighteen states are still federally supervised under the Voting Rights Act so as to protect the rights of individual voters. In the last few years, Congress has considered getting out of the voter protection business, but President Bush signed a 25-year extension of the Act in 2006. Nothing is more fundamental to a democracy than the free exercise of voting rights. Hopefully, President Obama and his allies in Congress will make it their business to ensure that our American freedoms continue to be freely exercised. The anniversary of the 24th Amendment occurring the same week as President Obama goes to Washington reminds us that our rights are only as good as the willingness of leaders to guarantee them. And, that bad things can happen when our leaders turn a blind eye to the protection of every American's civil rights.

PTI and Politics

Here's an interesting op-ed written by a friend of mine about the media's fixation on presenting two sides of every issue (as if there are only two sides). Take a read.