Alabama Will Vote on Removing Racist Phrases From State Constitution for the Third Time in 20 Years

By Joe Jurado, theroot.com

Hopefully, the third time is the charm for a measure to remove racist language from Alabama’s state constitution.

WRBL reports that an effort to “recompile” Alabama’s constitution is currently underway, with a measure to authorize lawmakers to do so on the state’s ballot this year. This is the third such effort to happen in the state, with prior efforts failing in 2004 and 2012, respectively. This time, the measure has bipartisan support, and any organized opposition has yet to appear in the lead-up to the election.

Alabama Capitol Building Photo: LightInThisWorld (Shutterstock)

“What we are trying to do with this small measure is to bring the Alabama Constitution into the 21st century and be more reflective of who we are as a state now,” Rep. Merika Coleman, one of the sponsors of the measure, told WRBL.

The Alabama constitution was designed around the tenets of Jim Crow as a way to make white supremacy the law. So poll taxes are cool, interracial marriages aren’t, and you already know schools are segregated.

Now obviously, each of those things has been gradually struck down in the almost 120 years since the Alabama constitution was ratified, with the measure being more symbolic than anything. The legislation will allow lawmakers to clean up the document by removing the racist language as well as any duplicate sections.

This should be an easy lay-up, but this is America, and even trying to fix racist sentences comes with a fight.

Read the full article here.

Learn more about Jim Crow laws and its lasting effects here.

More Breaking News here.