Steve Flowers: George Wallace stories
A good many of you enjoyed the George Wallace story I shared with you a few weeks ago. Allow me to reminisce and share two more funny Wallace-era stories. I became acquainted with Governor Wallace when I was a young Page in the 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. Gov. Wallace thought that was the most remarkable story that he had first met me as a 12-year-old Page, and now 20 years later, I was his representative. He would often ask me to come down to his office, and he would reminisce and tell me stories. He would always begin with the remembrance of my having been a “Page boy” when we first met. He had aged prematurely and was confined to a wheelchair due to having been shot running for president. Therefore, on our visits, he would tell me the same stories over and over. Well, one day, I was visiting, and he told me the same stories. He then stopped and got a faraway nostalgic look on his face and looked at me intently, and asked, “Steve, how old are you now?” I said, “Governor, I am 32 years old. I am grown and your representative,” He replied, “Huh. I guess I’ve been governor all your life.” He had indeed been governor most of the 20 years between my 12th and 32nd birthdays. My reply was, “Yes, sir. I guess you will be governor all my life.” I will share another story that I remember well with you. Since I was Gov. Wallace’s Representative, he had made me a Floor Leader. As I mentioned earlier, he had known me since I was 12 years old and a page in the Legislature during his first term as Governor. My relationship gave me access to him, so one Fall day, I ambled down to the Governor’s office. I walked into the office, and the secretary whisked me back to his office pretty quickly. They said he would love to visit with me as he was not having a good day with his health and would like to reminisce with me about his younger days and first term. It would cheer him up. Well, he seemed to be in good spirits when I went in, and he had his ever-present cigar in the corner of his mouth. Wallace’s health had deteriorated badly from the effects of the bullet wounds he had endured, and his hearing was really bad because he had been assigned to work around airplanes during World War II. My mission that day was to get $10,000 out of his Discretionary Fund for the Pike Pioneer Museum in my district. He controlled all of the extra pork money we appropriated, so we had to see the Governor for our pet project money. I knew we had put money into the tourism budget for projects like my museum. After listening to his story about politics and earlier days, I got down to business. He led in by asking, “Steve, what did you want today?” I had to shout so Wallace could hear and began by selling the fact that my Pioneer Museum was located on a well-traveled four-lane highway which was a corridor and travel route for northerners traveling to the beaches for their winter escape, and that they would stop at our museum and spend tourist money in Alabama. Therefore, $10,000 of tourism funds for my museum was a wise stewardship of Alabama taxpayer money. Wallace still seemed like he did not hear me well, so I almost shouted that we were catching the snowbirds as they traveled north or south. I had just heard the term snowbird and was loudly and proudly using it. Well, Wallace had not heard the term, but he heard me and said, “Steve, what kinds of birds are y’all catching down in Pike County?” I knew he was confused so I dropped my snowbird terminology and said, “Governor, we have a lot of Yankees that come through Pike County and we want to stop them at our museum and get them to spend tourist dollars.” He looked even more puzzled and looked at me aghast and said, “Steve, what in the world are y’all doing to the Yankees down there in Pike County?” The poor fellow thought I was asking for money to set up a speed trap of some sort for unsuspecting Yankees traveling through Alabama. He finally gave me the money for the museum, but I still think he was a little concerned about how it was going to be spent. See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
Steve Flowers: George Wallace, political genius and legislative master
As the Regular Legislative Session evolves, I recall years past when George Wallace was governor. George Wallace was definitely a political genius and a master of the legislative process. You might say that he was so successful because he had a lot of experience with being governor and dealing with the legislature. That is true, but it went deeper than that. He worked at it. During my 16 years in the legislature, Wallace was in a league by himself. My first term was 1982 and Governor Wallace was serving his last term as governor. He treated legislators like kings. It did not matter who was in his office, if you were a member of the legislature and you needed to see the Governor about something for your district, he would drop everything and usher you into his office and do anything he could to address your concern or district needs. I had known Gov. Wallace since I was a young page. One day I went down unannounced without an appointment and his secretary told him I was outside. The next thing I knew the door opened and Wallace told me to come in. He had about six Japanese diplomats in his office, who were prospective industrial prospects. He asked if I wanted to ask them to leave so we could meet privately. I said, “No, Governor, that’s not necessary, I’ll be glad to come back.” He said, “Okay,” but insisted on my staying while they visited. I sat down and he began telling the poor Japanese fellows that I had been a page when I was a little boy and he was in his first term as governor and that now I was his representative since I represented his hometown of Clayton, and he told them who he was kin to in my county and who I was kin to in south Alabama. I’m sure they were amused. Who couldn’t help but vote with a guy who gave a lowly member of the House that kind of attention and deference? At other times he would call my home at supper time and talk for about 30 minutes about a certain bill he was interested in. He would continue to talk long after I had already told him I would vote with him on his issue. He would tell me to put my two daughters on the phone; they were little at the time, but in his uncanny ability to remember names, he would call them by name and say, “Steve, let me talk to Ginny and let me say hello to little Allyson.” He was amazing. He loved to talk on the phone. He would also constantly have legislators out to the Governor’s Mansion for supper. We would eat supper with the governor more than with the lobbyists. He knew your district, your family and relatives and what committee you served on, and which program and roads you were interested in. The only thing he did not know was what time you went to bed because he might call you at 6:00 at suppertime or he might call you at midnight when you were asleep. He knew how to manipulate the legislature better than anyone. One day he had a group of legislators in his office trying to get them to vote with him. His secretary interrupted him to tell him Vice President Walter Mondale was on the phone. The legislators sat quietly while George talked to the vice president for a few minutes and took care of whatever business they had. Mondale hung up. Wallace pretended to listen a while longer and said, “Look, Mr. Vice President, I’d like to talk to you some more, but I’ve got a group of representatives and senators in here and I really don’t have time.” All the legislators started whispering, “No, Governor, don’t do that. Don’t hang up on the Vice President. We can wait.” But George just kept on talking, “I really appreciate your asking for my help, Mr. Vice President,” he said, “but I’m hanging up now. I’ve got enough problems here in the state of Alabama. I just can’t solve the world’s problems for you. I’ve got to talk to these legislators about a problem we’ve got in the legislature.” He then hung up the phone. By that time, those legislators were so impressed at how they were more important than the vice president of the United States that George could have gotten anything he wanted from them, and he did. See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
Steve Flowers: Birmingham’s political inside man
Historically, political power in the state has rested in the rural counties. Birmingham has been the home of the “Big Mules,” where the money that fueled the gubernatorial campaigns came from, but very few Birmingham politicians have ascended to governor or U.S. Senator. Counties like Barbour and Cullman have been where governors are bred, not imperial Jefferson. Indeed, the small-town boys that ran for governor would demagogue and make fun of and run against the “Big Mules” of the Magic City, especially the village of Mountain Brook. Therefore, the legendary kingmakers in the state were the probate judges in the rural counties throughout the Heart of Dixie. The giants of Alabama political lore, Big Jim Folsom and George Wallace, won their races in the rural counties. They would run against the “got rocks,” Big Mules and silk-stocking Mountain Brook and Over the Mountain elite, so it was not surprising that Wallace nor Big Jim ever carried Jefferson County. Business, not politics, prevailed in Jefferson County. Therefore, Birmingham did not yield as many inside political men as might be expected of the major city of the state. However, there has been one go-to political kingmaker in Birmingham in my generation. Joe Fuller has been the go-to man to see in the Magic City, especially in Republican primaries. Joe was proudly born and raised in Birmingham and knows the city like the back of his hand. Fuller has been a successful, independent insurance agent his entire career and has led the Alabama Independent Insurance Agents Association for decades. He began his civic political involvement in his 20’s through the legendary Birmingham Jaycees. He, like a good many of Birmingham’s civic and political leaders, cut their teeth in the Birmingham Jaycees. This group were the original founders of Birmingham’s Legion Field. The Birmingham Jaycees were the training ground for the leaders of the city. Some of Fuller’s contemporaries in the 1960s and early 70s were Fox DeFuniak, J. Mason Davis, David Wheeler, Julian Smith, George McMillan, and George Siebels. The Birmingham Jaycees became the springboard for George Siebels to be elected Mayor of Birmingham in 1965. Joe Fuller was instrumental in helping to orchestrate Siebel’s victory. Thus, began Joe Fuller’s reign as the kingmaker of Birmingham politics. Fuller would start candidates off in his stately home on top of a hill in the historic Redmont neighborhood in Birmingham. He would have a gathering of 20 to 30 at an elegant meal, which he primarily prepared. His first major horse he bet on was George McMillan. He helped George get elected to the legislature and then helped mastermind McMillan’s historical upset of state senator George Lewis Bailes. He then helped manage his successful run for Lt. Governor and then saw him almost beat George Wallace for Governor in 1974. It has been my honor and privilege to have known Joe for almost 40 years and have had the opportunity to be invited to his great political gatherings over those years. I have watched him as he helped launch the careers of Birmingham Congressman Spencer Bachus, who served in the legislature before serving in Congress 20 years. Joe was extremely close to legendary state representative John Hawkins. He has been a loyal supporter of iconic State Senator Jabo Waggoner over all of his almost five decades in the state legislature. Joe Fuller has been and was one of the early supporters of my great friend and legislative colleague, Mike Hill. Mike served three decades in the House from Shelby County and is now the State Banking Commissioner. Fuller has been close-to another longtime veteran state legislator, Jim Carnes. Jim has been at almost all of Joe’s political dinner parties as he helped launch the political careers of legislators Paul DeMarco, David Wheeler, and Dan Roberts. Joe was instrumental in the election of state senator Steve Windom as Lt. Governor. Joe’s house was Windom’s first stop. Joe was one of the founders of the renowned Mid-Alabama Republican Club, which meets monthly in Vestavia. It is a sought-after invitation to speak for all aspiring statewide Republican candidates, as are his dinner parties. The first place that Jeff Sessions came to when he first began his political career as Attorney General of Alabama was Joe Fuller’s home. Joe supported Jeff Sessions during his entire 20-year career in the United States Senate. Jeff will never forget it. A good many of Alabama’s political leaders have found their way to the home of “ole” Joe Fuller atop Red Mountain over the last 40 to 50 years. See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
Steve Flowers: Doug Jones annihilation reaffirms mantra that winning the Republican nomination for statewide office in Alabama is tantamount to election
The defeat of Democrat Doug Jones in our United States Senate Seat is easy to explain. It is a Republican seat. Alabama is one of if not the most Republican states in America. The nation is totally divided into clearly defined ideological tribes. You are either a right-wing conservative Republican or a left-wing liberal Democrat. There are very few true independent voters. In Alabama, there is an overwhelming majority of conservative Republicans. These two tribes vote a straight Republican ticket or a straight Democratic ticket. A good many just pull the straight ticket lever. Jones never had a chance. Many of us, who are longtime political observers, were curious as to whether Jones would toe the liberal Democratic line when he got to Washington or moderate somewhat and try to throw the Republican conservatives a bone or two. He stuck true to his colors and philosophy. Doug Jones has always been a liberal national Democrat and he stayed true to his beliefs. Having been an upfront political observer and participant of Alabama politics for the past 40 to 50 years, I have known most of the significant political players on the Alabama political stage during those years. Even though Doug Jones and I are around the same age and attended the University of Alabama, I never got to know him well. He was on the periphery as a party politician. He was always an ardent card-carrying loyal leader of the Democratic party. He was a stalwart Democrat when they were the majority party. Then when most folks left to become Republicans, he stayed and became more avid. He was a real Democrat. Over the years, Jones never strayed from proudly espousing that he was a liberal national Democrat. He openly and ardently supported George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Joe Biden several times, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. Jones is a true-blue, liberal, national Democrat. Most of us were surprised when he came out of his backroom political party role and private law practice to run for public office. He was shrewd enough to see the possibility that in a special election with a polarizing, tarnished candidate, he could squeak out a miraculous win in a special election to a U.S. Senate seat from Alabama as a Democrat. Many of us watched the irascible demagogue George Wallace dominate Alabama politics. Wallace would make numerous Don Quixote forays into presidential politics, spitting out the message, “There ain’t a dime’s worth of difference between the national Democratic and Republican parties,” and he was actually pretty close to right. However, folks, I am here to tell you that today in 2020 there is a lot of difference, philosophically, in the national Democratic party of Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, and Doug Jones and the national Republican party of Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Ted Cruz, and Richard Shelby. The chasm is deep and wide. Jones voted right down the line with his liberal Democratic colleagues. Even voting against Trump’s two conservative Supreme Court appointments for no reason other than they were conservative and Republican appointees. The question is, would it have made any difference in Jones’ reelection chances had he compromised his liberal Democratic philosophy and voted with the Republican majority on some key votes? The answer is a resounding no. He would not have won with a “D” behind his name in a red Republican state in a presidential year, regardless. More than likely over 60% of the votes cast in the Heart of Dixie were straight Republican ticket voting. Jones has to be respected for sticking to his principles. He is a good and honest man with a lot of character and integrity. He just thinks and believes differently than an overwhelming number of his fellow Alabamians. He stayed true to the old political maxim that you dance with the one that brung you. He got and spent $18 million dollars of left-wing money in his race against Roy Moore, mostly from California. He allied and voted with his California donors over his nearly three-year tenure. They figured he was their third senator so they rewarded him with $25 million this time. He was able to outspend Republican Tommy Tuberville $25 million to $7 million. Even with an ungodly amount of California money Jones could only garner 40% of the vote. This race reaffirms the mantra and hard fact that winning the Republican nomination for a statewide office in Alabama is tantamount to election in the Heart of Dixie. See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
Steve Flowers: Jim Martin father of modern Republican Party in Alabama
Three years ago, Jim Martin passed away in Gadsden at 99 years old. His beloved wife of 60 years, Pat, was by his side. He was a true Christian gentleman. Jim was one of the Fathers of the modern Republican Party in the south. In 1962, John Kennedy was President. Camelot was in full bloom. The Congress was controlled by Democrats only because the south was solidly Democratic. The southern bloc of senators and congressmen were all Democrats. Because of their enormous seniority, they controlled both houses of Congress. The issue of Civil Rights was a tempest set to blow off the Capitol dome. Kennedy was under intense pressure to pass major Civil Rights legislation. However, he was up against a stonewall to get it through the powerful bloc of southern senators. Race was the only issue in the south, especially in Alabama. George Wallace was riding the race issue to the Governor’s office for his first term. The white southern voter was determined to stand firm against integration and was poised to cast their vote for the most ardent segregationists on the ballot. Our Congressional delegation was Democratic, all eight Congressmen, and both Senators. Our tandem of John Sparkman and Lister Hill had a combined 40-years of service. Lister Hill had gone to the U.S. Senate in 1938. He had served four six-year terms and had become a national celebrity in his 24 years in the Senate. He was up for election for his fifth six-year term. It was expected to be a coronation. Senator Hill was reserved, aristocratic, and almost felt as if he was above campaigning. He was also soft on the race issue. He was a progressive who refused race-bait. Out of nowhere a handsome, articulate, young Gadsden businessman, Jim Martin, appeared on the scene. Martin was 42, a decorated World War II officer, who fought with Patton’s 3rd Army in Europe. He entered as a private and became an integral part of Patton’s team, rising to the rank of Major. After the war, Martin went to work for Amoco Oil and married a Miss Alabama – Pat Huddleston from Clanton. They then settled in Gadsden and he bought an oil distributorship and became successful in business. He was a business Republican and became active in the State Chamber of Commerce. When the State Chamber Board went to Washington to visit the Congressional delegation, they were treated rudely by our Democratic delegates, who were still voting their progressive New Deal, pro-union philosophy. Martin left Washington and decided that Alabama at least needed a two-party system and that he would be the sacrificial lamb to take on the venerable Lister Hill as the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate. Martin got the nomination in a convention and the David vs. Goliath race was on. By late summer the big city newspapers could feel that Martin had some momentum. He was being perceived as the conservative and Hill as the liberal. Every Alabama courthouse was Democratic, all sheriffs, Probate Judges, as well as all statewide elected officials. It was hard to imagine that the tradition of voting Democratic would change, but the winds of segregation were strong. When the votes were counted in November of 1962, Martin had pulled off the biggest upset in the nation. NBC’s team of Chet Huntley and David Brinkley reported the phenomenon on the nightly news. Republican President Dwight Eisenhower called Martin to congratulate him. However, things were happening in rural North Alabama. Martin had won by 6,000 votes but three days later, mysterious boxes appeared with just enough votes to give Hill the belated victory. The entire country and most Alabamians knew that Jim Martin had been counted out. Jim Martin would have been the first Republican Senator from the south in a century. Some people speculate that he would have been the vice-presidential candidate with Richard Nixon in 1968. Regardless, Martin was the John the Baptist of the Southern Republican sweep of 1964, and father of the modern Republican Party in Alabama. That 1962 Senate race was a precursor of what was to come two years later. Jim Martin was one of five Republicans swept into Congress in the 1964 Goldwater landslide. He probably would have won the U.S. Senate seat of John Sparkman in 1966. However, Martin chose to run for governor against Lurleen Wallace. In 1987, Martin became Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. As Commissioner, Martin helped create the Forever Wild land preservation program. Jim Martin has a special place in Alabama political history. See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.
Will Sellers: In defense of the Electoral College
This article originally appeared in City Journal. I came of age politically with the 1968 presidential election. Alabama governor George Wallace was running as an independent against Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey. My parents were Nixon supporters, and I, their five-year-old son, hopped on the Nixon bandwagon with gusto. The dinnertime conversations in the month preceding the election were all about whether Wallace’s third-party candidacy could work. This all fascinated me, so I asked my mother to let me watch her vote on Election Day. She agreed, but to my dismay, when I joined her in the voting booth, I did not see Nixon, Humphrey, or Wallace listed on the ballot. This made no sense to me; I thought we were here to vote for Richard Nixon? My mother then explained that we didn’t vote for the presidential candidate directly. Instead, we voted for men and women called presidential electors. These people were well-regarded and appointed for the special privilege of casting the deciding votes in presidential elections. This system seemed out of place to me, because in every other election the candidates were listed by name on the ballot. Why not for president? Why should my mother vote for nine people, who would then vote later for president, instead of voting directly for the president? This was my first encounter with the Electoral College. It would not be my last. The first electoral college was a medieval construct dating back at least to the twelfth century, when specific princes were chosen to elect the Holy Roman Emperor. They were influential noblemen, who, because of the importance of their respective kingdoms, were given the hereditary title of “elector.” After the death of the emperor, they met, much like the College of Cardinals, to choose a successor. Whether this idea influenced the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention is speculation, but, like most of the other aspects of the Constitution, the mechanics of the new government were based on historical facets of self-government. The new American nation was built on traditions of representative government expressed in the English parliamentary system, the organization of Protestant church government, and the colonial experience with various local governments in the New World. Important questions necessarily arose during the Constitutional Convention concerning the process of electing the president. How exactly would a president be chosen, and to whom or what would he owe allegiance? Some advocated for election to take place in the House of Representatives, or in the Senate, or even in the several states. The obvious problem with these proposals is that they would create an axis between the president and the electing body. If the states elected the president, then the larger, wealthier, and more populous states would receive greater attention and more favorable treatment by the executive branch than would the smaller, less populous states. A similar imbalance of power would occur were the president chosen by the House or the Senate. Thus, the mechanics of electing the chief executive required balancing various interests to give the executive branch the requisite independence from other political bodies, while maintaining co-equality. According to the chosen scheme, each state would appoint “electors” based on the number of House and Senate members comprising the state’s congressional delegation. These electors were appointed for the sole purpose of electing the president, and a simple majority of their votes would decide the election. This created another means by which the spheres of Congress and the federal government were balanced and divided from that of the states. The Constitutional Convention viewed electors as not necessarily aligned with a faction, but as citizens of honesty, integrity, and political acumen. Originally, electors voted for two people; the person with the most electoral votes became president, and the runner-up became vice-president. Flaws in this system became evident with the presidential election of 1796, when John Adams was elected as president and his archrival, if not nemesis, Thomas Jefferson, was elected vice president. Four years later, Jefferson and Aaron Burr received the same number of electoral votes—neither had the required majority. This unworkable situation was remedied by the 12th Amendment to the Constitution, which prescribed that electors would separately vote for a president and vice president on the same ballot. Later, state legislatures, as they were constitutionally permitted and as the two-party system grew, allowed electors to run as proxies for the presidential and vice-presidential party nominee. For at least the first 100 years, the system worked well, and, other than the 12th Amendment, no major attempts were made to alter the process of electing the president and vice president. Several times, the election was submitted to the House of Representatives after the electors failed to achieve a majority vote for president. For example, in 1824, the election was submitted to the House, where power plays resulted in the election of John Quincy Adams, though Andrew Jackson won significantly more of the popular and the electoral vote. Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican, lost the 1876 popular vote to Samuel Tilden, a Democrat, but became president because he had prevailed in the electoral vote, though voter fraud in some jurisdictions seemed certain. Many Democratic candidates running for federal office embraced the idea of abolishing the Electoral College, not least Sam Rayburn, who, in his first congressional election in 1912, advocated electing the president by popular vote. If there was any momentum for this aspect of the Progressive movement, it lost steam as other, more critical issues advanced. Today, the constitutional method for electing the president is under siege. The result of the 2016 election—with Donald Trump winning the presidency despite losing the popular vote—led pundits and politicians to call for the presidential election to be based on the popular, not electoral, vote. But lamenting results that saw two presidents in recent memory fail to win the popular vote obscures the effect that abolishing the Electoral College would have on a national campaign. A presidential campaign aimed at achieving a popular vote majority would completely ignore
Kay Ivey apologizes to ’63 church bombing survivor
KIvey said the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church caused “untold pain and suffering” through the decades to the victims and their families.
1963 church bombing survivor seeks apology, restitution
A law firm working for free on Rudolph’s behalf sent a letter to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey arguing that the words of state leaders, including Gov. George Wallace, at the time encouraged the racial violence that led to one of the most infamous acts of the civil rights era.
Inside the Statehouse: Labor Day
“The most legendary political Labor Day Barbeques have been held in the Northwest corner of the state.”
Nick Saban, Alabama players hold protest march on campus
The group marched the short distance Monday on the school’s campus from the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility to Foster Auditorium.
Inside the Statehouse: How has coronavirus affected Alabama politics?
Steve Flowers has a thing or two to say about Will Ainsworth’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
After George Floyd’s death, petition circulates to rename Auburn University building
Auburn University students, alumni and community members are circulating a petition to rename a building on campus whose namesake was tied to segregation. The petition calls for a name change to Wallace Hall. Named after former Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, a controversial figure who served as governor during the civil rights movement and is known for making the statement, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever,” while delivering his inaugural address at the Alabama State Capitol in 1963. The petition was started in the wake of George Floyd’s murder to which Auburn University tweeted, “While we acknowledge the painful reality that prejudice and bigotry exist, we stand resolute that they have no place in the Auburn Family. As an institution that values and embraces each individual, we oppose hate and exclusion and acts that promote them.” The petition reads, “Having a racist governor that was so against integration in schools be forever immortalized on Auburn’s campus directly contradicts this statement… As governor, Wallace promoted and encouraged segregation between black and white people, he tried to stop public schools in Alabama from integrating, and he personally stood in the way of two black students at the University of Alabama to stop them from registering for classes.” Built in 1984, the building is currently used by the Department of Industrial Design, Department of Vocational and Adult Education. The petition proposes the building be renamed “Franklin Hall to honor Harold Franklin, the first black student to be enrolled at Auburn University.” Auburn student Ashley Henton started the petition four days ago. It now has over 10,700 signers at the time of publishing.
