Hearing set on bid to dismiss suit over Confederate memorial
A hearing is set for early next year on a bid by a Confederate heritage group to dismiss a lawsuit over the land where a rebel monument stands in the middle of mostly black Tuskegee, Alabama. Court records show Macon County Circuit Judge Steven Perryman has scheduled a session for Feb. 3 on the dispute. The Tuskegee chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy is opposing a lawsuit filed earlier this year that could lead to the removal of a Confederate monument that’s stood in the heart of Tuskegee for 115 years. A lawsuit filed by the county and Tuskegee residents argues the county wrongfully gave land to the Confederate group for the statue in 1906. A decision in favor of the county could lead to removal of the monument, which has been the subject of on-and-off opposition for decades. But the United Daughters of the Confederacy says it owns the square legally, and an attorney for the group says members want the monument to remain. An order from the judge said he will consider the group’s request to throw out the lawsuit during the hearing in February. The monument was erected in Tuskegee at a time when groups all over the South were erecting Civil War memorials to honor rebel troops and portray the cause of the slave-holding Confederacy as noble. Hundreds of rebel monuments have been taken down in recent years as they came to be seen as symbols of racial oppression against Black people. Former Mayor Johnny Ford, now a Tuskegee City Council member, used a saw to damage the statue in July in hopes it would topple over, but it didn’t, and the county subsequently filed suit. The United Daughters of the Confederacy has since spent several thousand dollars on repairs, its lawyer said. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
1st elected Alabama Black Republican: GOP ‘open to everyone’
The first Black Republican elected to the Alabama Legislature since Reconstruction said Wednesday that his election to represent a heavily white suburban district shows that the GOP “is open to everyone.” Retired Army Sgt. Kenneth Paschal was elected Tuesday to fill a legislative seat in suburban Shelby County, becoming the only Black Republican in the Alabama Legislature. Paschal invoked Martin Luther King Jr.’s words about people being judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin, as he participated in a ceremonial swearing-in ceremony to celebrate his win. “I truly believe that the Lord has called me to serve,” Paschal said, adding that “God and country” are his two guiding principles. Standing by a bank of U.S. flags, Paschal was sworn in with his hand upon a Bible held by his mom. A mostly white crowd of about 150 cheered and gave a standing ovation when he was introduced as the first Black Republican elected to the House since Reconstruction. Mother Betty Paschal of the rural central Alabama town of Eclectic said she never thought she’d see the day her son was elected to the Legislature. “I am just amazed,” she said. “I am so proud of Kenneth.” Paschal, 54, won the special general election to fill House District 73. The Shelby County district stretches through the suburbs south of Birmingham. He won the GOP nomination for the seat earlier this year by just a few dozen votes but easily defeated the Democratic nominee in the heavily Republican district. The special election had only a few thousand votes cast, a fraction of the number that would be cast in a regular election year. Even though Paschal is the first Black Republican elected since Reconstruction, he will not be the first Black lawmaker to align with the Republican Party in modern times. Former Rep. Johnny Ford, the longtime mayor of Tuskegee, in 2003 announced he was switching to the GOP, becoming the first Black Republican in the Alabama Statehouse since Reconstruction. Ford resigned to return to his old office of mayor and later rejoined the Democratic Party. Paschal served nearly 21 years in the U.S. Army. He now lives in Shelby County and is a member of the First Baptist Church of Pelham. He has worked with the Alabama Family Rights Association, a group that has urged changes to child custody laws in an effort to ensure time and decision-making would be split more evenly among parents, provided both parents are fit. The Alabama Republican Party for years has been attempting to recruit more Black candidates and voters, although success has been limited. Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl said Paschal is “a man of exceptional character” whose message resonated with Shelby County residents. “It is something we’ve been working on for a long time, breaking that stereotype that liberals have put out there that there are no conservative minorities. That is not true. We are super excited about Kenneth’s election and believe it is just the beginning,” Wahl said. The political parties in the Alabama Legislature are almost entirely divided along racial lines. Paschal will be the only Black Republican. The Alabama Senate and House each have one white Democratic member. The GOP-controlled Legislature in 2017 had to redraw legislative maps under court order to fix racial gerrymandering in 12 districts. The ruling came after Black lawmakers filed a lawsuit challenging the maps as “stacking and packing” Black voters into designated districts to make neighboring districts whiter and more likely to elect conservative Republicans. Paschal told The Associated Press that after leaving the military, he thought about where he fit politically and said that is with the Republican Party because he is conservative. On the campaign trail, he said some people wrongly presumed he was a Democrat. “We have put people in the box based on your skin color. … Hopefully, we can change that,” he said. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Confederate monument damaged but still stands in Tuskegee
A council member using a saw cut into a 115-year-old Confederate memorial at the center of historic Tuskegee on Wednesday but failed to topple it, marking the latest move in a push to remove the contentious monument from the nearly all-Black Alabama town. Johnny Ford, a former mayor whose City Council district includes the park where the monument is located, said he took action because constituents voted in a public meeting last week in favor of removing the rebel memorial, which has been the subject of complaints and a target for vandals on and off for years. Using a lift to reach the statue of a Confederate soldier atop a stone pedestal, Ford said he sawed into a leg of the memorial, which was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The group has refused to take down the statue even though Tuskegee, a town of 8,100, is 97% Black and known internationally as a home of Black empowerment. Ford said he stopped cutting when Sheriff Andre Brunson showed up and asked him to quit. But Ford said the fight isn’t over. “We can’t have a Confederate statue which represents slavery standing up in the middle of our town,” Ford said in an interview with The Associated Press. Brunson said it appeared Ford and another man had cut all the way through one ankle of the statue with an electric saw, but an engineer would have to conduct a full assessment. Neither man was arrested, Brunson said, but a report will be sent to the district attorney, and he added charges are possible. “I understand what many people think and what he thinks, but it’s still destruction of property,” Brunson said. Tuskegee is the home of Tuskegee University and the place where the first Black military pilots, the Tuskegee Airmen, trained during World War II. Leaders previously draped the monument’s pedestal with tarps to cover pro-Confederate writing, and the statue itself was covered later by Ford. Demonstrators protesting the shooting death of a civil rights worker in 1966 attempted to pull down the statue but failed. It has been vandalized with spray paint several times in recent years. Louis Maxwell, the chairman of the Macon County Commission, said the county wants the statue removed and has been talking with an attorney for the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which owns both the monument and the plot where it’s located under an arrangement dating back to 1906. Maxwell said he feared Ford’s action might be a setback to avoiding a lawsuit. “This had quieted down to give us a chance to work on it, but now it’s going to rear up again,” he said. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Longtime Tuskegee Mayor Johnny Ford loses re-election bid
Tuskegee Hills will have a new mayor. City councilman Tony Haygood won the Aug. 23 municipal election with 62 percent — 1,401 votes to 865 — over longtime incumbent Johnny Ford. Haygood currently serves as the city’s councilman at large and mayor pro tem. As the new mayor, he says he wants to work on financial stability, revitalizing downtown, strengthening the relationship between the city and Tuskegee University, and make sure the city will be financially stable. Outgoing mayor Ford was first elected mayor of Tuskegee in 1972 and has served in the office for 32 of the last 44 years. He also served as a state representative. “I would like to thank all of my faithful supporters, volunteers, and all of the citizens of Tuskegee who voted for me, and who worked so hard to allow us to finish the job that we have begun moving Tuskegee forward,” said Ford. “I am proud of, and grateful for, the opportunity that I have had to serve Tuskegee as mayor through the years. “I congratulate Mayor Pro tem Lawrence ‘Tony’ Haygood, on his victory, and wish him the best as the mayor of historic Tuskegee, Alabama, the home of Tuskegee University, ‘The Pride of the Swift Growing South.’”
Ala. AG Luther Strange clarifies state’s position on electronic bingo
On Wednesday, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange released a copy of his response to a request from United States Attorney George Beck, who asked for clarification on the state’s position on the legality of electronic bingo machines in the state March 21. The request specifically requested information regarding gaming on tribal and non-tribal property. In the letter, Strange notes that Beck’s request likely stemmed from a lawsuit between Strange and Tuskegee Mayor Johnny Ford. Ford sured Strange “several years ago,” but the suit was eventually dropped and Ford’s attorney sanctioned for filing a “legally frivolous lawsuit.” Strange goes on to note that neither “electronic bingo” or “bingo machines” appear in the Code of Alabama and only defines an illegal gambling device as “any device, machine, paraphernalia or equipment that is normally used or usable in the playing phases of any gambling activity, whether that activity consists of gambling between persons or gambling by a person involving the playing of a machine.” The Alabama Code further defines slot machines as “a gambling device that, as a result of the insertion of a coin or other object, operated, either completely automatically or which the aid of some physical act by the play, in such manner that, depending upon elements of chance, it may eject something of value,” a tenet that essentially outlaws electronic bingo machines in the state. Strange’s response goes continues that tribal gaming is overseen by the federal government and the National Indian Gaming Commission has ruled that federal law allows for electronic bingo machines to be operated on native land despite a state ban on the instruments. The response references multiple court rulings that have upheld Alabama’s stance that bingo machines are in fact illegal gambling devices, including a 2009 ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. That court ruled that the way bingo machines operate “compel[s] the conclusion that the electronic bingo games at issue in this case constitute illegal slot machines under Alabama law.” In 2012, the Jefferson County Circuit Court found that “the devices before the Court are slot machines or gambling devices proscribed” by the Code of Alabama. The Houston County Circuit Court, and eventually the Alabama Supreme Court, came to the same conclusion. Strange notes his office negotiated memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with multiple out-of-state slot- machine companies in 2011, which required those companies to remove their devices from Alabama’s jurisdiction or “suffer civil and criminal penalties.” These entities have nothing to do with a tribal-state compact, as such a compact is an agreement between a tribe and a state. However, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, which currently operates casinos in Atmore, Wetumpka and Montgomery, is not a party to any of those MOUs. Strange added that gambling regulators in other states have imposed fines on some slot-machine companies for their participation in illegal gambling in Alabama prior to 2011.
Birmingham mayor William Bell endorses Hillary Clinton in 2016
Birmingham Mayor William Bell was among 50 African-American city leaders to endorse the Democratic presidential bid of Hillary Rodham Clinton ahead of next year’s elections. Tuskegee Mayor Johnny Ford and James Perkins Jr., the former mayor of Selma, also endorsed Clinton. Both are Democrats, as is Mayor Bell. The endorsements come following Clinton’s visit to Birmingham on Saturday, to speak at the Alabama Democratic Conference‘s semi-annual convention in Hoover. “Hillary Clinton is the most experienced and most respected presidential candidate bar none,” former mayor Perkins said. “In 2016, America has the chance to elect a candidate in Hillary Clinton who has been putting people over special interests throughout her entire career and I’m proud to throw my support behind her.” “I am honored to have earned the endorsement of more than 50 African-American mayors across the country,” Clinton said, returning the favor in a statement. “Mayors are on the front lines of many of our country’s toughest battles. They’re fighting to create jobs, rebuild our infrastructure, stop gun violence, and eliminate the inequities that tear communities apart. “From the biggest cities to the smallest towns, what happens at the local level often leads to national change. Mayors make that happen. As president, I’ll always be a friend to America’s mayors.” Bell, a longtime Birmingham pol first elected to the City Council in 1979, also endorsed President Barack Obama during his re-election campaign in 2012 and lined up beside him on policy initiatives throughout his administration. Bell also appeared with the Rev. Jesse Jackson when the latter came to Alabama to denounce the announcement from Gov. Robert Bentley and the Legislature that cuts to that state budget would lead to the closure of several auxiliary DMV locations around rural parts of the state.
