Steve Flowers: 60th Anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination
The assassination of John F. Kennedy happened 60 years ago this week. It occurred to me that a good many of you may be too young to remember that horribly sad day of November 22, 1963. Anyone living on that day can tell you exactly where they were when President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed by an assassin in Dallas, Texas. It was a perfect fall day in the Lone Star State. Lyndon Johnson was Vice President, and he and Kennedy disliked each other immensely. The Kennedys had put Johnson on the ticket as Vice President in 1960 to ensure that the Democrats carried Texas in the General Election, not because they liked him. It was totally a political marriage. They not only did not like Johnson, they did not trust him. It was a Friday afternoon. The last high school games of the year were to be played that night. High school football was big in Alabama. By the way, it was also big in Texas, thus the movie “Friday Night Lights.” I was in the seventh grade. It was just after lunch. My homeroom teacher at Troy Junior High School was Mrs. Elaine Dodson. All of a sudden, the music teacher for our schools, Jerry Spann, came into our room and announced that the President had been shot. Everyone was traumatized. The President died about an hour later at a Dallas hospital. The next three days, all of America watched on television the funeral preparations and the Monday funeral. It was an unbelievably sad event. The scene of the riderless white horse brought tears to your eyes. If that did not, the scene where little John John Kennedy, a precious, precocious two-year-old boy, gave a salute to his father was one of the most heart-wrenching, tear-jerking moments I have ever witnessed in my life. It still brings tears to my eyes 60 years later as I write this column. John John grew to be a very handsome young man like his father. He, like his father, died an early untimely death in an airplane crash. Even though he did not have political aspirations, I believe that “John John,” John Kennedy Jr., would have been president. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but allow me to illuminate some facts. Lyndon Johnson was the most ruthless, morally bankrupt, and crudest man to ever sit in the White House. Johnson was the ultimate political animal. He lived by the rule that whatever it took to win and grab control of power is what you did. If you doubt that, read Robert Caro’s books on LBJ, or better yet, ask any historian about his years as U.S. Senate Majority Leader. In recent years, the Secret Service has released files that reveal the following facts. First, Johnson insisted that Kennedy go to Dallas, Texas, and campaign. The Secret Service asked Kennedy not to go because the Civil Rights issue was boiling in Texas. At Johnson’s urging, Kennedy agreed to go. Second, the Secret Service came to Kennedy and said, “Mr. President, if you go, you cannot use the main artery boulevard in your entourage. We cannot protect you.” Kennedy agreed. When Johnson heard of this, he told Kennedy he had to go down that boulevard because, “It is a Texas tradition,” said Johnson. Kennedy agreed at Johnson’s insistence. Finally, the Secret Service, in exasperation, told President Kennedy, “Mr. President, we asked you not to go to Dallas. We also asked you not to go down that boulevard because we cannot protect you from all the high building windows. To a sharpshooter, you will be a sitting duck. If you go to Dallas and go down that thoroughfare, we must insist, you let us put up a protective bubble to protect you.” Kennedy agreed. Johnson heard of the bubble and insisted to President Kennedy that he could not do that because he would appear distant, detached, aloof, and arrogant to Texans. President Kennedy, once again, acquiesced to Johnson’s pleas. The rest is history. The horrific, tragic scenes of Jackie Kennedy’s blood-stained pink dress, a little two-year-old boy’s goodbye salute to his father, and the riderless white horse are indelibly planted in my memory 60 years later. The 1960s was a very tumultuous and memorable time to come of age in America, and November 22, 1963, is etched in a lot of our generation’s minds. See you next week. Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. Steve served 16 years in the state legislature. He can be reached at steveflowers.us.
Will Sellers: Remembering the life and legacy of Lee Kuan Yew
Imagine a country in the 20th century that, in a matter of 30 years, went from a per capita income of $500 to one of $50,000. Imagine further that the country had no natural resources and was roughly 150 times smaller than Alabama. And what would we think about a leader who achieved such spectacular results? Meet Lee Kuan Yew, who had he lived, would be 100 years old this month. From 1959 to 1990, he served as prime minister of Singapore and was largely responsible for bringing a third-world country into the first world. In short, he was a visionary leader who contemplated a greatness for his country that few could imagine. He refused to accept the low expectations of his people’s capabilities and embarked on a mission of almost unachievable goals. When Lee (in Singapore, last names come before given names) accepted the mantle of political leadership, the world bequeathed to him was neither stable nor secure or certain. Singapore was a city state with a strategically located port where ships from all over the world docked, but that seemed to be its only natural asset. Far from homogeneous, Singapore’s people were ethnically diverse, with a stratified community of various faiths and cultures, with little historical memory. Other than the business of trade, the country had no unifying or organizing principle for political cohesion. But, Lee, who trained as a lawyer in Cambridge with a smattering of additional education from the London School of Economics, created a political party that focused on a peaceful transition to home rule within the British Empire. Politically, he never sought independence but saw Singapore as part of a larger state, merged with other, smaller countries that were former colonies in his region. Initially, this concept worked, and for at least a few years, Singapore was part of Malaysia. But, with boundaries artificially defined and few commonalities between the people, Singapore was not a great fit as part of an emerging country. Within the combined territories that comprised Malaysia, there were many factions based on ethnic issues and fueled in many ways by competing cold war ideologies. Singapore became infected with racial strife leading to riots stirred up by Malaysian ethnic rivalries. To stop the bloodshed, Malaysia decided to expel Singapore, at which point Singapore became the first country to inadvertently achieve independence. Thus, against its will, Singapore was foisted, kicking and screaming, into nationhood. At this time, no one was sure how a large city could maintain a separate independent state in a rough neighborhood. Were it not for Lee’s leadership, Singapore could easily have become a pawn in the larger cold war or a satellite in the Chinese sphere of influence. But Lee had a different vision. While he was devastated by Singapore’s expulsion, he embraced the opportunity and created a vision for Singapore that would set in motion a prosperity unimaginable to anyone-except for Lee Kuan Yew. Realizing the vulnerabilities of the new country, Lee sought Singapore’s diplomatic recognition. He applied for entrance and was accepted into the United Nations. Largely dependent on other countries and with no minerals or other resources, he entered into treaties with surrounding nations. He also imposed conscription to rapidly built up a defense force. Within his government, he removed all communist elements and supported President Lyndon Johnson’s policies in Vietnam. Thus, within a few years of independence, Lee had placed his small city-state on the world stage. Economically, Lee realized he must create employment opportunities for his citizens. Knowing that work and a high standard of living were a key to his independent country’s growth and development, he created an economic policy that provided incentives for foreign investments. He built factories and provided job training. Critically, he embraced the British legal system, adopting the common law so that foreign investors would know with certainty their rights would be protected against any nationalization. This stability, along with a low tax base and a highly skilled, but cheap labor force, expanded Singapore’s economy to new heights. As prime minister, Lee ran a squeaky-clean government with zero tolerance for corruption. One means to prevent corruption was to pay government employees a high wage so there was no incentive to supplement a government salary with bribes. But the economic growth came at a cost. Even while embracing a market economy to efficiently allocate resources, the people of Singapore were not given the rights Lee observed from his time in Britain. The press was not especially free as censorship was practiced to prevent criticism of government policies. Under Lee, Singapore strictly enforced its criminal laws with public corporal punishment for littering and executing anyone found guilty of trafficking in narcotics. When questioned about the severity of these laws, Lee’s supporters pointed to the cleanliness of the city and the lack of serious crime. Even though several human rights groups objected to Singapore’s human rights violations, that did not stop foreign investment in the manufacturing sector, financial services, and international trade. Businesses liked the stability of the government but were also drawn to the work ethic of the people. When asked why Singapore experienced such dynamic growth, Lee said that the most critical factor to achieve national competitiveness is “manpower resources,” which he believed is exhibited in creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and good management. As Lee retired from government in 1990, he continued to serve in an advisory role and became a commentator about leadership, economic development, and the power of ideas. Even after his death in 2015, his legacy as a visionary leader has grown, and his accomplishments are studied and cited as authority for creating a dynamic economy from scratch. Remembering Lee Kwan Yew on his birthday, one quote is worth highlighting: “A nation is great not by its size alone. It is the will, the cohesion, the stamina, the discipline of its people, and the quality of their leaders which ensure an honorable place in history.” Will Sellers is a graduate of Hillsdale College and an Associate Justice
Steve Flowers: Dr. Wayne Flynt’s “Afternoons with Harper Lee”
Renowned Alabama historian Dr. Wayne Flynt has chronicled and penned a marvelous book appropriately entitled Afternoons with Harper Lee. This gem is published by New South Books with editing by Randall Williams. It is receiving worldwide acclaim. If you are a fan of Harper Lee and her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, it is a great read. Nelle Harper Lee was born in Monroeville in 1926 and died in Monroeville ninety years later in 2016. It was fitting that Dr. Wayne Flynt would give her eulogy. Her book, To Kill A Mockingbird, is one of the five most bought and read books in the history of the world. It is second only to the Bible in most countries. In secular Great Britain, it surpasses the Bible and is number one. Dr. Wayne Flynt is probably the most significant and accomplished historian of Alabama history in my lifetime. He taught history to over 60,000 undergraduate and graduate students at Auburn University for over 28 years. He was beloved, and he loves Auburn. He is very proud of his 43 car tag, as he often told Nelle’s accomplished sister Alice. Dr. Flynt taught history at Samford University for 12 years before beginning his 28 years at Auburn University. During his illustrious career of 40 years, he authored 14 books, all centered around Southern politics, history, and Southern culture. He is very proud of his heritage of being the son of a sharecropper and growing up in the Appalachian culture of rural Calhoun County. It is so poetic that the most renowned southern Alabama historian of this century would write the most revealing and detailed history of Alabama and arguably the world’s most famous author of this century. He tells Nelle Harper Lee’s story explicitly and with authenticity. Dr. Flynt and his beloved wife, Dorothy “Dartie,” of 60 years, became Harper Lee’s best friends in the twilight of her life. Wayne and Dartie Flynt journeyed from Auburn to Monroeville and spent 64 afternoons over 12 years visiting and chronicling Harper Lee’s life story as she lived in a modest retirement home in Monroeville even though the royalties from the book were over a million dollars a year. The book is part memoir and part biography. It truly tells the intimate story of legendary author Harper Lee. It encompasses her life and intertwines it with Alabama history. It is like we Alabamians like to say, “They were sitting on a big front porch swapping life stories.” Flynt and Lee were both Southern storytellers. They were often joined by Nelle Harper Lee’s two sisters, Alice Lee and Louise Lee Conner. Alice Lee was ten years older than Nelle and was famous in her own right. She was one of the first female lawyers in Alabama. She was one of Monroeville’s most prominent lawyers for close to 80 years. She practiced law until she was over 100 years old and was a leader in the Alabama Methodist Church. Louise Conner introduced the Flynt’s to Nelle Harper. They met at a History and Heritage Festival in Eufaula in 1983. Nelle Harper Lee was the classic recluse. She was very private and very secretive; she liked to drink and curse and speak her mind. She never married and never really dated. She wore frumpy, dowdy, non-stylish clothing and disdained being around people and speaking in public. She lived most of her life in her modest apartment in New York City. She lived there mostly from ages 23-81, 58 years, with only brief journeys home to Monroeville, Alabama, by train as she did not fly. New York City gave her the anonymity she desired. The book tells of her celebrity and meeting other famous people who desired to meet her, including Presidents Lyndon Johnson, George Bush, and Barack Obama. She especially liked Lady Bird Johnson, who also had Alabama roots. She adored Gregory Peck, who was the star of the movie To Kill A Mockingbird. He won an Oscar and every award imaginable for his role as Atticus Finch in the movie. Only after a stroke in 2007 at 81 did Nelle Harper Lee return home to Monroeville. Dr. Flynt is also an accomplished ordained Baptist preacher. He is a true kind-hearted gentleman who speaks kindly of everyone in his book. He and Dartie grew to love the foul-tempered, eccentric, cynical, opinionated, irascible, uninhibited, very private, and reclusive author. He discerns and captures her true humility. She really felt and often said modestly, “But all I did was write a book.” She wrote a pretty good one, and so did Flynt. 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.
Joe Biden headed to Selma to commemorate Bloody Sunday
On Tuesday, Congresswoman Terri Sewell announced that President Joe Biden will join her in Selma on March 5 to commemorate the 58th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday, where voting rights marchers were beaten by Alabama State Troopers to prevent them from marching to Montgomery. Bloody Sunday proved to be a turning point in the civil rights movement that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Rep. Sewell invited President Biden to visit Selma during his 2023 State of the Union Address. The visit comes after President Biden granted Rep. Sewell and the Alabama legislative delegation’s request to increase the federal cost share for FEMA’s public assistance program—including funding for debris removal and emergency protective measures—from 75% to 100% following the January 12th storms. “I am thrilled that President Biden has accepted my invitation to visit Selma for the 58th anniversary of Bloody Sunday,” said Rep. Sewell. “As Selma continues to recover from the January 12th storms, President Biden’s presence will send a clear message that our community is not alone and shows that the federal government will continue to be a partner in rebuilding Selma and Dallas County. I look forward to welcoming the President to my hometown as we reflect on the sacrifices of the Foot Soldiers in the name of equality and justice for all.” Sewell is a native of Selma and the first Black woman to represent Alabama in the United States Congress. “On Sunday, March 7, 1965, time stopped and blood spilled as brave and righteous Americans sought to cross a bridge named after a Klansman in Selma, Alabama, to reach the other side of justice,” Biden said in a statement last year. “Led by the late John Lewis, they marched to secure their sacred right to vote. Their heroism was met by batons and tear gas. They were beaten, but not defeated. Their absolute courage forced America to look in the mirror and Congress to act. Soon after, President [Lyndon] Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.” “In Selma, the blood of John Lewis and so many other courageous Americans sanctified a noble struggle,” said Biden. “We are determined to honor that legacy by passing legislation to protect the right to vote and uphold the integrity of our elections, including the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.” Biden previously attended the Bloody Sunday Commemoration just ahead of the 2020 Democratic Presidential primary. Sewell’s endorsement, combined with Biden’s personal campaigning at the annual commemoration event, helped Biden win the Alabama Democratic Presidential Primary and effectively propelled the former Vice President to the Democratic nomination for the Presidency. While the voting rights marchers were ultimately victorious in their struggle for equality, Selma itself has been in severe decline since the 1960s. According to the Census Bureau just 17,625 persons lived in Selma in 2022 -down from 23,720 in 1990 – a 25.7% decrease. In 2022, just 50.1% of Selma residents 16 years and older are in the workforce, and per capita income is just $19,262. The closing of Craig Air Force Base in 1977 was a shock to Selma’s economy that it never was able to overcome. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Fairhope renames post office for former congressman Jack Edwards
Today, Congressman Jerry Carl joined Congressman Bradley Byrne and Congressman Jo Bonner to pay tribute to Congressman William “Jack” Jackson Edwards and dedicate the Fairhope Post Office in his honor. The dedication was held at the post office building in Fairhope. Members of Edwards’ family, legislative leaders, postal officials, and members of the community attended. “Today, I was honored to join two of my mentors – Congressman Bradley Byrne and Congressman Jo Bonner – to honor and pay tribute to Congressman Jack Edwards, who was a friend and mentor to all three of us, by dedicating the Fairhope Post Office in his name,” Carl stated. “Congressman Edwards was a true statesman who devoted his life and his career to the service and betterment of south Alabama. Jack was loved and respected by all who knew him, and his legacy will continue to live on for generations to come,” Carl concluded. Congressman Byrne sponsored H.R. 6418 (Public Law 116-312) to dedicate the Fairhope Post Office Building to Congressman Edwards, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1965 to 1985. The law was approved January 5. Congressman Edwards, who died in 2019, served under five U.S. Presidents from Lyndon Johnson through Ronald Reagan. After retiring from Congress, he returned to Mobile, where he devoted himself to constitutional reform, education, the environment, and economic development.
TV station donates thousands of items to Alabama Archives
A television station has donated thousands of items including historic footage from the civil rights era to the Alabama Department of Archives and History, which will make the material available to the public. WSFA-TV in Montgomery announced it had given the agency materials dating to the 1950s, including footage from news conferences by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., coverage of the Freedom Riders in 1961, and original film from the “Stand in the School House Door” by then-Gov. George C. Wallace in 1963. The video also includes scenes from a visit to the NASA center in Huntsville by President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Johnson in 1962 and special reports on the death of former University of Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant in 1983. While the TV station was planning to switch locations, managers determined it wasn’t practical to move the large numbers of delicate film reels and boxes full of video and other items. Steve Murray, the Archives director, said archivists had long suspected the WSFA studios held valuable content for historical preservation, and his department jumped at the opportunity to add to its collection when a phone call came in late 2019. “It was one of those kind of chilling moments … where the hair stands up on the back of your neck when you see these closets after closets of tapes and films,” Murray explained. “Just the opportunity to take something off the shelf and see a label … related to the civil rights movement or to other major public events and Alabama’s life and history really made you, made me appreciate the value of what was there.” The donation includes more than 7,000 audiovisual items in a variety of formats, plus WSFA-TV scrapbooks, photographs, negatives, correspondence with viewers and officials, and newsletters. “We are intimidated by this collection, to be honest with you, because it is huge,” said Meredith McDonough, digital assets director for Archives and History, “and because it is unlike anything we have.” Under the terms of the donation agreement, the department will use the material to benefit state citizens through museum exhibitions, K-12 classrooms, and other educational products. WSFA-TV will be able to broadcast and publish the content of the collection after it is digitized. The agency is processing “test batches” of film and it will take years to fully process the boxes. So far, about 15 hours of film has been digitized, which represents only 30 items in the collection. No payment was made for the collection, WSFA-TV reported. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Voting rights pioneers honored at Alabama state archives
Two pioneers for voting rights have become the first women represented in the Statuary Hall of notable Alabamians at the Alabama Department of Archives and History. The bronze bust likenesses of Amelia Boynton Robinson, a civil rights pioneer, and Pattie Ruffner Jacobs, the state’s leading suffrage activist in the early twentieth century, were unveiled Monday. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said the two trailblazers worked to bring about “real and lasting change both in Alabama and in the nation. “The first two women added to the Statuary Hall are both known for lifelong efforts to extend the right to vote to all Alabamians,” Ivey said at the unveiling ceremony. The statues are located at one of the entrances to the state archives and are passed by visitors, researchers and hundreds of students on field trips each year. A longtime civil rights activist, Boynton Robinson is perhaps best known as a leader in the movement in Selma. She was among those beaten during the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in March 1965 that became known as “Bloody Sunday.” State troopers teargassed and clubbed marchers. A newspaper photo featuring an unconscious Boynton Robinson drew wide attention to the movement. When the Voting Rights Act was signed into law on Aug. 6, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson invited Robinson to attend the signing as a guest of honor. Boynton Robinson’s granddaughter said it was fulfilling to see her grandmother’s legacy honored. But Carver Boyington said she also hopes visitors remember her grandmothers’ urging to young people to “get off my shoulders” and carry on the work. “What she means by that is she wants us all to move forward in our own activism,” she said. Ruffner was the founder of the Alabama Equal Suffrage Association and a board member for Susan B. Anthony’s National American Woman Suffrage Association. “These additions to our statuary collection represent a step forward in the Archives’ commitment to deliver an inclusive presentation of Alabama’s history,” said Department of Archives and History Director Steve Murray in a press release. “Moreover, the women they honor serve as wonderful models of traits we hope to see embodied by our young people — persistence, courage, and a commitment to justice under the law.” The new works of art were sculpted by Alabama artist Clydetta Fulmer and cast at the Fairhope Foundry.
Will Sellers: The vice-presidential debate that never was
Over the last few election cycles, we’ve become accustomed to seeing the candidates for vice-president square off in a debate. Perhaps this is acknowledging the greater responsibilities performed by modern-day vice-presidents. I’ve always regretted that 60 years ago, vice-presidential hopefuls Lyndon Johnson and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. didn’t debate. It would have been a show of contrasts and with the election so razor-thin, just might have made more of a difference. I’d like to imagine the refined and striking Cabot Lodge gracefully walking on the debate stage and standing adroitly behind the podium, poised and ready for repartee. The scion of a blue blood Boston family, Lodge was a dedicated public servant having served his country in the House and then in the Senate as his family had done for generations. While he lost his senate seat in 1952 to Jack Kennedy, he continued to serve his country as Ambassador to the United Nations. In this role, he became the embodiment of Eisenhower foreign policy. In stark contrast, think of Lyndon Johnson, lanky and awkward not especially polished with suits that weren’t precisely tailored. If there was another side of the tracks, that is where Lyndon grew up. The hardscrabble life he embodied, his limited education, and his inarticulation was something even the Kennedy’s described as “hick” and “cornpone.” Johnson’s entry into politics was less of a calling to public service and more of a way out of insignificance. In fact, he won his senate seat by a mere 89 votes; rumors of fraud haunted him earning him the nickname “Landslide Lyndon.” Lodge’s entry to the senate saw him win a decisive vote and any thought of impropriety was unfounded. But in 1960, Johnson was majority leader of the Senate and not only possessed power but exercised it as absolutely as his mentor Sam Rayburn did in the House. Johnson wielded enormous influence. Lodge had been in the minority most his entire tenure in the Senate. But he too wielded power, but his power was a mastery of nuances in rules and personal persuasion that allowed him to effectively pass legislation that by its nature was bipartisan. Using rules to impose majority rule is easy since you have the votes. Johnson’s role as majority leader was to corral his fellow democrats into line and balance the more progressive factions of the party from Northern states with the conservatives from the South. That he did this well is evident in how the senate operated. Lodge’s task was harder; he wasn’t in the majority or in a leadership position and had to gracefully weave and bob through the senate rules and personal relationships to be effective. If the debate featured questions about military service, Johnson would have been embarrassed. While he wore his silver star lapel pin, the story behind his valor had less to do with action in combat and more to do with political influence. If a competent journalist had probed the record and incident further they would have discovered that contrary to Johnson’s recitation of his heroism, he had in fact been on the ground in a malfunctioning B-26, when other planes in the same squadron were attacked by the Japanese. While Johnson was supposed to be an observer on a bombing run over Lae, his plane developed engine trouble and had to return to base. Somehow Johnson created a myth that he engaged the enemy and took actions of such magnitude that he was award the silver star. It would have been uncomfortable for sure if the Swift Board Veterans for Truth had their sights on Johnson. Lodge on the other hand had the distinction of being the first sitting senator since the Civil War to resign from the Senate and serve on active duty. And Lodge’s service was not in the rear echelon, but he was engaged in combat and even captured a German patrol. He went on the assist General Deavers in France and was a liaison officer to the Free French commanding general. Any questions about military service and comparison of war records would have favored Lodge on every level. For him, active duty meant just that, and his medals and citations were real and deserved. And even after the war, he continued to serve with distinction in the reserves. While Johnson was classified as a Southerner, he was much more of a populist and new dealer. For a Republican, Lodge was very progressive and did not find many aspects of the new deal to be objectionable. Probably ahead of his time, he was more of a globalist and understood the need for the United States to be and stay involved in world affairs; foreign affairs was his bailiwick and he had ably advocated US policy in the United Nations and spared frequently with Russian disinformation. Johnson was more of a domestic policy man and his view of domestic policy was finding policies that had large price tags that could be implemented to benefit his family, friends, and supporters. Not coming from money, Johnson used his power to create an empire of radio and TV stations that somehow escaped effective regulations by the FCC. If Lodge had a self-interest, it was advocating for the United States. And his advocacy wasn’t always appreciated by American allies as when he took the British and French to task over the Suez Canal. Communist countries especially resented Lodge’s unashamed dedication to peace and freedom and his advocacy for stability and against hostilities. But the one policy that created the starkest and most significant divide was race relations and civil rights. Had there been a debate, the money question garnering the most viewers was when the moderator asked each of the candidates for their position on civil rights. The question would have been a trap for Johnson. He had voted against every civil rights bill during his entire time in federal office. While the Kennedy team pointed to his help in passing the Civil
Who’s a hypocrite? GOP, Dems debate past comments on court
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed that President Donald Trump’s as-yet unnamed nominee will receive a vote on the Senate floor “this year.”
Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis lies in state at Capitol
In a solemn display of bipartisan unity, congressional leaders praised Democratic Rep. John Lewis as a moral force for the nation on Monday in a Capitol Rotunda memorial service rich with symbolism and punctuated by the booming, recorded voice of the late civil rights icon. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Lewis the “conscience of the Congress” who was “revered and beloved on both sides of the aisle, on both sides of the Capitol.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell praised the longtime Georgia congressman as a model of courage and a “peacemaker.” “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” McConnell, a Republican, said, quoting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “But that is never automatic. History only bent toward what’s right because people like John paid the price.” Lewis died July 17 at the age of 80. Born to sharecroppers during Jim Crow segregation, he was beaten by Alabama state troopers during the civil rights movement, spoke ahead of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the 1963 March on Washington and was awarded the Medal of Freedom by the nation’s first Black president in 2011. Dozens of lawmakers looked on Monday as Lewis’ flag-draped casket sat atop the catafalque built for President Abraham Lincoln. Several wiped away tears as the late congressman’s voice echoed off the marble and gilded walls. Lewis was the first Black lawmaker to lie in state in the Rotunda. “You must find a way to get in the way. You must find a way to get in trouble, good trouble, necessary trouble,” Lewis intoned in a recorded commencement address he’d delivered in his hometown of Atlanta. “Use what you have … to help make our country and make our world a better place, where no one will be left out or left behind. … It is your time.” Members of the Congressional Black Caucus wore masks with the message “Good Trouble,” a nod to Lewis’ signature advice and the COVID-19 pandemic that has made for unusual funeral arrangements. The ceremony was the latest in a series of public remembrances. Pelosi, who counted Lewis as a close friend, met his casket earlier Monday at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, and Lewis’ motorcade stopped at Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House as it wound through Washington before arriving at the Capitol. The Democratic speaker noted that Lewis, frail with cancer, had come to the newly painted plaza weeks ago to stand “in solidarity” amid nationwide protests against systemic racism and police brutality. She called the image of Lewis “an iconic picture of justice” and juxtaposed it with another image that seared Lewis into the national memory. In that frame, “an iconic picture of injustice,” Pelosi said, Lewis is collapsed and bleeding near the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965, when state troopers beat him and other Black Americans as they demanded voting rights. Following the Rotunda service, Lewis’ body was moved to the steps on the Capitol’s east side in public view, an unusual sequence required because the pandemic has closed the Capitol to visitors. Late into the night, a long line of visitors formed outside the Capitol as members of the public quietly, and with appropriate socially distant spacing, came to pay their respects to Lewis. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden paid his respects late Monday afternoon. The pair became friends over their two decades on Capitol Hill together and Biden’s two terms as vice president to President Barack Obama, who awarded Lewis the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. Notably absent from the ceremonies was President Donald Trump. Lewis once called Trump an illegitimate president and chided him for stoking racial discord. Trump countered by blasting Lewis’ Atlanta district as “crime-infested.” Trump said Monday that he would not go to the Capitol, but Vice President Mike Pence and his wife paid their respects. Just ahead of the ceremonies, the House passed a bill to establish a new federal commission to study conditions that affect Black men and boys. Born near Troy, Alabama, Lewis was among the original Freedom Riders, young activists who boarded commercial passenger buses and traveled through the segregated Jim Crow South in the early 1960s. They were assaulted and battered at many stops, by citizens and authorities alike. Lewis was the youngest and last-living of those who spoke on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the March on Washington. The Bloody Sunday events in Selma two years later forged much of Lewis’ public identity. He was at the head of hundreds of civil rights protesters who attempted to march from the Black Belt city to the Alabama Capitol in Montgomery. The marchers completed the journey weeks later under the protection of federal authorities, but then-Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace, an outspoken segregationist at the time, refused to meet the marchers when they arrived at the Capitol. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on Aug. 6 of that year. Lewis spoke of those critical months for the rest of his life as he championed voting rights as the foundation of democracy, and he returned to Selma many times for commemorations at the site where authorities had brutalized him and others. “The vote is precious. It is almost sacred,” he said again and again. “It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a democracy.” The Supreme Court scaled back the seminal voting law in 2012; an overhauled version remains bottle-necked on Capitol Hill, with Democrats pushing a draft that McConnell and most of his fellow Republicans oppose. The new version would carry Lewis’ name. Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the last time Sunday on a horse-drawn carriage before an automobile hearse transported him to the Alabama Capitol, where he lay in repose. He was escorted by Alabama state troopers, this time with Black officers in their ranks, and his casket stood down the hall from the office where Wallace had peered out of
Inside the Statehouse: The 1964 Goldwater landslide was the beginning of republican dominance of the south
Steve Flowers outlines the 1964 presidential election and its impact on contemporary Alabama politics.
Selma Online offers free civil rights lessons amid virus
The project attempts to show students how events in 1965 shaped voting rights.
