Alabama Vote Opens Old Racial Wounds
School Segregation Remains a State Law as Amendment Is Defeated
The Washington Post
By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 28, 2004; Page A01
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — On that long-ago day of Alabama’s great shame, Gov. George C. Wallace (D) stood in a schoolhouse door and declared that his state’s constitution forbade black students to enroll at the University of Alabama.
He was correct.
If Wallace could be brought back to life today to reprise his 1963 moment of infamy outside Foster Auditorium, he would still be correct. Alabama voters made sure of that Nov. 2, refusing to approve a constitutional amendment to erase segregation-era wording requiring separate schools for “white and colored children” and to eliminate references to the poll taxes once imposed to disenfranchise blacks.
Recount to Start on Alabama Amendment
November 28, 2004
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 7:52 p.m. ET
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Election officials will begin recounting votes Monday on a narrowly rejected ballot measure that would have removed segregation-era language from the state Constitution.
The amendment was defeated by 1,850, or .13 percent, according to the final vote tally. Alabama law requires an automatic recount if the margin is within a half percent.
The amendment would have removed un-enforced language mandating racial segregation from the state Constitution, which was written in 1901.