It is apparent that many Alabamians are confused by all the furor and hullabaloo surrounding the continuous federal litigation. The shifting of decisions, new election dates, counting of election results, and which congressman or congressional candidate is in which district has created ongoing uncertainty. I have been around Alabama politics a long time and I have never seen a scenario or so much ambiguity as we have found ourselves in this year. All of the turmoil stems from a Louisianian case – Louisiana v. Callais – where it appears that the U.S. Supreme Court is essentially ruling that a key part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act is outdated and unconstitutional.
The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 in the wake of the 1964 Presidential election. Lyndon B. Johnson had been elected President for a full term of his own in 1964. He ascended to the Presidency after the horrific assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
The country was politically ready for major Civil Rights legislation promised but never delivered by the Kennedy Administration. Kennedy knew that pragmatically, the dismantling of segregation and Jim Crow laws and mores in the South could not be overturned because of the power of the southern block of senators. Because of their seniority and prowess, the senators from the south totally controlled the U.S. Senate. They chaired every major committee, and they were devoted in a dedicated, ironclad block against any Civil Rights or Integration Laws. They were beholden to only white southern voters, as blacks were essentially disenfranchised in the south in 1960.
This group of powerful and distinguished senators were led by Richard Russell and Herman Talmadge of Georgia, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, Russell Long of Louisiana, John Stennis of Mississippi. Our own erudite team of John Sparkman and Lister Hill were in the Southern block. It was led by one powerful “win at all costs” Majority Leader of the Senate, Lyndon B. Johnson. Texan Johnson was an arch segregationists and anti-Civil Rights southerner. His beloved mentor was Richard Russell of Georgia.
When John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, Johnson, who had been put on the Democratic ticket in order to carry the swing Lone Star State in 1960, ascended to the Presidency. Johnson, who had uncanny inherent political instincts, knew that his path to the White House was through the passage of a major Civil Rights Bill.
Johnson used every ounce of political power he possessed to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Bill. He met with Civil Rights leaders Martin Luther King and Roy Wilkins. From their meetings they could determine from the power-driven political animal, crass, tough Texan, that his heart was not in the mission. His “conversion” was based on pragmatism, not morality. Johnson’s forte was not morality.
Johnson ran over his former southern block of senators in ruthless, less than honorable fashion, and passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act. As he signed the monumental law, he looked at the glaring stare of his mentor, Richard Russell, and said prophetically, “I have just signed the south over to the Republican Party for the next 60 years.” He was right, but the Republicans will prevail in the south far past this 60-year plateau.
The 1964 election was a landslide for Lyndon Johnson. He trounced the Republican nominee Barry Goldwater of Arizona. He carried 44 states. The only states he lost were Arizona and the five deep south states of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Johnson came back in 1965 and passed the Voting Rights Act. This legislation only applies to the five states that he lost. It was retribution, rather than equality, that triggered the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Alabama and her sister southern states have been precluded from rightfully and constitutionally drawing our own legislative and congressional districts for 60 years.
The U.S. Supreme Court is determining that the time is up on past discriminatory voting preclusions of black citizens, and that white southern voters are the ones being discriminated against now.
The bottom line is that the Supreme Court has decreed that Alabama can draw its congressional lines the same way that Massachusetts and California can. Going forward, ultimately, we will have a six to one or seven to zero Republican Congressional delegation, rather than a five to two.
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 [email protected].
This is an opinion column. It does not reflect the views of Alabama Daily News and its employees.