Alabama Black caucus threatens filibuster over Segregation language Change

The Legislative Black Caucus announced plans Thursday to filibuster any new version of Amendment Two that does not remove all segregation-era language from Alabama's constitution. State Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Holmes, said the caucus won't be satisfied with leaving 1956 language in the constitution that says there is no right to an education at public expense in Alabama. "No bill is going to pass the Legislature unless it is exactly as it was on the Nov. 2 ballot," said Holmes, spokesman for the black caucus. On Nov. 2, Alabama voters narrowly defeated Amendment Two, which would have removed unenforceable language in the constitution that provides for segregated schools and poll taxes. Amendment Two also would have removed language -- added to Alabama's constitution in 1956 in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's school desegregation decision -- that says there is no right to an education in Alabama at public expense. Critics of Amendment Two, including the Christian Coalition and former Chief Justice Roy Moore, said removing the 1956 provision from the constitution could lead to judges ruling that education is a constitutional right and ordering the state to spend more on public schools, forcing tax increases. Holmes said opponents misled the public about possible tax hikes and merely used the tax issue so they wouldn't appear openly racist. "The efforts to keep the racist language in the Alabama Constitution was led by an unholy axis of the Christian right, racists and right-wing neo-Nazis who constituted the triplets of deceit," Holmes said in a statement. [more]

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