News & Commentary

February is Black History Month, a month dedicated to celebrating, honoring, and reflecting on the contributions that Black Americans have made to the United States. First celebrated as a single week in February, Black History Month became a month-long holiday in 1976, 200 years after the Declaration of Independence was issued. Gerald R. Ford, who was president at the time, asked the nation to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Domineque Ray was pronounced dead last night at 10:12 p.m. Thirty minutes prior, his execution by lethal injection began.

E.J. Bradford. Chikesia Clemons. Ulysses Wilkerson. Sureshbhai Patel. Greg Gunn. These are only a few of the names of those who have been in headlines after being brutalized or killed at the hands of law enforcement in the state of Alabama in recent years.

When Mississippi Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is in a run-off election with Democrat Mike Espy for the state's U.S. Senate seat, attempted to show her loyalty to one of her supporters during a recent campaign stop, she quipped: “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.”

The ACLU of Alabama, Alabama Civic Engagement Coalition, Alabama Justice Initiative, Faith in Action, and Greater Birmingham Ministries came together to engage in your race because the stakes are high for all Jefferson County residents.

Now that the election season has come to an end, we want to take time to reflect on what we have learned during the midterm campaigns and look ahead for where Alabama must go from here.

America has spent the last 50 years becoming the world’s largest incarcerator. It’s gotten there with substantial help from elected local prosecutors, who have used their extraordinary power to lock people up in jails and prisons at unprecedented rates and for unconscionably long amounts of time.

In Alabama, politicians are attempting to enshrine, via ballot, anti-abortion rhetoric in the state constitution and assign legal rights to fetuses.

Amendment 1 purports to allow public bodies, including public schools, to display the Ten Commandments on government property. But, there’s a huge catch that legislators are hoping voters won’t notice.