This morning radio talk show host Frank Matthews will take a resolution to the Birmingham City Council for the city to apologize for American slavery. Of course, Birmingham itself was incorporated five years after the Civil War and eight years after the Emancipation Proclamation, but Matthews says that’s no matter.
“That antebellum house was over there with 20 slaves,” Matthews said Monday, referring to the Arlington House, now a national historic site here.
According to Matthews, Councilor Steven Hoyt had agreed to entertain the slavery resolution but went back on his promise. Since then, he says, Councilor Carol Brown-Duncan (the councilor formerly known as Reynolds) has agreed to give Matthews time to present his motion to the council.
Matthews’ resolution follows on another symbolic resolution that failed to pass last week. That resolution, presented by Councilor Valerie Abbott, would have had Birmingham join the Partnership for Inclusive Communities, an initiative of the National League of Cities. Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh and Nashville have already passed that resolution, in addition to several Alabama cities, including Selma, Talladega and Aliceville.
Read the full text of the resolution here.
In other news …
In Montgomery today the Alabama House is expected to vote on House Bill 195, also known as the Gourmet Beer Bill. For the last several years, a gourmet beer advocacy group, Free the Hops, has lobbied the legislature to legalize the sale of beers with higher alcohol content.
As it is, Alabama law limits beer sales to those with 6 percent alcohol content or less, prohibiting many higher-grade European beverages. Alabama is just one of four states with such a stringent restriction, including West Virginia, South Carolina and Mississippi.
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Thomas Jackson, a Democrat from Thomasville, which incidentally is located in a dry county (Clarke).
A companion bill in the Alabama Senate, SB 211, passed out of the Senate Tourism and Marketing Committee last week. According to Free the Hops, Gov. Bob Riley said last year that he would not oppose an identical bill that died in the Legislature.
There is still no word whether a Republican-led slowdown in the Alabama Senate would stall or even kill the bill.
— Kyle Whitmire
