Black troops won honor in Decatur in the Civil War
from The Huntsville Times
February 16, 2012
Atlanta cowboy to host Huntsville's first black rodeo this weekend at Alabama A&M
Mardi Gras puts spotlight on the 'art of the mask'
from Mobile Press-Register
by Thomas B. Harrison
January 31, 2012
Mobile Carnival Museum braces for Mardi Gras
from Mobile Press-Register
by Thomas B. Harrison
MOBILE, Alabama --- Visitors to the Mobile Carnival Museum may not know what they will see going in, but they will have a deeper understanding of Mardi Gras by the time they leave, says curator Edward Ladd.
January 23, 2012
by Jonathon Baggs
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama _ Success of the recent movie "Red Tails" about the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II is an inspiring story as is the 1989 film "Glory," which dramatized the 54th Massachusetts Infantry and its fight for freedom during the Civil War.
A local story that is just as dramatic in its own right is that of the 14th United States Colored Infantry when, outnumbered and outgunned, they tangled with Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood at Decatur on Oct. 28, 1864.
If you come to Decatur, visit the Old State Bank where a Civil War walking tour begins and winds by several historic markers highlighting the town's role during the conflict. The last marker of the tour is dedicated to the 363 men and officers of the 14th Colored Infantry.
It sits peacefully in the middle of Rhodes Ferry Park on the very ground where the proud African-American troops crossed during their charge toward a rebel battery of cannon near the Tennessee River.
On that day 148 years ago, the men of the 14th were tired from riding all night in rail cars from Chattanooga to reinforce the tiny Union garrison facing off against more than 30,000 in Hood's army at Decatur.
_________________________________________________________________February 16, 2012
Atlanta cowboy to host Huntsville's first black rodeo this weekend at Alabama A&M
from The Huntsville Times
by Sarah Cure
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Some years ago while horseback riding, Atlanta native D. Williams was asked by a child, “Whose horse are your riding?”
More concerned than upset, the Ph.D. student was bewildered by the perception of African American horsemen.
“Some don’t believe black people own horses,” said Williams, who now resides with his wife, an engineer, in Huntsville. “But you can’t get mad because they don’t know.
“I want to destroy those stereotypes,” he said. “There’s so much history in black rodeo and with African American and horses, but we don’t get a chance to exemplify it because the story was never told.”
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February 13, 2012Mardi Gras puts spotlight on the 'art of the mask'
from Mobile Press-Register
by Thomas B. Harrison
 |
| Masks by Maura Odom at Cathedral Square Gallery in Mobile. (Press-Register/G.M. Andrews) |
In Stanley Kubrick’s final film, “Eyes Wide Shut,” actor Tom Cruise wanders through a country mansion where members of a bizarre upscale cult are engaged in various erotic pursuits. The sequence is all the more discomfiting because the revelers wear a bewildering (and sinister) array of masks.
For at least 9,000 years the mask has been an object of mystery, ritual or theatrical performance. From Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death” to the graphic novel and film “V for Vendetta” to the Lone Ranger, Zorro and the disfigured composer in “Phantom of the Opera,” it is all about the mask.
The allure is undeniable and the history long and colorful — and profitable for the savvy folks who cashed in on the “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th” franchises. Thank you, Michael Myers; much obliged, Jason Voorhees. Who knew that a hockey mask could terrify movie audiences?
Gulf Coast residents have a somewhat different take, especially during Carnival season. Down here, the mask means there’s a party going on — or soon will be. For two wild ¤’n’ crazy weeks, libidos are unchained and in a relentless and hedonistic pursuit of pleasure. Let the good times roll.
_________________________________________________________________
January 31, 2012
Mobile Carnival Museum braces for Mardi Gras
from Mobile Press-Register
by Thomas B. Harrison
MOBILE, Alabama --- Visitors to the Mobile Carnival Museum may not know what they will see going in, but they will have a deeper understanding of Mardi Gras by the time they leave, says curator Edward Ladd.
If they’re smart, they will not leave in haste — certainly not before they linger awhile and explore the wonders of Toomey’s museum store in the historic Bernstein-Bush house. The building once housed the Museum of Mobile (recently renamed the History Museum of Mobile), which relocated to the Old Southern Market on Royal Street in midsummer 2001.
Mobile Carnival Museum moved to this location in 2005 and has become a repository for all things Mardi Gras: ball gowns to crowns, scepters, masks and royalty-related items; artifacts, photos, documents and period items such as ladies’ dance cards, throws, paper-weights and artwork from decades past.
Many of the artifacts come to the museum through people who seek to share their treasures, says Ladd.
January 23, 2012
A midair courtship: Tuskegee's historic love story
from CNN
by Wayne Drash
 |
| CNN |
Tuskegee, Alabama (CNN) -- Herbert Carter and Mildred Hemmons had no time for dating in the early months of 1942.
He was training to become a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the nation's first military program for African-American pilots.
She was the bold, daring woman who caught his eye. At 18, she'd become the first black woman in Alabama to earn a pilot's license. She had hopes of becoming a military pilot, too.
Flying was intoxicating. It provided Herbert and Mildred a sense of freedom -- to be themselves, to dream big. The in-your-face racism of the segregated South was gone, if only for a while. In the air, the sky was literally the limit.
It takes pioneers to force change. Herbert and Mildred would play their part in the years ahead. But in those early days, they didn't see themselves as trailblazers. They were young and in love.
He was training to become a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, the nation's first military program for African-American pilots.
She was the bold, daring woman who caught his eye. At 18, she'd become the first black woman in Alabama to earn a pilot's license. She had hopes of becoming a military pilot, too.
Flying was intoxicating. It provided Herbert and Mildred a sense of freedom -- to be themselves, to dream big. The in-your-face racism of the segregated South was gone, if only for a while. In the air, the sky was literally the limit.
It takes pioneers to force change. Herbert and Mildred would play their part in the years ahead. But in those early days, they didn't see themselves as trailblazers. They were young and in love.
CONTINUE>>>
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_____________________________________________________________
January 11, 2012
Alabama promotes Year of Food in 2012
from Leisure Group Travel
Alabama Tourism will officially kick off The Year of Alabama Food on Jan. 27 during the FoodBlogSouth event in Birmingham. The event is a conference for food writers, bloggers and photographers. It also will unveil a 30-second television commercial during the media event and will provide a sneak peek at the new “100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama Before You Die” brochure. The Year of Alabama Food website (www.yearofalabamafood.com) will be updated by the end of January.
George Lucas film about Tuskegee Airman prompts extended tours at Alabama museum
from The Republic
by the Associated Press
January 10, 2012
Local civil rights leaders reflect on 50th anniversary of the movement's beginnings in Huntsville (with video)
from The Huntsville Times
by Mike Marshall
Here was Huntsville 50 years ago this week: A city that was beginning a year in which 1,000 people were moving here each month, the most obvious impact of the area's transition to space technology.
But the migration of NASA engineers had not erased all the signs of the Old South. Huntsville, like the rest of Alabama, was still mired in segregation in the first week of January 1962.
Among the new arrivals in the city that week was Hank Thomas, a member of the Congress of Racial Equality. Even at 20, Thomas was already a veteran of the civil rights movement in Alabama, discovering the dangers of activism as one of the original Freedom Riders.
Thomas had been on the Freedom Riders bus that was firebombed just west of Anniston on Mother's Day 1961. Eight months later, he came to Huntsville to give the city its introduction to the civil rights movement.
CONTINUE>>>
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December 30, 2011
Tenth Alabama Regiment cemetery in Virginia uncovered 150 years later
from The Birmingham News
by Mary Orndorff
BRISTOW, Va. -- About an hour west of Washington, D.C., on a scrubby plot of land overrun by pricker bushes and in the shadow of dense modern townhouse developments, an Alabama cemetery was born.
December 14, 2011
Transportation Museum opens its doors
from Tuscaloosa News
by Mark Hughes Cobb
TUSCALOOSA | An audience of financial, aesthetic and political supporters applauded the opening of the Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum on Tuesday morning, the culmination of planning and renovations that took about seven years.
December 12, 2011
Mobile County set for 200th birthday celebration
from The Mobile Press-Register
November 16, 2011
Moundville named as setting for Inaugural SELTI Writing Contest
from Planet Weekly
Inaugural SELTI Writing Contest
Moundville, Alabama, has been named the target promotional site for the Inaugural SELTI Writing Contest. The contest is sponsored by the Southeastern Literary Tourism Initiative (SELTI) and the University of Alabama Museums. Contestants will compete to write the short story that best promotes tourism to the historic Native American archaeology site. Moundville includes impressive mounds that served as the center of one of the largest Native American cities in North America 800 years ago. The site is also now home to a state museum and park that recently completed a $5 million renovation, including a new wing of the indoor museum.
The winning short story will be published online at the Southeastern Literary Tourism Initiative and will include photos of Moundville and a link to the museum’s website. The winner will likely get national publicity since this will be the first tourism fiction contest. The global economic downturn has put increasing pressure on tourism attractions and cultural parks everywhere, many of which rely on shrinking government funding and private donations to stay afloat. Although Moundville has done well in funding over the past few years, the tourism fiction contest could be a model for how many other cultural parks could gain exposure and extra funding.
“Tourism fiction is an innovative tool that can be used by any city or attraction in the world to engage potential tourists in an entirely new way,” said SELTI founder Patrick Miller, who also published the first interactive tourism novel on Kindle, “Blind Fate.” Miller’s novel was set in real tourism attractions of Montgomery, Alabama, such as the Rosa Parks Museum. The groundbreaking novel includes a tourism guide at the end where readers can click on links from inside the book and instantly browse the many related tourism sites. By downloading a Kindle app, readers can also purchase Kindle novels on a variety of other e-reading devices such as iPads, smart phones, tablet computers, and regular desktop and laptop computers. The new Kindle Fire will also allow readers to browse the tourism websites from the novel with touchscreen color.
CONTINUE>>>
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November 10, 2011
Jefferson County Commission votes 4-1 to file nation's largest municipal bankruptcy
from The Birmingham News
by Barnett Wright
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Jefferson County Commission has voted 4-1 to file an estimated $4.2 billion bankruptcy, the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
There will be a related hearing in U.S. federal court in Birmingham at 10 a.m. Thursday.
The commission's action came after it spent approximately six hours over two days meeting with its lawyers to discuss legal options, including a Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing and a settlement with creditors on the county's $3.14 billion sewer debt.
Court-appointed Jefferson County sewer receiver John Young Jr. said today that the county's decision is a "catastrophic mistake and devastating" for customers of the wastewater system.
Commissioner Jimmie Stephens made the motion to file bankruptcy, which was seconded by Commissioner Sandra Little Brown. "It is time to resolve this once and for all," Stephens said.
CONTINUE>>>
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November 4, 2011
ESPN Films’ Roll Tide/War Eagle to Premiere on November 8 on ESPN
from ESPN
Great rivalries abound in both college and professional sports but few compare to the venomous and consuming in-state college football rivalry that is Alabama-Auburn. With no professional sports in the state of Alabama, football fans focus their attention on one game every year: the annual meeting between the two universities called the "Iron Bowl."
ESPN Films, creators of the Emmy-nominated and Peabody award-winning 30 for 30 film series, is airing a new documentary that examines this rivalry with Roll Tide/War Eagle premiering on ESPN/ESPN HD on Tuesday, Nov. 8, at 8 p.m. ET.
The past two years have generated storylines around these two schools that would seem far-fetched in a Hollywood movie. On the field, each program celebrated a national title, a Heisman Trophy winner and an Iron Bowl win. Off the field, the rivalry took a twisted turn, with a stunning tale of poisoned trees and a historic force of Mother Nature that brought both sides of this split state together.
Roll Tide/War Eagle is a one-hour documentary that examines the history of bad blood that runs between the two programs -- all told through the eyes of both school's Hall of Fame icons, the controversial figures that launched this rivalry into the national spotlight, all the way down to its passionate roots -- the fans. The story of this heated competition unfolds via dramatic, and sometimes funny, interviews with well-known figures including Bo Jackson, Charles Barkley, Cam Newton, Mark Ingram, Nick Saban and many others.
Roll Tide/War Eagle is directed by Martin Khodabakhshian and produced by Joe Tessitore and Bruce Feldman.
ESPN Films’ recent slate of documentaries is now available on iTunes and Amazon.com and will be available soon on DVD at major retailers. A compilation of films from the series will be available in a collectible DVD Gift Set this holiday season.
_______________________________________________________________
October 31, 2011
Alabama immigration fight recalls civil rights era
from The Associated Press
by Phillip Rawls
MONTGOMERY, Alabama (AP) — The epicenter of the fight over the patchwork of immigration laws in the United States is not Arizona, which shares a border with Mexico and became a common site for boycotts. Nor was it any of the four states that were next to pass their own crackdowns.
No, the case that's likely to be the first sorted out by the U.S. Supreme Court comes from the Deep South state of Alabama, where the nation's strictest immigration law has resurrected ugly images from the state's days as the nation's battleground for civil rights a half-century ago.
And Alabama's jump to the forefront says as much about the country's evolving demographics as it does the nation's collective memory of the state's sometimes violent path to desegregation.
With the failure of Congress in recent years to pass comprehensive federal immigration legislation, Arizona, Georgia, Utah, South Carolina and Indiana have passed their own. But supporters and opponents alike agree none contained provisions as strict as those passed in Alabama, among them one that required schools to check students' immigration status. That provision, which has been temporarily blocked, would allow the Supreme Court to reconsider a decision that said a kindergarten to high school education must be provided to illegal immigrants.
CONTINUE>>>
Alabama promotes Year of Food in 2012
from Leisure Group Travel
Alabama Tourism will officially kick off The Year of Alabama Food on Jan. 27 during the FoodBlogSouth event in Birmingham. The event is a conference for food writers, bloggers and photographers. It also will unveil a 30-second television commercial during the media event and will provide a sneak peek at the new “100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama Before You Die” brochure. The Year of Alabama Food website (www.yearofalabamafood.com) will be updated by the end of January.
“The new website is top-notch and we are sure it will be a great experience for those seeking the great culinary dishes our state has to offer,” said Lee Sentell, tourism director. “We think it offers something for every taste whether it’s fine dining, a meat and three buffet, or BBQ. It’s also a great way for folks to search the 300-plus food events happening in 2012.”
Alabama’s top restaurants can be explored from its small towns to its biggest cities. Visitors to the site can find a restaurant among the more than 250 listings by city or they can search by cuisine type. The site also introduces some of Alabama’s top chefs. The bios and stories include Wesley Tru in Mobile, Frank Stitt and Chris Hastings of Birmingham, and James Boyce of Huntsville.
For fresh produce a search feature on the site allows visitors to search for famers markets across the state, from Pepper Place in Birmingham to Mobile’s Market on the Square and Madison’s City Farmers Market. A click on the map will help locate more than 130 markets across 67 counties.
The website offers five culinary trails from each region of the state. The Coastal Cuisine trail offers fresh Gulf Coast seafood, while the Heartland Trails takes travelers from historic restaurants to college towns with down home cooking and BBQ. The Lower Alabama trail offers a variety of eats in the Mobile area, the Magic City Trail offers everything from meat and threes to fine dining in Birmingham, and the North Alabama trail takes diners through Huntsville and the Shoals with offerings from a Harvey milkshake to BBQ and steak.
_______________________________________________________________
January 11, 2012_______________________________________________________________
George Lucas film about Tuskegee Airman prompts extended tours at Alabama museum
from The Republic
by the Associated Press
TUSKEGEE, Ala. — The museum in Tuskegee that honors the Tuskegee Airmen will offer an extended schedule of tours Jan. 20-22 to celebrate the release of the new George Lucas film about the airmen called "Red Tails."
Superintendent Sandy Taylor says the public can watch the release of the movie on Jan. 20 and then visit the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site and Museum at Moton Field in Tuskegee.
Superintendent Sandy Taylor says the public can watch the release of the movie on Jan. 20 and then visit the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site and Museum at Moton Field in Tuskegee. Six guided tours will be offered each day at 9, 10 and 11 a.m. and 1, 2 and 3 p.m.
State tourism director Lee Sentell says he hopes the movie will encourage tourists to visit Tuskegee to see planes used by the black pilots in World War II and experience real history.
_______________________________________________________________January 10, 2012
Local civil rights leaders reflect on 50th anniversary of the movement's beginnings in Huntsville (with video)
from The Huntsville Times
by Mike Marshall
Here was Huntsville 50 years ago this week: A city that was beginning a year in which 1,000 people were moving here each month, the most obvious impact of the area's transition to space technology.
But the migration of NASA engineers had not erased all the signs of the Old South. Huntsville, like the rest of Alabama, was still mired in segregation in the first week of January 1962.
Among the new arrivals in the city that week was Hank Thomas, a member of the Congress of Racial Equality. Even at 20, Thomas was already a veteran of the civil rights movement in Alabama, discovering the dangers of activism as one of the original Freedom Riders.
Thomas had been on the Freedom Riders bus that was firebombed just west of Anniston on Mother's Day 1961. Eight months later, he came to Huntsville to give the city its introduction to the civil rights movement.
CONTINUE>>>
_______________________________________________________________
December 30, 2011
Tenth Alabama Regiment cemetery in Virginia uncovered 150 years later
from The Birmingham News
by Mary Orndorff
BRISTOW, Va. -- About an hour west of Washington, D.C., on a scrubby plot of land overrun by pricker bushes and in the shadow of dense modern townhouse developments, an Alabama cemetery was born.
Civil War preservationists with no personal links to Alabama admit to muttering a "Roll Tide" or two as they walked across the newly cleared land, the final resting place of between 75 and 90 soldiers with the Tenth Alabama Infantry Regiment.
Historical documents and archeological study pinpointed the burial grounds, a desperate place in the late summer of 1861, when rampant disease claimed up to five or six Confederate soldiers a day at what was known as Camp Jones.
There are other signs. The area is devoid of stones, except for five large rocks dug deeply into the dirt, each cut on at least one side by a man-made tool. And the area is pockmarked by man-sized depressions, not in rows, but haphazardly, as if soldiers were buried right where they died.
_______________________________________________________________
December 14, 2011
Transportation Museum opens its doors
from Tuscaloosa News
by Mark Hughes Cobb
TUSCALOOSA | An audience of financial, aesthetic and political supporters applauded the opening of the Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum on Tuesday morning, the culmination of planning and renovations that took about seven years.
“This is a long-awaited day,” said Theresa Lewis, economic development coordinator for the city of Tuscaloosa, who helped run the project. Applications were made in 2004 and federal funds came the next year. The project has been underway at various levels since then, Lewis said.
The museum, featuring artifacts, replications, photographs and iPad displays of the area’s history as reflected through rivers, roads, rails and other forms of transport, was built in the old Queen City Pool Bathhouse on River Road. The bathhouse and pool were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, for design by Don Buel Schuyler, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, and historic significance as a Works Project Administration structure built during the Great Depression.
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December 12, 2011
Mobile County set for 200th birthday celebration
from The Mobile Press-Register
MOBILE, Alabama -- Mobile County’s 200th birthday celebration will kick off at 4 p.m. Saturday in Bienville Square in downtown Mobile, following the Mobile Christmas and Holiday Parade.
The county’s Bicentennial Commission and the County Commission have organized volunteers to appear in historic attire. There also will be a proclamation from Gov. Robert Bentley and a photo display.
All municipalities will be represented during the Saturday event, according to a news release.
County commissioners will present each with a commemorative bicentennial flag to display during 2012, the bicentennial year.
On Dec. 18, 1812, Mobile County was created by proclamation of the governor of what was then the Mississippi Territory.
A full year of observances is planned for 2012, emphasizing history, arts, sports, leadership and local communities.
For information about participating in or sponsoring Bicentennial activities, contact the Bicentennial Commission at (251) 574-9064.
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November 16, 2011
Moundville named as setting for Inaugural SELTI Writing Contest
from Planet Weekly
Inaugural SELTI Writing Contest
Moundville, Alabama, has been named the target promotional site for the Inaugural SELTI Writing Contest. The contest is sponsored by the Southeastern Literary Tourism Initiative (SELTI) and the University of Alabama Museums. Contestants will compete to write the short story that best promotes tourism to the historic Native American archaeology site. Moundville includes impressive mounds that served as the center of one of the largest Native American cities in North America 800 years ago. The site is also now home to a state museum and park that recently completed a $5 million renovation, including a new wing of the indoor museum.
The winning short story will be published online at the Southeastern Literary Tourism Initiative and will include photos of Moundville and a link to the museum’s website. The winner will likely get national publicity since this will be the first tourism fiction contest. The global economic downturn has put increasing pressure on tourism attractions and cultural parks everywhere, many of which rely on shrinking government funding and private donations to stay afloat. Although Moundville has done well in funding over the past few years, the tourism fiction contest could be a model for how many other cultural parks could gain exposure and extra funding.
“Tourism fiction is an innovative tool that can be used by any city or attraction in the world to engage potential tourists in an entirely new way,” said SELTI founder Patrick Miller, who also published the first interactive tourism novel on Kindle, “Blind Fate.” Miller’s novel was set in real tourism attractions of Montgomery, Alabama, such as the Rosa Parks Museum. The groundbreaking novel includes a tourism guide at the end where readers can click on links from inside the book and instantly browse the many related tourism sites. By downloading a Kindle app, readers can also purchase Kindle novels on a variety of other e-reading devices such as iPads, smart phones, tablet computers, and regular desktop and laptop computers. The new Kindle Fire will also allow readers to browse the tourism websites from the novel with touchscreen color.
CONTINUE>>>
______________________________________________________________
November 10, 2011
Jefferson County Commission votes 4-1 to file nation's largest municipal bankruptcy
from The Birmingham News
by Barnett Wright
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The Jefferson County Commission has voted 4-1 to file an estimated $4.2 billion bankruptcy, the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
There will be a related hearing in U.S. federal court in Birmingham at 10 a.m. Thursday.
The commission's action came after it spent approximately six hours over two days meeting with its lawyers to discuss legal options, including a Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing and a settlement with creditors on the county's $3.14 billion sewer debt.
Court-appointed Jefferson County sewer receiver John Young Jr. said today that the county's decision is a "catastrophic mistake and devastating" for customers of the wastewater system.
Commissioner Jimmie Stephens made the motion to file bankruptcy, which was seconded by Commissioner Sandra Little Brown. "It is time to resolve this once and for all," Stephens said.
CONTINUE>>>
_______________________________________________________________
November 4, 2011
ESPN Films’ Roll Tide/War Eagle to Premiere on November 8 on ESPN
from ESPN
Great rivalries abound in both college and professional sports but few compare to the venomous and consuming in-state college football rivalry that is Alabama-Auburn. With no professional sports in the state of Alabama, football fans focus their attention on one game every year: the annual meeting between the two universities called the "Iron Bowl."
ESPN Films, creators of the Emmy-nominated and Peabody award-winning 30 for 30 film series, is airing a new documentary that examines this rivalry with Roll Tide/War Eagle premiering on ESPN/ESPN HD on Tuesday, Nov. 8, at 8 p.m. ET.
The past two years have generated storylines around these two schools that would seem far-fetched in a Hollywood movie. On the field, each program celebrated a national title, a Heisman Trophy winner and an Iron Bowl win. Off the field, the rivalry took a twisted turn, with a stunning tale of poisoned trees and a historic force of Mother Nature that brought both sides of this split state together.
Roll Tide/War Eagle is a one-hour documentary that examines the history of bad blood that runs between the two programs -- all told through the eyes of both school's Hall of Fame icons, the controversial figures that launched this rivalry into the national spotlight, all the way down to its passionate roots -- the fans. The story of this heated competition unfolds via dramatic, and sometimes funny, interviews with well-known figures including Bo Jackson, Charles Barkley, Cam Newton, Mark Ingram, Nick Saban and many others.
Roll Tide/War Eagle is directed by Martin Khodabakhshian and produced by Joe Tessitore and Bruce Feldman.
ESPN Films’ recent slate of documentaries is now available on iTunes and Amazon.com and will be available soon on DVD at major retailers. A compilation of films from the series will be available in a collectible DVD Gift Set this holiday season.
_______________________________________________________________
October 31, 2011
Alabama immigration fight recalls civil rights era
from The Associated Press
by Phillip Rawls
MONTGOMERY, Alabama (AP) — The epicenter of the fight over the patchwork of immigration laws in the United States is not Arizona, which shares a border with Mexico and became a common site for boycotts. Nor was it any of the four states that were next to pass their own crackdowns.
No, the case that's likely to be the first sorted out by the U.S. Supreme Court comes from the Deep South state of Alabama, where the nation's strictest immigration law has resurrected ugly images from the state's days as the nation's battleground for civil rights a half-century ago.
And Alabama's jump to the forefront says as much about the country's evolving demographics as it does the nation's collective memory of the state's sometimes violent path to desegregation.
With the failure of Congress in recent years to pass comprehensive federal immigration legislation, Arizona, Georgia, Utah, South Carolina and Indiana have passed their own. But supporters and opponents alike agree none contained provisions as strict as those passed in Alabama, among them one that required schools to check students' immigration status. That provision, which has been temporarily blocked, would allow the Supreme Court to reconsider a decision that said a kindergarten to high school education must be provided to illegal immigrants.
CONTINUE>>>
