Main article is in today´s Washington Post.

Alabama voters had narrowly rejected a constitutional amendment that would have "erase[d] segregation-era wording requiring separate schools for ´white and colored children´ and eliminate[d] references to the poll taxes once imposed to disenfranchise blacks." To repeat: a majority of Alabama voters freely chose to keep segregationist language (long since unenforceable due to its federal unconstitutionality) in their state constitution.

Now, you might have thought -- as I did -- that this stunning rejection of basic 1950´s civil rights achievements was -- perhaps -- somewhat indicative of a teeny eensy bit of racism in Alabama. That´s why I was glad to learn from today´s WaPo that the real reason Alabamans voted in favor of state-enforced segregation and poll taxes was because . . . well . . . here -- read it yourself:

[Some say] it was not about race but about taxes. The amendment had two main parts: the removal of the separate-schools language and the removal of a passage -- inserted in the 1950s in an attempt to counter the Brown v. Board of Education ruling against segregated public schools -- that said Alabama´s constitution does not guarantee a right to a public education. Leading opponents, such as Alabama Christian Coalition President John Giles, said they did not object to removing the passage about separate schools for "white and colored children." But, employing an argument that was ridiculed by most of the state´s newspapers and by legions of legal experts, Giles and others said guaranteeing a right to a public education would have opened a door for "rogue" federal judges to order the state to raise taxes to pay for improvements in its public school system.


So there you go. I feel much better now, knowing that Alabama´s vote for segregation had nothing to do with race, and everything to do with denying children the right to public education.
That´s fantastic.
[link to www.dailykos.com]