Endorsements and Alabama Sea-Changes
Rocket City USA falls into the Obama win column.
Cullman County elects James Fields to the Alabama State Legislature. Cullman County is 96% white and once was the national headquarters for the Klan. Mr. James is from Colony, a black community established during Reconstruction as a rural ghetto. Mr. James is the first Black candidate to win his party's nomination for a state office and the first Black candidate to win a seat in Cullman. He has worked as a high-level administrator and investigator in state government and as a county commissioner. He won by almost 60% of the vote.
I have deep roots in Cullman County through my maternal grandmother, and my parents actually left the town and incurred a significant financial loss and displacement for a year or two because they could not abide racist attitudes in their intimate, non-familial community. I was very proud of my parents then, and I am very proud of Cullman County today, transcending racial identity and a harsh history to elect a talented, qualified candidate with exceptional experience in state and county administration.
Cullman County elects James Fields to the Alabama State Legislature. Cullman County is 96% white and once was the national headquarters for the Klan. Mr. James is from Colony, a black community established during Reconstruction as a rural ghetto. Mr. James is the first Black candidate to win his party's nomination for a state office and the first Black candidate to win a seat in Cullman. He has worked as a high-level administrator and investigator in state government and as a county commissioner. He won by almost 60% of the vote.
I have deep roots in Cullman County through my maternal grandmother, and my parents actually left the town and incurred a significant financial loss and displacement for a year or two because they could not abide racist attitudes in their intimate, non-familial community. I was very proud of my parents then, and I am very proud of Cullman County today, transcending racial identity and a harsh history to elect a talented, qualified candidate with exceptional experience in state and county administration.
posted by JRB at 9:56 AM
2 Comments:
I may have told you this before but I spent a week in Cullman working at the Children's Home with a Nashville youth group.
I was told that it was a Sundown Town and racism was the firs thing I thought of when I saw "Cullman".
Good for them.
Cullman is a Sundown Town. This victory is huge for race relations. Or, it might be bad; I have driven through Cullman a few times but never with any uncomfortable feelings.
Post a Comment
<< Home