Alabama
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[[image:AL winner.gif|thumb|Banjo on mah knee!]] | [[image:AL winner.gif|thumb|Banjo on mah knee!]] | ||
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'''Alabama''' is one of many places in the Old South where you can buy a gun quite easily, but the selling of sex toys is illegal. And always will be. They need a [[Lawrence v. Texas]]. You know those old laws, like oranges are illegal every third Tuesday that's a full moon, and sodomy laws that were instated in 1709? Well, Alabama has one: selling guns to kids gets a $500 fine; but a sex toy will get you $10,000 and a year in jail! While the archaic law was eventually challenged, it still remains a law today. The year the archaic law was created? ''1998''.<ref>http://justjohnwright.com/general/alabama-law-continues-to-ban-sale-of-sex-toys/</ref> | '''Alabama''' is one of many places in the Old South where you can buy a gun quite easily, but the selling of sex toys is illegal. And always will be. They need a [[Lawrence v. Texas]]. You know those old laws, like oranges are illegal every third Tuesday that's a full moon, and sodomy laws that were instated in 1709? Well, Alabama has one: selling guns to kids gets a $500 fine; but a sex toy will get you $10,000 and a year in jail! While the archaic law was eventually challenged, it still remains a law today. The year the archaic law was created? ''1998''.<ref>http://justjohnwright.com/general/alabama-law-continues-to-ban-sale-of-sex-toys/</ref> | ||
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Something Alabamians probably don't know about the favorite daughter pictured on their state quarter: she was a hard-core [[socialist]], and therefore would likely not be a [[republican Party|Republican]] (at least not if she were alive today), like most of them are. | Something Alabamians probably don't know about the favorite daughter pictured on their state quarter: she was a hard-core [[socialist]], and therefore would likely not be a [[republican Party|Republican]] (at least not if she were alive today), like most of them are. | ||
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| + | ==Attitude towards African Americans== | ||
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| + | Humor writer Bill Bryson, in his autobiography ''The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid'', recounts the following story from the August 23rd 1958 issue of the ''Des Moines Register'' that is utterly horrifying: | ||
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| + | {{cquote|MOBILE, ALA. (AP)- The Alabama Supreme Court yesterday upheld a death sentence imposed on a Negro handyman, Jimmy Wilson, 55, for robbing Mrs. Esteele Barker of $1.95 at her home last year. Mrs. Barker is white. Although robbery is a capital offense in Alabama, no one has been executed in the state before for a theft of less than $5. A court official suggested that the jury had been influenced by the fact that Mrs. Barker told the jury that Wilson had spoken to her in a disrespectful tone. A spokesman for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called the death sentence 'a sad blot on the nation' but said the organization is unable to aid the condemned man because it is barred in Alabama.}}<ref>He got off "lightly": his sentence was commuted into ''life imprisonment'' and was freed '''seventeen years later'''; [http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1964&dat=19410808&id=FGUyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UbYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4812,5285855 this fellow wasn't so ''lucky''].</ref> | ||
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| + | But things are beginning to improve. In 2013, a government panel has recommended doing away with a section in state's 1901 constitution requiring separate schools for white and colored children. The group is hopeful they can overcome the opposition that retained the clause in a 2004 statewide vote.<ref>Commission approves replacement for racist wording in Alabama Constitution, by Tim Lockette, The Anniston Star, 12 August 2013</ref> | ||
==Notorious Alabamans== | ==Notorious Alabamans== | ||
Revision as of 01:42, 21 September 2013
Alabama is one of many places in the Old South where you can buy a gun quite easily, but the selling of sex toys is illegal. And always will be. They need a Lawrence v. Texas. You know those old laws, like oranges are illegal every third Tuesday that's a full moon, and sodomy laws that were instated in 1709? Well, Alabama has one: selling guns to kids gets a $500 fine; but a sex toy will get you $10,000 and a year in jail! While the archaic law was eventually challenged, it still remains a law today. The year the archaic law was created? 1998.[1]
Other wacky Alabama laws:
- It is illegal for anyone to put salt on railroad tracks
- It is against the law to buy a sack of peanuts after sundown.
- It is unlawful for men to trade mules after dark.
- It's illegal to play dominoes on Sunday.
Something Alabamians probably don't know about the favorite daughter pictured on their state quarter: she was a hard-core socialist, and therefore would likely not be a Republican (at least not if she were alive today), like most of them are.
Attitude towards African Americans
Humor writer Bill Bryson, in his autobiography The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, recounts the following story from the August 23rd 1958 issue of the Des Moines Register that is utterly horrifying:
“”MOBILE, ALA. (AP)- The Alabama Supreme Court yesterday upheld a death sentence imposed on a Negro handyman, Jimmy Wilson, 55, for robbing Mrs. Esteele Barker of $1.95 at her home last year. Mrs. Barker is white. Although robbery is a capital offense in Alabama, no one has been executed in the state before for a theft of less than $5. A court official suggested that the jury had been influenced by the fact that Mrs. Barker told the jury that Wilson had spoken to her in a disrespectful tone. A spokesman for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called the death sentence 'a sad blot on the nation' but said the organization is unable to aid the condemned man because it is barred in Alabama.
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But things are beginning to improve. In 2013, a government panel has recommended doing away with a section in state's 1901 constitution requiring separate schools for white and colored children. The group is hopeful they can overcome the opposition that retained the clause in a 2004 statewide vote.[3]
Notorious Alabamans
Footnotes
- ↑ http://justjohnwright.com/general/alabama-law-continues-to-ban-sale-of-sex-toys/
- ↑ He got off "lightly": his sentence was commuted into life imprisonment and was freed seventeen years later; this fellow wasn't so lucky.
- ↑ Commission approves replacement for racist wording in Alabama Constitution, by Tim Lockette, The Anniston Star, 12 August 2013
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