Buses may be Integrated, but Problems Plague Transit System
With yesterday’s 60th anniversary of the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute hosted a panel to mark Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white man. But the talk didn’t stay focused on history. It quickly turned to the present, particularly the problems plaguing Birmingham’s buses.
“Where are we? Have we made any gains?” wondered Ahmad Ward, vice president of education for the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. “[We are] looking at access to transportation as a civil right.”
Ward told stories from his own family about how life without a car in Birmingham is difficult and exhausting.
The auditorium was packed with bus riders and community activists, and the panel discussion became an open forum for riders airing grievances. They told stories of hours-long commutes and buses that breakdown.
“Transportation is a quality of life issue,” Georgette Norman, the former director of the Rosa Parks Museum at Troy University, interjected. She explained that Montgomery faces many of the same issues as Birmingham. While the protests of the 50s and 60s integrated buses, parks, and schools, oppression and inequality remain, Norman said.
“Our reform has been superficialized,” Norman said. “We have to get back to the whole idea of human rights. Does it matter that I can walk into any restaurant sit down and be served if I don’t have the price of the meal?”
Or, Norman continued, does it matter if buses are integrated if they can’t get you anywhere? For these Birmingham residents the answer seems to be no.
Alabama’s prison population sees troubling growth in latest DOJ report
For the first time in nearly a decade, U.S. prison populations are trending up. Alabama's numbers are a part of troubling gains across the Gulf South.
A narrowing Republican presidential field will debate in Tuscaloosa Wednesday
Four candidates will be on stage at the University of Alabama for their last scheduled meeting before the Iowa caucuses kick off the presidential nominating season next month. Former President Donald Trump, the race’s clear front-runner, will not be among them.
Place, Erased: A virtual listening session with the Gulf States Newsroom; RSVP now
Join us as we listen to the recent series about towns transformed by major environmental shifts and talk with the reporters about what they learned.
Tuberville is ending blockade of most military nominees
Tuberville’s blockade of military promotions was over a dispute about a Pentagon abortion policy. The Alabama Republican said Tuesday he’s “not going to hold the promotions of these people any longer.”
Man featured in ‘S-Town’ podcast shot and killed by police during standoff, authorities say
Joseph Tyler Goodson was shot by officers after he barricaded himself inside a home and “brandished a gun" at officers early Sunday, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said. Bibb County Coroner Patrick Turner said that Goodson was pronounced “brain dead” Tuesday night at a hospital.
The next Republican debate is in Alabama, the state that gave the GOP a road map to Donald Trump
The state that propelled George Wallace, a Democrat and four-term governor, into national politics is now dominated by Republicans loyal to Donald Trump, another figure who leans heavily on grievance and white identity politics.
