Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Never Gonna Change? An examination of the 1901 Alabama Constitution
Abstract
From 1990-2014, Alabama fought against improving the property tax system for the benefit of public schools in Knight v. Alabama (2007) and Lynch v. Alabama (2014). Knight and Lynch charged the State with upholding a racially discriminatory property tax system that served to keep public school systems, particularly in rural, predominately Black counties, severely underfunded. Brown v. Board compelled Alabama to desegregate its school systems with “all deliberate speed,” but school systems remained unequal due to funding disparities from the state’s overly complicated tax system. Despite over 700 amendments by 2014, Alabama’s constitution left the property tax system created in 1901 nearly unchanged. The system created in 1901 worked to keep property taxes low and profits for large landowners high, while disenfranchising Black citizens and demolishing the public school system. To protect the system created in 1901, the Alabama Legislature, during Governor George Wallace’s administration, responded to Brown and the 1965 Voting Rights Act by removing the responsibility of funding public schools from the state and removing the power to change property taxes from local officials. While the courts acknowledged the racially discriminatory intent behind Alabama’s property tax system, they refused to amend the systems created by the 1901 and 1963 state governments. The rulings in Knight and Lynch highlight the contentious relationship between property rights and civil rights deeply embedded in Alabama’s history of state-sanctioned racism.
First Page
33
Last Page
56
Publication Date
9-1-2024
Recommended Citation
Porter, B. (2024). The system works as intended: Alabama’s 1901 Constitution and financing public education. In N.A. Aguado (Ed.), Never Gonna Change? An examination of the 1901 Alabama Constitution (pp. 33-56). North Alabama Digital Press @ Collier Library.
Comments
About the Author
Brucie Porter is a native of Auburn, Alabama, and a Ph.D. candidate at Auburn University. She specializes in the history of education in the South and has produced research on education systems in both Tennessee and Alabama. She is currently a research fellow for the Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Consortium and the Alabama Historic Commission. Previously, she has worked for the City of Montgomery’s land division department, Auburn University’s Archives and Special Collections, and the Encyclopedia of Alabama.