The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was a terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963. The bombing was committed by a white supremacist terrorist group. Four members of a local Ku Klux Klan (KKK) chapter planted 19 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the steps located on the east side of the church.
Donald Eugene Siegelman is an American politician who was the 51st governor of Alabama from January 18, 1999 to January 20, 2003. A member of the Democratic Party, as of 2024, Siegelman is the last Democrat, as well as the only Catholic, to serve as Governor of Alabama to date.
Forrest Hood "Fob" James Jr. is an American politician, civil engineer, entrepreneur, and former football player. He served as the 48th governor of Alabama, first as a Democrat from 1979–1983, and then as a Republican from 1995 to 1999.
Harold Guy Hunt was an American politician who served as the 49th governor of Alabama from 1987 to 1993. He was the first Republican to serve as governor of the state since Reconstruction.
Jesse Benjamin Stoner Jr. was an American lawyer, white supremacist, neo-Nazi, segregationist politician, and domestic terrorist who perpetrated the 1958 bombing of the Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. He was not convicted for the bombing of the church until 1980.
Lucy Mae Bruner Baxley Smith was an American politician who served from 2003 to 2007 as the 28th lieutenant governor of Alabama and from 2008 to 2012 as president of the Alabama Public Service Commission. She was the first woman to hold the state's office of lieutenant governor. In 2006, she was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee for governor. In 2008, Baxley was elected President of the Alabama Public Service Commission, and was the only Democrat to win statewide that year. Until Doug Jones's swearing in after winning a 2017 U.S. Senate special election, Baxley had been the last Democrat to hold statewide office in Alabama.
Charles Allen Graddick Sr., was the 42nd attorney general of Alabama from 1979 to 1987. He later served as a judge of the 13th Judicial Circuit Court of the U.S. state of Alabama.
The 2006 Alabama gubernatorial election occurred on November 7, 2006. Incumbent Republican Governor Bob Riley defeated Democratic Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley. Riley garnered 21% of African Americans' votes.
Robert Edward Chambliss, also known as Dynamite Bob, was a white supremacist terrorist convicted in 1977 of murder for his role as conspirator in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963. A member of the United Klans of America, Chambliss also firebombed the houses of several African American families in Alabama.
The Alabama Public Service Commission, commonly called the PSC, was established by an act of the Alabama Legislature in 1915 to primarily replace the State Railroad Commission. The PSC's responsibility was expanded in 1920 to include regulating and setting rates that utility companies charge their customers for electricity. The legislature expanded the PSC's responsibilities in later years to include those companies that provide gas, water, and communications, as well as transportation common carriers such as trucking and air carriers. The PSC effectively determines the rate of profits that most of these companies are allowed to earn. However, some of its traditional responsibilities have passed to the federal government with the passage of the Federal Aviation Act of 1994 and the Federal Communications Act of 1996.
The Alabama Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the state of Alabama. It is chaired by Randy Kelley.
The lieutenant governor of Alabama is the president of the Alabama Senate, elected to serve a four-year term. The office was created in 1868, abolished in 1875, and recreated in 1901. According to the current constitution, should the governor be out of the state for more than 20 days, the lieutenant governor becomes acting governor, and if the governor dies, resigns or is removed from office, the lieutenant governor ascends to the governorship. Earlier constitutions said the powers of the governor devolved upon the successor, rather than them necessarily becoming governor, but the official listing includes these as full governors. The governor and lieutenant governor are not elected on the same ticket.
Emory McCord Folmar was an American politician who served as the mayor of Montgomery, Alabama, from 1977 to 1999. Although the mayor's office is nonpartisan, Folmar was known to be a Republican.
The 2008 United States Senate election in Georgia took place on November 4, 2008. The runoff election took place on December 2, 2008. Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss, first elected in 2002, sought re-election to his position as a United States Senator from Georgia. He was challenged by Democratic nominee Jim Martin and Libertarian nominee Allen Buckley. After a runoff election on December 2, Chambliss was elected.
The United Klans of America Inc. (UKA), based in Alabama, is a Ku Klux Klan organization active in the United States. Led by Robert Shelton, the UKA peaked in membership in the late 1960s and 1970s, and it was the most violent Klan organization of its time. Its headquarters was the Anglo-Saxon Club outside Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The 1986 Alabama gubernatorial election saw the election of Republican H. Guy Hunt over Democrat Bill Baxley. In state politics, this election is largely seen as a realigning election since Hunt was the first Republican to be elected governor in 114 years – the last Republican to be elected was David P. Lewis in 1872 during the Reconstruction era. In March 1986, incumbent George Wallace announced that he would not seek a fifth term as governor, ending an era in Alabama politics.
Elections in Alabama are authorized under the Alabama State Constitution, which establishes elections for the state level officers, cabinet, and legislature, and the election of county-level officers, including members of school boards.
The Birmingham riot of 1963 was a civil disorder and riot in Birmingham, Alabama, that was provoked by bombings on the night of May 11, 1963. The bombings targeted African-American leaders of the Birmingham campaign. In response, local African-Americans burned businesses and fought police throughout the downtown area.
The 1978 Alabama gubernatorial election took place on November 7, 1978, to elect the governor of Alabama. Fob James, a businessman who had switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party and campaigned as a "born-again Democrat", won the Democratic primary in an upset over Attorney General Bill Baxley. He went on to defeat Guy Hunt in a landslide in the general election. Incumbent Democrat George Wallace was term limited and could not seek a third consecutive term; he later successfully ran again in 1982.
Gary Thomas Rowe Jr., known in Witness Protection as Thomas Neil Moore, was a paid informant and agent provocateur for the FBI. As an informant, he infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, as part of the FBI's COINTELPRO project, to monitor and disrupt the Klan's activities. Rowe participated in violent Klan activity against African Americans and civil rights groups.
