Voters in f ive states abolish racist symbols
Alabama acts to strip vestiges of segregation from its Constitution as nation reconsiders a history of oppression.
Alabama, Rhode Island, Mississippi, Nebraska and Utah embrace a purge of emblems of slavery and the systematic oppression of Black people.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alabama voters reversed themselves from a few years ago and removed vestiges of racial segregation from their state’s Constitution. Rhode Island voters also did a Uturn, finally deciding to jettison the word “plantations” from the state’s official name.
In a year when discussions of racial justice have dominated U. S. society, f ive states voted to purge their official public sphere of words, phrases and symbols that to many were painful reminders of the nation’s history of slavery and the systematic oppression of Black people.
Brendan Skip Mark, who teaches political science at the University of Rhode Island, says the decisions were linked to the revulsion and widespread protests that followed the death in May of George Floyd, a Black man, in police custody in Minneapolis. “I think we’ve seen a lot of people who are more willing to take concrete steps to address racism than they were in the past,” Mark said.
In addition to the votes in Alabama and Rhode Island, residents of Utah and Nebraska decided to strip their constitutions of unenforceable provisions that allowed slavery as a punishment for criminal convictions. And Mississippi voters approved a state f lag without the familiar X- shaped design of the Confederate battle f lag.
The votes are a positive sign in a nation where racial tension has always existed, said Stacy Moak, who teaches in the social work department at the Uni
versity of Alabama at Birmingham.
“Affirmative votes for these changes shows a willingness on the part of Americans to provide for a more inclusive community,” Moak said by email. “These changes, by themselves, are not enough — but they are encouraging signs of progress in the right direction.”
The Alabama measure begins the process of removing Jim Crow language from the 1901 Constitution that was intended to entrench white supremacy. Voters in the mostly white, conservative state had rejected similar proposals twice since 2000.
Courts had long ago struck down the legality of the segregationist provisions, but the language banning mixed- race marriage, allowing poll taxes and mandating school segregation remained.
Glenn Crowell, a Black Republican from Montgomery, was among the roughly 67% of voters who supported scrapping those sections.
“It just doesn’t make any
sense nowadays,” said Crowell, 63. Yet another statewide vote will be required to approve the revisions after legislators consider a draft in 2022.
In neighboring Mississippi, about 71% of voters approved the new state f lag, which features a magnolia and the words “In God We Trust” instead of a Confederate theme. State legislators voted to retire the old f lag in June after the nation erupted in demonstrations following Floyd’s killing.
Mississippi voters also eliminated an 1890s provision that aimed to ensure white control of the state by requiring majorities of both the popular vote and the 122 state House districts in order to win statewide office. Now, only a majority of the popular vote is required.
Utah and Nebraska approved provisions similar to Alabama’s to delete constitutional language allowing slavery as a possible punishment in criminal cases.
The measures, which passed by 81% in Utah and 68% in Nebraska, got relatively little attention before
the vote. But the fact that states even placed the measures on ballots shows that protests and the national discussion on racism are having an effect, said Deirdre Cooper Owens, director of the humanities in medicine program at the University of Nebraska.
“Symbolism matters, and so does language,” she said.
The vote was closest in Rhode Island, once a hub of the transatlantic slave trade, where 53% of voters supported the proposal to strip the words “and Providence Plantations” from the state’s formal name, f irst adopted in 1790. A similar measure fell short in 2010.
In racially diverse Providence, the capital, a truth commission was established to consider the state’s historic ties to slavery, land seizures, systemic racism and possible reparations.
“This ballot initiative is part of a broader shift in Rhode Island to reconcile with the past,” said Mark of the University of Rhode Island. “I think this is a unique moment in history.”