From our state House studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacey.

Welcome to Capitol Journal.

It was a special week here in the state of Alabama as Birmingham's record field played host to Major League Baseball's tribute to the Negro Leagues.

The historic landmarks all special events throughout the week, culminating in Thursday's big league game between the San Francisco Giants and the Saint Louis Cardinals.

Those who actually played in the Negro Leagues were honored on the field for their contributions to the game of baseball and society at large.

Plans were to honor the great Willie Mays, the legendary Alabama native who began his career with the Birmingham Black Barons.

Derek would field and went on to become one of baseball's all time greats.

But Mays passed away this week at the age of 93, which led to an outpouring of gratitude from the baseball world, especially there in Birmingham.

And there you see, Governor Kay Ivey and Senator Katie Britt were on hand for the occasion.

It really was a special moment for Alabama.

If you missed the game and the tribute, I encourage you to find it online and give it a watch.

Of course, the tribute game coincided with a celebration of Juneteenth.

June 19th, 1865 is the date many associate with the effective end of slavery in the United States, as that's the day word of emancipation finally reached Galveston, Texas, the capital city was host to some special Juneteenth events.

Capital journal's Randy Scott reports.

Montgomery, Alabama is the scene for a major celebration honoring the Juneteenth holiday.

Juneteenth observed when slaves in Texas finally got word they were freed from slavery on June 19th, 1865, and finally recognized as free people for the first time in 1870, when they developed their name and high ranking I's for the United States government.

And the names are on the wall, and there's a carry these names today.

But I want you to think about and remember at this education, family and hope and love, the Equal Justice Initiative is opening its new monuments park on 17 acres of its property, and this four story, 155ft wall is the centerpiece.

It contains the surname of some 122,000 freed people entered into the census records in 1870.

A powerful sight for those in attendance who say they're glad they came here.

You right miss?

I really enjoyed it.

I look forward to whatever the future beholds.

And and this lasting legacy I think is amazing.

It reflects on my ancestors.

And like you said, I feel a deep.

And for you desire to meet my ancestors, know where I'm from.

The opening of this new exhibit is a perfect way to celebrate Juneteenth, but others say it's also a good opportunity to approach a topic that many have a tough time talking about.

Dealing with racism in America.

The goal for this new exhibit is, like other exhibits, to be an educational tool that is shown in the faces taking in this event.

Among them, you will have Jesse Jackson, an award winning movie producer director Ava DuVernay, in the crowd with hundreds of others.

They're also taking in inspirational music from legendary musician Wynton Marsalis.

Because we've been working for a long time to create a space that honestly and appropriately honors the 10 million people who were enslaved in this country.

I really think it's important that we reckon more honestly, with the history of slavery and the legacy that it creates, telling a history that helps people heal and learn more.

There's some that don't want people to know the history.

They're actually trying to silence those who talk about it.

I think we need to do the opposite, and we don't need to fear the truth of our history.

I think if we actually embrace the truth of our history, the truth will actually set us free.

In Montgomery, Randy Scott, Capital Journal.

Congresswoman Terri Sewell was in Birmingham this week, and she brought along with her officials from Washington, D.C., for a roundtable on black entrepreneurship.

Hosted at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the discussion focused on closing the black wealth gap and advancing black empowerment.

Joining Sewell were white House director of public engagement Stephen Benjamin.

Congressional Black Caucus chairman Steven Horsford, caucus vice chairwoman, event clerk, Birmingham Urban League president and CEO William Barnes.

Birmingham Business Resource Center executive director Bob Dickinson and Birmingham Business Alliance network navigator Nala Jackson.

Despite the, important progress that we made in the fight for racial equity and racial equality, our work is far from done.

Black families continue to face persistent barriers when it comes to economic equity.

And nowhere is that more apparent than in the black wealth gap.

In 2021, black households made up 13.6% of the population of all U.S. households, but we held only 4.7% of all wealth.

In fact, the black wealth gap has been expanding since 20, 10 to 2010.

Today's event is an effort and an opportunity for us to not only identify the problem, but to work towards solutions.

In March, under the leadership of Chairman Steven Horsford of the Congressional Black Caucus, we released a black wealth agenda focused on closing the black wealth gap.

Black entrepreneurship is a key tenet of that agenda.

It includes and involves increasing access to capital and technical assistance for black owned businesses, and creating a pipeline of aspiring black entrepreneurs into the corporate world.

With the help of the Biden-Harris administration, we are already seeing real progress since President Biden took office.

The black unemployment rate and gap between blacks and whites and unemployment hit an all time low.

Black wealth is up 60% relative to pre-pandemic levels, and the share of black businesses.

Business owners more than doubled between 2019 and 2020.

Black owned businesses are being created at a faster rate than it has in the past 30 years.

Today's event is about accelerating our progress.

It's about forging partnerships, and it's about empowering the next generation of black entrepreneurs.

Also in Birmingham this week, a primary election to fill the latest vacancy in the Alabama Legislature, House district 52 became an open seat when longtime state Representative John Rogers was forced to resign as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors, who charged Rogers for his participation in a grifting scheme.

In the Democratic primary.

Kelvin Dasher was the lead vote getter in the Birmingham district with almost 38% of the vote.

Frank Woodson was next with just under 18% of the vote.

That means Dasher and Woodson will face each other in a primary runoff on July 16th.

The winner of that contest will face Republican Carlos Krum in the general election on October 1st.

More progress this week at the Alabama Department of Corrections as it endeavors to boost guard staff numbers at state prisons.

The department celebrated the graduate of 54 correctional officers from its training academy in Selma.

It's the second graduating class this year, and a third is expected to start in a few weeks.

The state is under a federal court order to boost prison staffing after the graduation.

Commissioner John Hamp told reporters that increasing staffing is priority number one for the department.

You know, we have put a significant effort and amount of resources on recruiting and hiring correctional officers because there's no secret, we need more correctional officers in our facilities.

So, we put a lot of emphasis on that.

We raise pay a little over a year ago that, we saw a significant uptick in applications.

we advertise on, indeed, other media sources.

We have recruiters in the field, going to job fairs, probably go to 3 or 400 job fairs a year.

We have, probably 100 or so on site hiring events where they're at our facilities, our training facilities, our prisons.

So there's not a day that doesn't go by that we're putting emphasis on recruiting, hiring and retaining correctional officers.

The solution is, is this.

But at the end of the day, this is a piece that we know that's going to solve.

The problem is being able to to get, more officers in to make sure that we get more help in there, to make sure that we have order in our because it's important that we have order.

And so we got these, these young men and women who are coming in and, giving themselves to the state of Alabama.

So this is a part of the puzzle.

And we at the legislature and in the state of Alabama are going to continue to build upon this to make sure that we get it right.

And because I believe in our corrections system.

For the third year in a row, the Alabama law Enforcement Agency teamed up with Gulf Shores and Orange Beach to help with rescue swimmer flights.

They're doing this through increased funding towards the Alea rescue helicopter.

Capitol Journal's Jeff Sanders has more.

White sandy shores and beautiful Gulf waters attract tens of thousands of visitors to Alabama's beaches each year.

But the fun in the sun can turn tragic in the blink of an eye.

This is a dangerous place, and it's not a lake.

And things that most of our visitors do not have any experience with or understand.

Gulf shores Mayor Robert Kraft on the dangers beachgoers can face in the Gulf of Mexico.

Our lifeguards have to go out to get them and then rescue them and bring them back.

It's tough on the visitor, but it's also really tough on our lifeguards.

But thanks to $400,000 in extra funding from the state legislature, state troopers can expand their ability to quickly put rescue swimmers in the water.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agencies Aviation Unit has partnered with Gulf Shores and Orange Beach for the third year in a row to assist rescue swimmer flights.

Senator Chris Elliott helped secure that funding, which adds another 70 to 100 flights per year.

Since my time on the county commission here in Baldwin County, we have struggled with finding a way to effectively, rescue swimmers in distress, all along Alabama's beaches.

And what you see behind me is the best interagency, multi-jurisdictional partnership that I have ever seen.

One of the best things you can see from up here in the air at night, there's really dangerous.

Much more visible from the helicopter than they are from the beach.

The helicopter does so much more than just rescue swimmers.

It's a observation platform for lifeguards from the air to where we can monitor the swimming activity and what people are doing in the water.

So there's been so many preventative actions that almost go unaccounted for.

just the helicopter being there and being a presence and available, as part of our arsenal.

And if the added flights can save at least one life, officials say it's worth all the effort.

Reporting from Gulf Shores.

I'm Jeff Sanders for Capital Journal.

Tough assignment for Jeff there.

Speaking of the Gulf Coast, we reported recently that the state completed its purchase of the Foley Beach Express toll bridge and ended tolls to the beach back in May.

This week, crews took to work to demolish the toll booth plaza for good.

Here's that footage from the Alabama Department of Transportation and.

There you go.

We'll be right back with this week's guests.

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Capital Journal episodes are also available on AP TV's free mobile app.

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Keep up with what's happening with Capital Journal.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Howell Taylor, secretary of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

Mr. Secretary, thanks for coming on the show.

Thanks for having me, Todd.

And I really appreciate the opportunity.

Sure.

Well, lots to talk about, but, I'll start off with this.

I wanted to have you on the show because here we are, just in the in the thick of summer driving season.

I just took a trip to a conference over the weekend, and there are just many, many cars on the road.

I know that must be a special challenge for your trooper division and just patrolling keeping the roads safe.

So talk about what goes into that that special challenge of this summer driving season.

Yeah, so several things with that.

But, mainly what we do, we usually have extra patrol.

But what I asked people to what we asked people to do is have patience because there's so much traffic, as you said, on the road, a lot going to the beaches.

And there's just there's no where to go, you know, so trying to go around somebody and not having the space to go.

And the next thing you know, they're blowing the horn and you've aggravated somebody.

And, we just ask them to have patience out there.

And if they do break down, you know, anything at all.

Get as far as you can off the right side of the road and call for help.

And then we'll come out there or send the local police out there or a wrecker or whatever is needed.

And then the main thing is, and try to move over the law is if there's an emergency vehicle or somebody on the side of the road that you're to get over in the in the far left lane.

If you can't, then the law says slow down 15 miles lower than the posted speed limit.

there's so many people out there that are changing tires and working on their cars or whatever happened, you know, to their vehicle, and they have no room.

And people are just right there, and they're not slowing down enough to let other people over to get in the left lane.

And we're we're having a lot of problems with people getting hit, cars getting hit.

We've had, you know, fire trucks for different things show up for emergency situations, and then some of their personnel get hit because people are not slowing down long enough to let those people do their job.

So have patience.

We're all going to get there, right?

Please have patience.

And you will.

You will get there.

Oh man.

I was like I said, I was headed down to a conference.

and someone just passed me fly.

And this is like a one of the kind of smaller roads.

331 flew by me and, and sure enough, one of your guys got him right.

That hit them, too, right?

So I can I can, attest that 331 is well tended by by your troopers.

Well, well, speaking of, troopers, you've got a new law on the books with handsfree driving.

talking about texting while driving, distracted driving.

The law had been a little vague, maybe before, but.

But the legislature wanted to clarify it now.

So what do we need to know about the new law?

And and texting while driving and distracted driving.

So first of all, now it's not a secondary violation.

If a trooper or police officer sees you weaving back and forth, running off the road, not using your turn signal, anything at all that you look impaired, or possibly not paying attention to the road and your back and forth or anything at all, you can be stopped now.

And if you have that device in your hand, then you're going to be written a ticket.

Okay.

Well that's that's pretty specific.

Rather than oh well I wasn't texting, I was looking at something else.

So any kind of distracted driving correct.

Yeah.

Well, and the problem was as a lot of people, they are looking at a GPS and they're trying to figure out where they're going.

Most cars now have hands free where you don't have to have your device in your hand.

Right.

And that's what was happening.

So put it put it in, put it in a hands free or put it somewhere else where you don't have to have it in your hand and pay attention to the road.

I'm guessing that a lot of accidents are caused by that.

Distracted.

Oh, I just needed to send that text.

I needed to watch this tweet or whatever.

I was just unnecessary in the in back to pull in off the right side of the road and people getting over.

We think that a lot of the the accidents that happen when when they are light, that is people who are looking down and are distracted, they don't see the they don't see the road, they don't see what's ahead.

They're not paying attention.

They're just not paying attention.

Well, it's good advice and, good awareness that, hey, the law has been beefed up, so, be careful.

speaking of vacation season and speaking of the beach, we reported earlier on this rescue swimmer program that's really been accelerated.

talk about this.

This is this seems like a real, interesting thing that y'all are doing, actually trying to to protect swimmers.

the Gulf Coast.

Yes.

So several years ago, we were asked to come down and fly our helicopter on holidays when most people were at the beach and the busiest time of the year.

And swimmers are out there, and to be out there in case they get too far out and we could come down and lower down and either throw a lifejacket or one of a rescue swimmer jump out of the helicopter and help save them or get them in, or bring them closer or whatever the case may be.

So a couple of years ago, we were only doing it on the holidays, Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day.

And some of those days, the undertow and the current rip current was fine and we didn't have any problems at all.

So we reevaluated that in between Baldwin County and Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, they said, can you come down and fly on days that that the rip current and the undertow is the worst?

That's when we need you down here, which makes sense.

So we started meeting with the meteorologist and they can predict this 3 to 5 days out when it's going to be the worst times.

Oh, really?

So what we what we're doing now is flying on those days, not just the holidays, but on the days when it is the worst.

so we fly from Fort Morgan all the way down through Gulf Shores to Orange Beach on the Alabama line, and then turn and come back and fly all day back and forth.

We have radio communication with Baldwin County, with Orange Beach and Gulf Shores.

And if they're on the beach and see something, then they can call us and the helicopter will come in lower down and have a, rescue swimmer jump out.

Wow.

So those rip currents are what you're looking for.

And sometimes as swimmers, they don't really know that they're in one.

Maybe because you can't, but from the air, you can really see it, right?

That's correct.

They get out there and they've gone a little, little too far.

And they think they're okay.

And they're playing and with their kids or their family, and next thing you know, they're way out and they don't have a life jacket on and they can't touch and they they're too far out.

And that's when they need the help.

Interesting.

Well, that's that's a that's a relief to know that there's, there's rescue.

available but also should be, you know, reminder to use caution.

You pay attention to those red flags and things like that.

well, other waters in our state look, the lakes people love to get out on the boat, on the lakes over the summer.

But, I mean, that's also got to be a challenge to patrol the waters.

you know, trying to crack down on drinking and driving a boat and things like that.

Talk about what goes into the marine patrol division.

and especially in the summer months of high boat traffic.

So what we start off is we have 101 days of summer, and we start with Memorial Day and go through Labor Day.

of course, the marine patrol or more.

There's more in the waters in the summertime, of course, because there's just not as much activity in the wintertime.

But, we stop more boats and we're out there to be seen.

And, you know, there's there's so many boats on the lake now that you've really got to pay attention to what you do.

And, and I tell people all the time, you don't have a red light or yellow lines or stop signs, but you need to drive just like you would if you were on the highway.

Pay attention.

Have the same alertness and awareness that you would if you're on the road, on the water, because it's just as dangerous.

Make sure you have that personal flotation device on, and one you can put your hand on real quick.

Have that kill switch on.

Be sure you're paying attention and watching what the other boaters are doing, so that you know whether to go right or go left.

Hope you hopefully you go right and they go right, but if not, then you pay attention and you go right and take care of your your boat and your family.

Almost like a defensive driving.

What they used to call.

Correct.

Yeah.

That's right.

That's good advice.

makes me want to go to the lake.

Well, well, I've got you.

I just remember back when you first came on as secretary.

and one of your sort of goals was to replenish the trooper ranks, right?

Make sure to recruit, train, graduate from the academy and get the trooper ranks back up, to where they should be.

And it's been several years now, and I don't know exactly what the number is, but how's that going?

I know that you'll recently graduated another class of troopers.

We did Todd, last Friday.

We graduated 25, and we will have another class start in August and graduate in November.

So we're getting the numbers up to where they need to be.

my number when I first got here in 17 was 650 is what I would like to have.

And that would put someone in each county 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

we're not quite to that number, but hopefully one day we'll get there.

We, the legislature and the governor's office has been really good to us to give us money to, to hire the ones that we have now.

And we've we've really come a long way and have a lot of visibility out there and a lot of troopers on the roadway.

And, but we're going to keep on and we're going to keep hiring in the next year, year and a half, and try to keep those numbers heading in the right direction.

Very important.

Well, look, it's going to be one of your legacies, I think, because it's so important to make sure that, like you said, every county, and especially our rural counties, there is a trooper presence right?

We're out of time.

But again now, thanks for coming on the show.

And thanks for educating us on some of these really important safety.

You're very welcome.

Thanks for having me.

Thank you.

we'll be right back.

You can watch past episodes of Capital Journal online any time at Alabama Public Television's website.

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Click on the online video tab on the main page.

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We have a labor gap.

We have the laborers that from the past, or they're getting ready to retire and there's nobody to take their place.

That's why friendship's important today, is because if we don't do that, this contract is already hurting.

To find qualified people to work for.

It's only going to get worse as these men retire.

It's really critical.

Just that we just some trained craftsmen out there.

And it's not just an electrical, it's in every field.

Tony is.

Mike started an apprenticeship program.

He was my teacher, an alum.

Thornton.

On the first, first two years in an apprenticeship program while I was in high school.

And I'm finishing the last two at art school.

And Mitchell Talbot, apparently an electrician.

My dad always done it.

I always wanted to do this.

And then he did my last grade year in an apprenticeship program, I went, I did like the core classes the second year teach about baby can't do it like learning stuff, and the third year is a lot more and lot mechanical.

My name is Tony Brown and I work at Allen Point Career Center, where I teach electricity.

With me teaching the kids during the day and on the high school level, I like Mitchell Talbot.

He completed his first year with me in high school.

So when he when he graduated high school, went into work.

He actually started at second year level.

I went to high school at 7:00 in the morning, got out of 1145, and I went to work from 1145 to 230, and I went to class.

The apprenticeship program at five, and then I wouldn't leave at about 8:00 at night.

It's basically you get paid to work, and I was going to save time and learn what you're doing for your trade.

Like in graduate already with one year of internship under their belt.

That's what you need to look at if you're looking to start.

You really need to get the local career to get involved in it and see if you can't work out a deal to where they can get credit for the work that they've done in high school.

You're watching Alabama Public Television.

And you.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Doctor Richard Bailey, president of the Alabama Historical Association.

Doctor Bailey, thanks for coming on the show.

And thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

Well, I've been eager to have a discussion with you.

We've with, you know, this week we're celebrating Juneteenth.

Yes.

Randi did a great report.

earlier in the show.

I want to have you on to take us, you know, into the history behind the holiday.

Well, first of all, let us go back to Galveston, Texas, June 18th, 1865.

Union General Gordon Granger arrives in Galveston and the next day, June 19th, from the balcony of the Aston Villa.

He reads General Order number three.

And in that order he tells these enslaved person who, within your sight of, your shot of his voice, you are slaves no more.

You're the equal to any white person, but don't engage in idleness.

And believe it or not, there was shock, on the faces of some of these people.

And for others, it was the extreme jubilation.

I was going to say.

It must have been quite a moment.

It was quite a moment.

But one thing they all agreed on.

They were enslaved no more.

Well, I mean, talk about why it took so long for.

Because I'm thinking Emancipation Proclamation.

Of course, that was during the war.

you also had the 13th amendment.

So what took it so long to, to make it to June 19th, 1865, all the way over into Texas?

Yes.

We're talking about when the, President Lincoln signed Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863, to June 19th, 1860, for something like two and a half years.

Yeah.

There are three stories about that delay.

One is that the messenger was murdered.

Two, that slaveholders with hope was hell.

The information of the news about Juneteenth until they got to the next cropping and even worse, there's a story that Union soldiers, shall we say, agree with planters to withhold this story from enslaved person so they can get another crop out.

Really?

So.

So then so some people may have known the the slave owners, the plantation owners knew but didn't.

They were careful not to let that information get out to to the enslaved people.

That is correct.

Yes.

Well that's that's really something.

You know, it seems to me that this holiday has really grown in popularity because, I mean, just growing up, I didn't really remember this being necessarily celebrated or being having a huge kind of national significance.

Talk about how it has developed in recent years to where it really is celebrated nationally.

Well, when first of all, with the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s especially, there was an increased interest in Juneteenth.

And then when President Biden made it a national holiday in 2021, all of a sudden it seemed like everybody in the country was interested in Juneteenth, right?

Yeah, it I agree with you.

It's it's really caught on.

Well, let me ask you this.

Why, you know, why is that celebrated more?

So then why not the Emancipation Proclamation?

Why not that date or the ratification of the 13th amendment?

You know, why aren't those dates?

What was it?

Juneteenth rather than those other dates?

Well, first of all, at one point, Emancipation Proclamation was celebrated by everybody in the country.

It just seemed as if some of those persons, have died off.

And the emphasis has shifted from what we do on, January 1st to some other things that have nothing to do with the Emancipation Proclamation.

But the interest in the Emancipation Proclamation is still there.

But with Juneteenth, it seemed as if we have, a renewed interest and another reason for celebration.

And the point is, you have these, picnics or these parades, miss Juneteenth and and all of that these people are engaging in today, right?

And especially with, I hear in the summertime, it's just a huge, huge deal.

and so it's something worth worth talking about.

Worth celebrating.

Yes.

So it is a national holiday.

It's not a state holiday.

Now, Governor Ivey has herself, given state employees the day off and sort of informally made it a state holiday.

But it would take an act of the legislature to actually formally make Juneteenth a state holiday.

There's been a lot of discussion about that.

You had some legislation this past session, but, you know, every time you get into this, every time this comes up, you talk about the other holidays, including the Confederate holiday, specifically, what they were kind of horse trading on was the Jefferson Davis holiday.

Should we swap that and make it Juneteenth?

And there's been some negotiations and all that talk about that.

I mean, should the state go ahead and do this and would it be appropriate to substitute?

you know, considering our history.

Well, first of all, I believe that in the state of Alabama, we should definitely have, Juneteenth as a state holiday.

At the same time, I don't know for what reason.

We still celebrate Jefferson Davis his birthday.

I don't I really don't.

At one point, when we had our Confederate statues all over the South, including Alabama, and we had all sorts of interests in the Confederacy.

I could understand not did I agree, but I can understand why we would have so much emphasis on that which was Confederate.

But in 2024, I don't think that, we should even be talking about, some of these items and some of these concerns that relate to the Confederacy.

well, I'm sure that that's going to be debated in the legislature in the years to come, but they came kind of close to a compromise last year.

But we'll see.

Well, I wanted to talk about your books.

You were kind enough to bring your books.

I asked you to bring them on.

they too, call Alabama home.

neither carpetbaggers nor scalawags.

Yes.

Interesting books talk about, starting with the neither carpetbaggers or scalawags.

What's the book about?

The book is about black officeholders during the reconstruction of Alabama.

Alabama.

black officeholders.

And I tell the story of what happened in Alabama.

And beginning with the end of the Civil War.

What was the response of African-Americans to, the news that the Civil War had ended?

And I just want to tell you this one point, since you asked that question, I do tell the story in this book about one plantation owner in Alabama who did not inform his enslaved people that the war ended, and he kept them on that property, for some time.

And it just so happened that was autographing books one day, and this white lady walked up to me and started talking about the period, and she said, do you have anything in there about any white person who might have done such?

I said, yes, I do.

And I showed her and it just happened to have been her great great grandfather.

No way.

Really?

Oh, that's that that must have blown her mind.

Right.

But I did with the, background of these officeholders in Alabama who became congressmen, who became, legislators, council persons, county commissioners, you name it, I talk about them in their background and what happened.

In other words, what was responsible for the disappearance of those black officeholders in Alabama?

That's an interesting story.

Yeah.

Because that was during the reconstruction period.

It sort of preceded what became Jim Crow.

I'm just part of the story right.

Yes.

Yeah.

We'll talk about this other one with basically profiles of African-American leaders.

Right.

believe it or not, this book grew in a way to call Alabama home, but grew out of the carpetbagger book.

When I went to get the, carpetbagger book adopted by the state Board of Education, the committee was so interested in what I had said, they wanted me to write a book dealing with the totality of the black experience in Alabama.

And that's how we got that book.

So I go back to 1800 to talk about the black experience in Alabama.

in business, religion, education, the military, whatever the case may be, I have those profiles in that book, 393, to be exact.

Do you have any favorites you want to kind of highlight?

I don't really have a favorite per se, but I can tell you I really appreciate having the opportunity to write this book.

I've heard you talk about Horace King and the influence that he had here in the state of Alabama, including his partnership with Daniel Pratt.

Can you kind of walk through or tell us about who Horace King is and his significance here in Montgomery?

Well, his significance in Montgomery is simply this.

He was responsible for building the staircase in the state capitol after the state capitol had burned in 1849.

Horace King was born in the Cheraw District of South Carolina.

He came to Alabama in 1832 with his owner, John Godwin, and they built the first bridge to connect what was what became, Scenic City and Columbus, Georgia.

He was the first black office holder in Russell and Lee County history.

He was the first, person who served as a black, office holder, suggest said.

And he enrolled the first group of black voters in Russell Lee County history.

But he went on to build that staircase and did a lot of other things in the state of Alabama.

And he's he's one of the largest personalities in all of Alabama history.

And in 1860, he was the wealthiest African-American in Alabama.

Is that right?

Well, I'm from Prattville, so I was really interested to hear your conversation about his partnership with Daniel Pratt and that history, because a lot of that, you know, leading up to the war and even after the war.

Yeah.

Daniel Pratt received a contract to build a staircase in the state capitol.

And, they had a mutual friend in Robinson Jemison of Tuscaloosa who was chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

And, Robert Jemison contacted Horace King about, rebuilding their staircase and here in the state capitol.

That's fascinating.

I'm going to go take a look at it next time I'm over there.

And is there a plaque or anything that's been kind of dedicated to, pulling out his significance?

Well, there's a story of some newspaper clippings there now, but what I did in February 2019, I unveiled a portrait of Horace King.

there so people can see who he is or who he was.

And the two guys tell the story of what Horace King did there.

Well, I'm going to make sure to stop by and encourage our viewers to do that as well.

Sure.

Everybody needs to go see the state Capitol.

So much so much history there.

Well you know, it strikes me I enjoyed this conversation.

But, you know, it's not easy to talk about race.

No, it's not, it's not.

But, the thing about Horace King is that this guy, in addition to being an office holder, he actually tried to shall we say, build a bridge between the races when his owner, John Godwin, died.

Horace King built a statue in honor of his own and pay his honors.

his owners, funeral expenses.

This was unheard of in Alabama and in the South.

And he has, in the, in that, scripture that, owned that stone, that in that, graveyard that he did was in loving remembrance of his former owner and friend, John Godwin.

And the point of the matter is, John Godwin was responsible for Horace King gaining his freedom.

Well, we'll see when you when you talk about it there you have this tone of hope and overcoming and of reconciliation.

It it's in contrast to so much of the rhetoric out there about race that's so divisive and so heated, and everything it just strikes me as more hopeful about overcoming and reconciliation.

Yes, Horace Kane becomes a shining example of an African American who tries to, shall we say, get black people and white people to work together.

Maybe a lesson for us today.

No doubt about it.

Absolutely.

Well, look, Doctor Bailey, thank you so much for coming on the show.

I encourage folks to check out your books.

I'm certainly going to be reading them.

And, thanks again for coming on the show.

And thank you for having me.

We'll be right back.

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Horace King was the most respected bridge builder in the southeast during the mid-19th century.

Enslaved until 1846.

By 1860, King was one of the wealthiest free blacks in the state.

An exceptional engineer and contractor, Alabama hired King to design and build the elegant staircases on the new Capitol building in Montgomery.

He later served as a member of the Alabama House of Representatives, earning him a legendary status to this day.

Welcome back to Capital Journal.

Joining me next is Anthony Lee president elect of Huntington College.

Mr. president thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you.

President elect right.

Thanks for having me, Todd.

It's great to see you.

And great to be with you this evening.

Absolutely.

Well, congratulations.

when I saw the news, I was tickled to death.

obviously known for a long time, but thought it was just a real special, accomplishment for you and a big milestone.

So congrats.

Well, it's, it's an incredible honor, and I'm truly humbled by it.

but I have to tell you, I'm excited about it.

I've been working for the college for 15 years, and I absolutely love Huntington College.

And serving our students really fuels me.

And I have found that, the Ministry of Higher Education is my calling.

And this just gives me a new and even better way in which I can serve our students and our college and, which provides such tremendous value to the city of Montgomery, to the Cloverdale neighborhood, and certainly in service to the state of Alabama.

Well, it certainly is a historic college, right.

So many I mean, just a lot of history.

Can you walk us through the history of Huntington College?

I mean I know there's a lot.

Sure.

Well, the college was originally founded in 1854 as a women's college in Tuskegee.

It was first known as Tuskegee Female College.

And then in the 1870s, it was acquired by the Methodist Church, and it became the Alabama Conference Female College, named for the Alabama Conference of the Methodist Church.

Later on it became Woman's College of Alabama, and then in 1909, the College moved from Tuskegee to its current location in Montgomery.

The leaders of the institution at the time realized that there was a town about 30 minutes to the west that was showing a little more promise as, an urban center.

And so the decision was made to move to Montgomery, in a very tragic moment in August of 1909.

All of the furniture and the records and everything that belonged to the college was moved from Tuskegee to Hamner Hall in downtown Montgomery.

And the night that that occurred, the building caught fire.

Oh, no.

And the college lost everything.

the college had a brand new president at the time who had just come from Sullins College in Virginia.

So he took the whole student body, made up at the time of some 60 or 70 young ladies, put them on a train to, Virginia, where they had their education for that next year, while they waited for Flowers Hall, which was being built to be finished.

And in 1909. the the students and the faculty, they returned to Montgomery, in the 1930s and 1934. and all of the Great Depression.

The college realized that in order to sustain itself long term, it probably needed to become co-educational.

And Women's College of Alabama didn't sound like a very good name for an institution that was going to begin attracting men.

So it changed the name from Woman's College of Alabama to Huntingdon, named for Selina Hastings, who was the Countess of Huntingdon in England and one of the great early benefactors of John Wesley's Methodist movement.

So, been in Montgomery now for 115 years.

it is a historic place.

We celebrate our Gothic collegiate architecture.

we have 7000 living alumni, many of whom are, sprinkled across the state of Alabama.

We have alumni in all 67 counties.

I was going to say some pretty prominent names, too.

We do have some prominent names.

certainly.

Catherine Tucker Windham, the author of 13 Alabama Ghost and Jeffrey, who, a storybook that most of us read as, elementary school students.

She graduated from Huntingdon in 1939.

Jeff Sessions are former senator and former attorney general, was a member of the class of 1969.

He was president of the student body, of course, at the college.

met his wife at Huntingdon.

Fun fact about Huntingdon Todd one out of seven Huntingdon alumni are married to another Huntingdon alum.

Is that right?

So I always tell students here in opening convocation to open your eyes.

love is in the air.

You might find Mr. and Mrs.

Right at Huntingdon College.

Well, yeah, that's that's good advice.

Any any, young folks listening?

That's a good, it's a good marketing tool.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

That's great.

Well, I've noticed because I live right next door.

and I've noticed there's a lot of change in the air, a lot of construction going on on campus.

Can you talk about what's what's planned?

Well, I like to think of, the changes as progress.

we had a dormitory that was built in 1912.

Pratt Hall.

And then 12 years later, a back side of the dorm.

Hansen Hall was was built on to it.

And neither one of those structures, over 100 years ago, were built.

Well.

And through the decades, they weren't properly maintained.

And for several years they've been vacant and unused right in the center of our campus.

So those buildings have just come down, to make way for a brand new, wellness facility.

we'll have an indoor cardio fitness facility, walking track.

Another gymnasium for intramural purposes, competition purposes, and also an outdoor swimming pool.

things that many of our students see at other campuses when they do the college tours.

As a high school students, and something that we feel that we need, to provide that, central fitness space for our student body, which just like most colleges, our students are very interested in their health and wellness, their physical fitness, their mental health, their spiritual health, their academic health, and certainly having a space where they can go and work out and be amongst friends as important to building community as well.

Why hasn't there been a bigger emphasis on athletics in in recent years at Huntington?

Well, Huntington is a NCAA Division three.

College Division three is different from one and two, and that we don't offer athletic scholarships.

but we do have 22 athletic teams at Huntington.

We'll have in this upcoming year a women's flag football team.

we have men's and women's wrestling, men's and women's lacrosse, men's women's tennis, golf, cross-country, soccer, basketball, volleyball, beach volleyball, and a football team.

so about 70 to 75% of our students do participate in one of our NCAA Division three athletic teams.

But we do celebrate the fact that our students, our student athletes, and most of them have chosen to come to Huntington not just for the opportunity to play a sport, but also to get a pre-professional education that's going to prepare them to take the next step beyond Huntington and into their career field.

Yeah, I can think of a couple of your former student athletes who are pretty prominent in the world of Alabama politics.

You know, I can think of a couple of them, too.

Yeah.

And actually, I can hear the, football practices from my back porch.

So, yeah, it's so, you know, a lot of lawmakers, when they come down for session, spend time in Cloverdale or whether it's eating out or, you know, even living maybe over there, renting out houses and whatnot.

So it's really it's part of the fabric of, of Alabama and the capital city.

So talk about that.

It seems to me that y'all have been expanding your footprint in Cloverdale as that neighborhood really tries to revitalize itself.

Talk about that goal.

Sure.

Well, part of it has been out of necessity.

Our enrollment has been on a steady upward trajectory over the last couple of years, and we've run out of bed space and traditional dormitories.

So we have needed to acquire additional houses and apartments in order to meet the, residential living experience that we offer to our students.

So we now have 28, I believe, houses and apartment units that we've purchased on College Court, along Fairview Woodley Terrace.

we'll be housing over 200 students this fall in an alternative living situation that's not a dorm.

And it's a really cool experience to be a senior.

And, handful of juniors get this benefit as well, to be able to live in a house with 4 to 9 of your closest friends, to have a kitchen, to have a backyard, to have a little more social freedom than you might have in a traditional dormitory.

But it has given the college the ability to submit its footprint in Cloverdale.

you know, we recognize that for many of our neighbors, we are their Central Park.

There's a 12 acre green in the center of campus, and if I walk outside of my office, I'm probably going to run into at least one neighbor that's walking through campus, jogging through campus, walking their dog through campus.

We do celebrate the fact that our neighbors, feel at home at Huntington, and many of them are very supportive of the institution because we are their institution in their backyard.

Absolutely.

I remember walking my dog Toby across campus during Covid.

You know, it was it was empty, but very beautiful.

Sure.

and everything.

Look, well, I've got you.

You know, you're the incoming president of a private institution.

like you said, trajectory on enrollments going up.

That sounds like a great success story, but we're coming off the tragic news of Birmingham Southern.

and it just, you know, I don't know anybody that wasn't disappointed with what happened.

You can argue about the different factors and everything, but the fact is they're closing and it's and it's a real big disappointment.

Talk about the challenges that private institutions like yours face, maybe, that are unique to private rather than state funded colleges, and how you go about avoiding catastrophes like that.

Sure.

Well, anybody that loves private colleges grieves whenever a private college closes.

And, you and I and probably every person that's watching this show has been positively impacted by somebody who went to Birmingham Southern.

And, it has value to their alumni.

Tremendous value to their students.

And I've been able to tell several Birmingham Southern friends in recent months that as long as Birmingham Southern people are still living and taking breath, that, their institution is going to be continuing to serve the world because of the lives of service that PSC alumni contribute to the communities across Alabama and around the world.

it is important, though, for a private college, just like a public college, to live within its means for revenues to equal expenses.

It's one of the reasons why it's been so important for our enrollment to grow is because we are a tuition driven institution.

probably 80% of our revenue comes from tuition, room and board.

So without students, we would have to make some some difficult cuts in programing and campus operations.

That other 10% of the 20%, about 10% of it comes from contributions.

So it's very important for private colleges to leverage the network of contacts and friends and alumni of the college to regularly show support for the institution.

We've been successful in doing that.

we do get some state funding for our students.

the Alabama Student Grants provides about $2,000 per year, per Alabama student going to a private college in Alabama, which is a fraction of what the state is providing to Alabama students that are going to Alabama public colleges.

But that is a critical piece of the equation to help our students meet the cost of private higher education.

You know, there is a misconception out there that private higher education is only for elite students.

It's only for, wealthy students.

But over 40% of Alabama students at Huntington are receiving Pell Grants.

we we as a private sector of higher education, we serve more Pell eligible students in Alabama than the public schools do.

So we've been very blessed by the legislature in providing continued support and increased support for the Alabama student grant.

And that is an important piece of the ability of our students to pay for for Huntington.

Well, it sounds like Huntington is healthy and going to be around for a lot longer.

time in history.

Well, I have, told several people in the last few few weeks.

when President West, our current president, came 21 years ago, the college was not in good shape.

And he has often said over the last few years that he hopes to leave to his successor the type of institution that he wished that he had inherited.

And I am the grateful beneficiary of a thriving institution of teaching and learning.

And all of us in the state of Alabama are the beneficiary of a place that is focused on helping students to open their minds, to think critically.

we are a college of the United Methodist Church.

It's a place where students can grow in their faith.

It's a place where they can discern what it is that God has called them to do with their life.

But perhaps most importantly, it's a place where a student can grow in confidence in their leadership skills so that they can go forth beyond Huntington to be a productive citizen in this global and complex world that we live in.

But we do a great job of producing health care professionals, lawyers, bankers, teachers.

We have a tremendous number of students that are coming out of Huntington now that are going into teacher education, certainly meeting the critical need of our state.

and yes, there are quite a few people dotted around the landscape of the state capital who have an affinity for Huntington College, too, as members of our alumni community.

Well said.

Well, again, congratulations and thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you so much, my honor.

We'll be right back.

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Birmingham's Rick Whitfield is the nation's oldest operating ballpark and served as the home field of the Birmingham Barons, Birmingham Ace and the Birmingham Black Barons for decades.

The Birmingham Barons inaugurated the new field on August 18th, 1910, by defeating the Montgomery Climbers.

The Black Barons played there between 1924 and 1950.

Rick Wood hosted Birmingham's minor league teams for several seasons through 1987, from 1967 to 1975.

The Barons were owned by Ensley native Charlie O. Finley and were part of the Kansas City and later Oakland A's organization.

More than 100 members of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame have played at the field, including Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Satchel Paige, and Willie Mays.

Today, the historic field is managed by Friends of Record and host local amateur and college teams.

The Birmingham Barons still play a ceremonial throwback game at the ballpark every year.

The Rick Wood Classic, which celebrates Barons teams of the past and this historic field.

That's our show for this week.

Thanks for watching.

Capitol Journal will return next week at the same time with my colleague Randy Scott here in the anchor chair as I'll be traveling in Washington, D.C. for our Capital Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacy.

We'll see you next time.