Alabama's Two Faces

Wednesday will mark a convergence of sorts between the two faces of Alabama.

     President Obama will attend the dedication of a statue of Rosa Parks, the first black woman to have a full length statue in her honor in the U.S. Capitol Building.
     And by apparent coincidence, also on Wednesday, lawyers representing Alabama's republican Governor will go before the U.S. Supreme Court on the other end of  Pennsylvania Avenue, arguing before The U.S. Supreme Court that the kinds of discrimination that motivated Rosa Parks are no longer a factor in Alabama.
    Parks died in 2005 and has been honored in numerous ways since...for example, a stamp has been issued displaying her face.
   Wednesday morning, The President will honor her by dedicating the statue that was commissioned in the days after her death,
   About the same time, Justice Department lawyers will be arguing in favor of the section of the Voting Rights Act that required mostly the states in The Deep South to have any election law changes approved by the U. S Justice Department. They argue Alabama can now be trusted to do the right thing without Federal supervision.
    A lot has changed in the half century plus since Parks was arrested..
    Dixiecrats ran the state back then, Southern Democrats as extreme to mainstream Democrats back then as Tea Party radicals are to The Republican Party today.
    The lead plaintiff in the suit against the Act is Shelby County, the most Republican, most white and most wealthy County in the state.