Alabama lawmakers purging racist language from constitution

MONTGOMERY, Ala, (AP) — Alabama’s constitution still says white and colored children cannot attend school together. State lawmakers are finally working to remove such racist language. The constitution was approved in 1901 to enshrine white supremacy. Remnants of Jim Crow laws remain even though more than half a century has passed since federal courts outlawed segregated schools, bans on mixed race marriages and poll taxes. Al.com reports that a legislative committee will vote in October on whether to remove involuntary servitude as criminal punishment, a provision that justified convicting Black men of trivial offenses to obtain their unpaid labor in Alabama’s coal mines.