Shortly after taking office in 2003, Gov. Bob Riley did something that no other governor before him or since had done. He entered Holman Maximum Security Correctional Facility in Atmore, roamed the dorms, cells, and facilities while asking inmates and corrections officers for their insight, walked down Death Row, and witnessed a mock execution by […]

On January 19, 1818 – 208 years ago today – the first legislature of the Alabama Territory convened at the Douglass Hotel in the territorial capital of St. Stephens. Only twelve members of the House, representing seven counties, and only one member of the Senate conducted the business of the new territory. Appointed Gov. William […]

On January 16, 1967 – 59 years ago today – Lurleen B. Wallace was inaugurated as Alabama’s first female governor and only the third female in U.S. history to be elected chief executive of any state. Lurleen’s inaugural ceremony is believed to have been the largest in Alabama history with an estimated crowd of 150,000 […]

Named after a famous 1940s Bullock County moonshiner who eventually served an 18-month federal prison sentence at Maxwell Air Force Base for producing illegal liquor, the Clyde May’s whiskey company was founded in Union Springs in 2001 by the bootlegger’s son, Kenny May. Though the whiskey it produced was actually distilled in Kentucky, it was […]

On December 16, 1898 – 127 years ago today – Republican President William McKinley visited Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute at the request of founder Booker T. Washington. The president arrived in Tuskegee aboard special trains from Atlanta with his family, members of his cabinet, and U.S. Army General Joseph Wheeler, an Alabamian who had previously served […]

The 2026 statewide election cycle already seems to be well upon us, and candidates are crisscrossing the state, making speeches, and amassing endorsements. Today’s campaigns are often boring and staid affairs that focus upon television ads, direct mail appeals, and incessant robocalls and text messages seeking votes, so we long for the days in the […]

During the Oval Office question and answer session that followed Tuesday’s Space Command announcement, President Donald Trump was asked about a viral video that seemed to show garbage bags being tossed from a window of the second floor family residence of the White House. Dismissing the video as likely “AI-generated,” Trump noted that the residence […]

In May of 1836 – 189 years ago this month – Chief Eufaula of the Creek Indians addressed a joint session of the Alabama Legislature as it met in Tuscaloosa.Eufaula, who was also known as Yoholo-Micco among his people, was leading his large band of Creeks on the “Trail of Tears” to federally-designated Indian territory […]

At the same moment George Wallace was shot and paralyzed during an assassination attempt on this date in 1972, California Gov. Ronald Reagan was on the West Coast addressing a luncheon event. After an aide handed him a bulletin, Reagan interrupted his remarks to announce the news of the shooting to the audience attending his speech. […]

If you were ever going to visit the Alabama Governor’s Mansion, the day this photo was taken would’ve been a good one. In addition to Gov. George Wallace and his daughter, Lee, we spot George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, Jerry Reed, George Lindsey, WSFA sports anchor Phil Snow, western actor Jim […]

On April 17, 2020 – five years ago this week – Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Bennie Adkins passed away in East Alabama Medical Center at age 86 after being hospitalized for several weeks with COVID-19.   During the Battle of A Shau in Vietnam in 1966, Adkins, a member of the Special Forces, single-handedly […]

On April 14, 1968 – 57 years ago today – the Montgomery Advertiser reported that a wheelchair and hospital bed were delivered to the Alabama Governor’s Mansion for use by Gov. Lurleen Wallace, who had just been released from a seven-week stay at St. Margaret’s Hospital for treatment of cancer that had metastasized. She would […]

On January 7, 1948 – 77 years ago – the administration of Gov. James E. “Big Jim” Folsom infuriated the state’s media when it announced that daily newspaper and radio reporters were banned from attending news conferences and press briefings, and only journalists from wire services and weekly papers would be admitted. The announcement came […]

On January 4, 1953 – 72 years ago – music legend Hank Williams was laid to rest during the largest funeral in Montgomery’s history. Joe Azbell, was city editor of the Montgomery Advertiser and covered the funeral. His full article is transcribed below. It is an example of old-style, descriptive journalism that makes you feel […]

On January 6, 1948 – 77 years ago today – Alabama voters rejected a “Self-Starter Amendment” to the Alabama Constitution that would have allowed the Legislature to call itself into special session with a three-fifths vote of its membership. Passed in the Legislature by “Big Mule” lawmakers shortly after he was sworn into office, the […]

This story originally appeared in The Art of Alabama Politics, an outlet dedicated to the the wild, weird, and wonderful history of Alabama politics. An assortment of Alabama governors and Thanksgiving turkeys…but apparently Lurleen Wallace did not get the memo about issuing a pardon.

On November 13, 1923 – 101 years ago today – federal agents armed with search warrants swept across Mobile, Alabama and arrested 117 individuals, including a state legislator and a future congressman, for violations of Prohibition. Among those also arrested were a bank president, a prominent shipbuilding executive, the Mobile County Sheriff, five deputy sheriffs, […]

On October 31, 1912 — 112 years ago today — murder was committed inside the Alabama Capitol Building after a Bibb County man named Will Oakley confronted his stepfather, P.A. Woods of Odenville, in a dispute over some family land. The two men met in the office of Will’s uncle, J.G. Oakley, who served as […]

On October 15, 1984 — 40 years ago today — President Ronald Reagan visited the University of Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa for a re-election rally at Coleman Coliseum. During his 45-minute remarks, President Reagan made several references to the Crimson Tide football program and to his friendship with Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. He was also […]

One of our nation’s first astronauts, who later became a much-beloved resident of Huntsville, Alabama, was launched from Cape Canaveral on a historic space flight mission 65 years ago today. On May 28, 1959, an 11-ounce squirrel monkey named Miss Baker flew 360 miles into space on a 16-minute, suborbital flight aboard a Huntsville-built Jupiter-C […]