It must depend on the part of Alabama then because I have a lot of black Southern clients who did all they could to get out of Alabama (most joined the military). I've heard that the racism here where I live is more prevelant than say... North Carolina.
I think it has more to do with economic opportunity. Alabama isn't a good place for a lot of blacks and whites because of this.
Again, I traveled North America for many years in my career. I've been to probably every major city (100,000+ population) in the US. The South certainly doesn't have the exclusive on racism. In fact, the most offensive comments I've heard weren't in the South.