Replies

Alabama Rep. Alvin Holmes, Dist 78, (Montgomery) convinced and connived with House Clerk Greg Pappas to remove the Confederate Battle flag from the Alabama House Chambers in Montgomery, Alabama. They removed the battle flag and replaced it with "the first National", and did so without permission, any hearings, requests , warnings, or notifications to the house.

******

Alvin Holmes Requests Federal Investigation of State Troopers, Other Agencies

Representative Holmes Says State Troopers Guilty of Racial Profiling(2/7)

******

He pointed out that after the first black legislator (him) attempted to gain immunity from arrest under a provision of the 1901 Constitution, everybody wants to change the law.

To him, that's racism in black and white. He even accused a black deputy sheriff of racial profiling when he stopped the legislator on Interstate 65 for supposedly weaving in and out of his lane.

The deputy said he smelled alcohol on Mr. Holmes' breath. Mr. Holmes then invoked legislative immunity to keep from going to jail, and officers drove the legislator home instead of arresting him.

******

State Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, is asking the lieutenant governor to remove another Montgomery lawmaker, Sen. Larry Dixon, from a legislative committee that reviews state contract proposals. Holmes claims Dixon discriminates against black contractors, a charge the Republican senator denies.

******

State Rep. Alvin Holmes (D-Montgomery) has unsuccessfully pushed bills to add sexual orientation to the state hate crime law for the last five years. This year, the measure passed the state House, but stalled in the Senate.

******

State Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery

"If you say you are a 'conservative' in Alabama today," the lawmaker said, "you're saying you are a racist."

******

State Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, said Alabama needs prison reform. "Half of the people in prison at the present time shouldn't be in prison," he said.

Holmes described the prison system as "rotten to the core" and said he will approach fellow legislators about reform. "It took having somebody I love ending up in prison for me to realize how bad it is," said Lynn Fryer, who has a son serving life in prison. Fryer said problems with the phone system also need to be addressed. She recalled several times when the phone "just cut off" in the middle of conversations with her son.

******

State Rep. Alvin Holmes vowed to filibuster traffic camera legislation, calling it a "tool" to harass and intimidate blacks, but the bill's sponsor says the camera aimed at red-light runners only sees the vehicle.

******

Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, chairman of the Civil Rights Committee for the Legislative Black Caucus, said, “This is a priority for me.

“I am for removing the racist language from the Alabama constitution,” Holmes said.

******

Alabama taxpayers are paying state Rep. Alvin Holmes $42,250 to teach one world history class at Alabama State University, and faculty members, most of whom teach four courses for the same amount of pay, are enraged over what they call Holmes’ preferential treatment.

******

Rep. Alvin Holmes and Rep. Laura Hall are leading the threat to filibuster the entire legislative calendar if the anti-gay amendment is allowed. The move suprised John Giles of the Alabama Christian Coalition “It is puzzling why the Black Caucus wants to stand in the way of preventing gay marriages in Alabama.

******

State Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Holmes, a 24-year statehouse
veteran, said the caucus won't be satisfied with leaving 1956 language in the constitution that says there is no right to an education at public expense in Alabama.

******

Plaintiffs: Alabama State Representative Alvin Holmes, other state representatives
Defendants: Alabama Governor Guy Hunt
Date(s) of Disposition:
01/04/1993: Judgment for the plaintiff

Bringing down a symbol of hate
It took three lawsuits and a forgotten piece of legislation, but lawmakers and lawyers finally forced an Alabama governor to stop flying the Confederate battle flag over the capitol dome.

******
June 18, 2003

"I've been arrested 27 times for civil rights causes," says Alabama State Rep. Alvin Holmes, a legendary African American lawmaker. "I was a field staff member on the SCLC, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. . . . I am the one who filed the lawsuit to remove the Confederate flag from the top of the state capitol. . . . I am the one who introduced the bill to make Martin Luther King's birthday a state holiday."

******

State Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, said he introduced the bill Tuesday in response to a recent written opinion by Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore that homosexuality is "inherently evil." Moore's declaration was made as the Supreme Court awarded custody of children to a heterosexual father instead of a lesbian mother.

Holmes said he wants to make sure that some future court does not interpret Moore's opinion to be the law of the state of Alabama.

"This clears up that matter of what's evil," Holmes said.