The Alabama Writers’ Forum
The Alabama Writers’ Forum, a partnership program of the Alabama State Council on the Arts, works to cultivate our state’s literary culture. We do that through supporting writers at all stages. We encourage our young writers to find their creative voice through the Father Goose Poetry Festival for Kids!–and through our Alabama High School Literary Arts Awards. We support the work of our state’s literary community through our Alabama Authors Directory, First Draft magazine, and other programming and opportunities for writers across the state. And we celebrate our state’s rich literary legacy through the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame. We are, above all, a community of writers united by our desire to advance the literary arts in Alabama. If that describes you — join us! There are many ways to get involved.
A War of Sections
A War of Sections: How Deep South Political Suppression Shaped Voting Rights in America By Steve Suitts NewSouth Books, an imprint of the University of Georgia Press, 2024 Hardcover: $120.95; Paperback: $36.95; eBook: $36.95 Genre: Alabama History Reviewed by Edward Journey In the early 2000s, I heard an interview with the U.S. Congressman from the Seventh District of Alabama, representing Alabama’s Black Belt. According to this congressman, if Alabama’s Black Belt counties were removed from the statistical data, Alabama would rank #7 nationally in productivity, #11 in new jobs, and #12 in health care. He referred to the Black Belt region as a “statistical anchor” and concluded, “But, it’s not going away.” Those statistics haunt me to this day, and after reading A War of Sections: How Deep South Political Suppression Shaped Voting Rights in America by Steve Suitts, they start to make more sense. Steve Suitts, an Alabama native and the founding director of the Alabama Civil Liberties Union, is an adjunct professor at the Institute for Liberal Arts at Emory University and wrote a definitive [...]
