Democrats shut down Alabama Senate, accuse GOP of ‘wiping out’ state archives over DEI

Democratic senators sustained a filibuster Thursday that blocked action on about a dozen bills because of opposition to Republican-backed legislation to replace the Board of Trustees of the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, and Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, used Senate rules to talk for hours in protest of the archives bill.

The Senate eventually adjourned after considering and passing only two bills on its 13-bill agenda for the day.

“We’re just using all the tools in the toolbox for us not to get to that bill today,” Singleton said.

Singleton said replacement of the Archives and History Board could open the door for efforts to influence the agency’s work in the same way as Republican-backed bills to stop DEI programs and restrict teaching of “divisive concepts” on race and other topics.

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“We don’t know what this new board would do, what they’re trying to set it up to do,” Singleton said. “When you start talking about DEI, wiping out history - what’s to say they won’t get over to Archives and wipe out history?

“We just need to make sure that this board stays intact, this board stays as independent as it possibly can to continue to do the great work it has been doing for this state so they can preserve the history of this state.”

Under current law, Board of Trustees appoints its members subject to confirmation by the Senate.

Senate Bill 5 by Sen. Chris Elliott, a Republican from Baldwin County, would change the law to say that the governor, speaker of the House, and president pro tempore of the Senate would appoint the board.

Elliott initially brought the bill two years ago after Archives and History hosted a lecture on the history of gay people in Alabama called “Invisible No More: Alabama’s LGBTQ History,” as part of its Food For Thought series.

Elliott and other lawmakers objected to the program but the agency went ahead with it. Elliott said at the time he proposed changing the board to make it more responsive to elected officials. He said it was not good state policy to have a board that appointed its own members.

Singleton said today he did not think the Archives Board had done anything wrong. He said Democrats would continue to oppose the bill.

“We don’t want this bill so we’re going to do everything we can to keep this bill from being passed,” Singleton said.