State senator to blacks: Vote or risk going back to cotton fields
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - An Alabama state senator has recorded phone calls saying that blacks risk "going back to the cotton fields"...
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama state senator has recorded phone calls saying that blacks risk “going back to the cotton fields of Jim Crow days” unless Democrats Ron Sparks and Jim Folsom are elected.
The robocalls were placed by state Sen. Hank Sanders, a Selma Democrat who made the calls for the Alabama New South Coalition.
Democrats likely need a strong turnout among black voters in Alabama to elect Sparks to the governor’s office and Folsom as lieutenant governor.
When asked about the calls Friday, Sparks said, “If you believe there is not racism in this state, then you are not living in the same state I am living in.”
Republican governor candidate Robert Bentley said the calls are an attempt at race-baiting, and Sanders and Sparks should apologize for them.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.
