Just saw "Selma"

[NewDeal_Dem]

42. thanks. i knew i'd read the story ages ago but couldn't remember the details. it's an

interesting demonstration of how Machiavellian politics is.

folsom is a pretty interesting character for that era in the south:

Born in Coffee County in southeastern Alabama, Folsom was among the first southern governors to embrace integration and enforcement of civil rights for African Americans. In his Christmas message on December 25, 1949, he said: "As long as the Negroes are held down by deprivation and lack of opportunity, the other poor people will be held down alongside them".

Folsom was elected governor for the first time in 1946. He waged a colorful campaign with a hillbilly band, brandishing a mop and bucket that he said would "clean out" the Capitol...

...despite the paternity suit and other scandals that arose during his administration, he was easily elected to a second non-consecutive term in 1954. The Alabama Constitution at that time forbade a governor from succeeding himself, then a common provision in most southern states. Folsom was 6'8" and employed the slogan "the little man's big friend."

In 1958, Governor Folsom commuted a death sentence imposed on James E. Wilson, an African American sentenced to death for a $1.95 robbery...

In 1962, Folsom again ran for governor against his one-time protégé George C. Wallace, but he was defeated. A sardonic slogan emerged during that campaign, referring to Folsom's reputation for taking graft: "Something for everyone and a little bit for Big Jim." Folsom sometimes referred to "the emoluments of office" and once told a campaign crowd, "I plead guilty to stealing. That crowd I got it from, you had to steal it to get it.... I stole for you, and you, and you...."

Folsom ran again for governor in 1966...In the general election Lurleen Wallace handily defeated the Republican nominee, James D. Martin, a one-term U.S. representative from Gadsden.[11]

Folsom died in 1987 in Cullman. His niece, Cornelia Wallace, the daughter of his sister, Ruby Folsom Ellis, was from 1971 to 1978 the second wife of his former rival, George Wallace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Folsom