Alabama
Alabama’s Governor, Bob Riley, has allegedly unwittingly stirred up racial tension in Alabama, after he ordered state troopers to carry out a series of overnight raids on gambling venues which featured bingo machines. Riley has long argued that the bingo games are essentially slot machines, which are illegal in the state, but his view has been criticised by other officials in the area.
Now, civil rights campaigners have suggested that Riley is attempting to take away the revenue earned from gambling halls “in poor, black areas.” Former Senator George Clay told Associated Press that state troopers had been sent to Macon County “to shut down our economic engine”. Task force commander, John Tyson, told the press that “I doubt this (the casinos) is what Dr. Martin Luther King had on his mind when putting his life on the line for equal rights in America”. A march is planned for Saturday, which will take place in Montgomery and will be led by Reverend Jesse Jackson, which will “encourage the Legislature to hold a statewide referendum on reopening the bingo parlours”. Riley’s campaign against bingo parlours and slot machines hasn’t been supported by other legislators and authorities in Alabama, including Riley’s attorney general, who suggested that the gambling machines were legal.
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