MONTGOMERY, Ala. — In 2017, Alabamians finally have access to their entire legislative history thanks to the work of Secretary of State John Merrill (R-Ala.) and the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Their combined efforts put almost 200 years of legislation online for a cost of less than $23,000.
Prior to the latest project, Alabamians could only find two periods of state legislation on the web. The first was from the founding of the state in 1819 to 1901, when the current state constitution was adopted. The second was from the year 2000 to the present. Now, the 99 year gap in the middle has been completely closed.
The gap that people previously lacked online access to includes several crucial periods in the state’s history, such as populist reform movements in the early 1900s, the Great Depression, the gubernatorial administrations of George Wallace, and the Civil Rights Movement.
Merrill noted that this history was a strong motivating factor for getting the job done. “It is important for the people of Alabama to have access to their history and to know what occurred throughout our history,” he said. “Digitizing the Acts and making them publicly available for everyone is important to ensure that all Alabamians have access to this information. By providing this information online, citizens will have access at their fingertips of all Alabama’s Legislative Acts since statehood.”
Those interested in examining the state’s records can do so on the Secretary of State’s website linked here.
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