Former Alabama Gov. Albert Brewer, a champion of constitutional and government reform and a consistent face in Montgomery, died last week at 88.
Gov. Robert Bentley confirmed Brewer’s death last week.
“Alabamians have lost a great leader today in the passing of Governor Albert Brewer,” Bentley said. “He lived his life as an example of integrity and professionalism in public service, and displayed an unwavering commitment to making Alabama a great state.”
Brewer, a Democrat, began his rapid rise as a statesman in 1958. At the young age of 28, Brewer was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives.
Four years later in 1962 while in his second term, Brewer was elected Speaker of the House as the youngest leader of the Alabama House in the state’s history.
In 1966, the people of Alabama elected Brewer as their lieutenant governor. As lieutenant governor, Brewer served under Gov. Lurleen Wallace, the state’s first and only female governor who was elected to the post after her husband became ineligible for a third consecutive term as governor.
After little more than a year as governor, Ms. Wallace passed away in May 1968 after a long battle with cancer. At which time, Brewer became the governor for the remainder of her term. During his 33 months as governor, Brewer championed many progressive programs.
Brewer continued Lurleen Wallace’s commitment to reforming Alabama’s mental health system while simultaneously championing a large public education package that passed the state Legislature 1969.
The reform package gave public school teachers nearly a 13-percent raise in pay in one year, upped education appropriations by more than $100 million over the next two years and, perhaps most notably, made funding appropriations more equitable between school districts. The package also began the first Alabama Commission for Higher Education.
Brewer also established the first state motor pool, which saved taxpayers nearly a half million dollars a year, and left numerous executive positions vacant that had been used under previous governors to reward political allies.
In addition to fighting bloat and cronyism in Montgomery, Brewer also consistently fought for a more ethical state government by establishing the first Ethics Commission by executive order.
“I’m saddened to learn of the passing of Governor Albert Brewer,” said Selma Mayor Darrio Melton. “His work to expand educational opportunity, create a more ethical state government and reform our outdated Constitution will not be forgotten in generations to come.”
Perhaps the consistent theme in Brewer’s history as a legislator, lieutenant governor and governor was his commitment to reforming Alabama’s 1901 Constitution, which he believed disenfranchised black people and poor, working-class white people and concentrated too much power in the hands of Montgomery politicians. He continued that commitment to constitutional reform as a professor later in life at Samford University.
“Gov. Brewer was a trailblazer,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Craig Ford, Gadsden. “He is the youngest person to ever be elected Speaker of the House in the state Legislature, and he wasn’t afraid to stand up to the segregationists and work to make our state a better place for all Alabamians. He was a good man, and he will be greatly missed.”
After an objectively successful two years and some months as governor, Brewer announced he would run for his first elected term in 1969, unknowingly challenging Mr. Wallace to a political standoff.
The 1970 campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor was filled with racial vitriol, most, if not all, of it from Wallace’s side. Wallace’s supporters painted Brewer as a “friend of the blacks,” which at the time hurt his support with the white working-class base of the then Alabama Democratic Party.
Brewer told the people of Alabama that they needed a “full-time governor” in his 1970 campaign. With his successful résumé, Brewer captured the support of many moderate white people, black people, liberals and even many Republicans, who saw Brewer as a moderate alternative to Wallace.
The Wallace campaign spread rumors about Brewer and his family, published doctored photos of him with controversial black activists and covered Brewer bumper stickers with their own stickers that said, “I’m for B&B: Brewer and the Blacks,” according to the encyclopedia.
Some other ads attacked Brewer as a sissy, accused his wife of being a drunk and falsely said his daughters had gotten pregnant by black men, according to the Associated Press.
“We have lost an important piece of our history, as his family has lost their loved one,” said State Auditor Jim Zeigler. “Albert Brewer would rather lose the race for governor than to demagogue the people of Alabama. He lost.”
At the end of the primary campaign, Brewer lost to Wallace by more than 30,000 votes. Later, he returned to his law practice in Decatur, where he was a renowned lawyer. He ran again for governor in 1978, but lost again to Fob James Jr. after evidence surfaced that he accepted more than $400,000 in secret contributions from President Richard Nixon’s campaign.
Brewer began a third career as a professor in 1987, joining the faculty of the Samford University Cumberland School of Law as a professor of law and government. There, he began the Public Affairs Research Council and the Institute for Ethics in Business and Government.
“The Samford University and the state of Alabama have lost a giant in the passing of Gov. Albert Brewer. He was loyal to the university, to his family, to his state and to his God and was the epitome of a Christian gentleman,” Samford University President Andrew Westmoreland said in a statement.
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Brewer, who is the only person to ever serve as speaker of the house, lieutenant governor and governor in succession, died in Birmingham last week, Jan. 2. He was preceded in death by his wife, Martha Farmer Brewer, who died in 2008. He had two daughters, Allison and Rebecca.
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