At ASU, Birmingham mayor calls for civil action on abortion rights, President Trump

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin called for Black Alabamians "to mobilize" when it comes to issues like abortion rights and former President Donald Trump's current presidential run on Friday morning during his convocation speech at Alabama State University Founder's Day celebration.

"When our mothers and our sisters, our aunts and our daughters are denied equal pay to less than qualified men, and when those same men also try to pass judgment on their reproductive rights, Hornet Nation, we have to mobilize," he said. "When we allow a guy with [91] felonies to run for the highest office in this land, we cannot shrug our shoulders. Black people, we must mobilize."

In 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that women in Alabama who were employed full-time were paid approximately 20% less in median weekly earnings than their male counterparts. As for reproductive rights, Alabama's complete ban on abortion remains in place, allowing exceptions only in cases when the mother's health is seriously endangered.

As the first former president in American history to face criminal charges, Trump has already won the first two Republican primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire. The allegations against him after his four 2023 indictments range from mishandling classified documents to trying to illegally overturn the 2020 election.

"This nation needs the wisdom and the fortitude of the Marion Nine more than ever," Woodfin said.

For the last 124 years, the Alabama State University community has gathered at the start of Black History Month to honor the Marion Nine, the nine men who established the school that would become ASU.

Back in 1867, Joey P. Pinch, Thomas Speed, Nickolas Dale, James Child, Thomas Lee, John Freeman, Nathan Levert, David Harris and Alexander H. Curtis founded the Lincoln Normal School in Marion, famously with nothing more than $500 and a dream.

The Lincoln Normal School became the first state-sponsored, Black liberal arts institution in the country, and after a relocation to Montgomery, it was renamed ASU.

"Black history, our history, is rooted in everything, literally every single thing we do," Woodfin said. "You have to prepare yourself to carry your story, your blackness, your ASU everywhere you go."

On Friday morning, Woodfin and current ASU President Quinton Ross also highlighted the partnership forged between the City of Birmingham and ASU through Birmingham Promise. Established in 2020, the program provides up to four years of tuition assistance for graduates of Birmingham City Schools to attend any public two-year or four-year college or university in the state.

Currently, 98 participants attend ASU.

"It's a partnership, but it's friendship as well," Ross said. "What you find in Mayor Randall Woodfin is a thought leader. He's progressive, and he truly wants to make a mark and to provide, not only for the Birmingham area, but for the greater state of Alabama and beyond."

In addition to Mayor Woodfin, other honorees at Friday's event included a choir of students from the Zelia Stephens Early Childhood Center, the Spirit of Marion award winner Joan Rainey Hopkins, the Spirit of Tullibody award winner Vanda Lee Jones, and ASU Student Government Association President Landon Hale.

Hadley Hitson covers children's health, education and welfare for the Montgomery Advertiser. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work, subscribe to the Advertiser.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Birmingham mayor urges community action on wage gap, abortion, Trump