34 Facts About Albert Brewer

Albert Preston Brewer was an American lawyer and Democratic Party politician who served as the 47th governor of Alabama from 1968 to 1971.

Albert Brewer previously served as the lieutenant governor of Alabama, the speaker of the Alabama House of Representatives, and as an Alabama state representative representing Morgan County from 1955 to 1967.

Albert Brewer stayed there and attended Lafayette Street School, Decatur Jr.

Albert Brewer earned his law degree from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1952 and returned to Decatur to practice law.

Albert Brewer married Martha Helen Farmer in 1950 and had two children, Rebecca Anne and Beverly Allison.

In 1953, Albert Brewer chaired the "Young Democrats" chapter for Alabama's 8th congressional district.

Albert Brewer won the Democratic primary and, facing no opposition in the general election, was seated the following year.

In 1966 Albert Brewer considered running for the office of governor, as incumbent Governor George Wallace was constitutionally restricted from seeking another term.

The governor's wife, Lurleen Wallace, entered the race and Albert Brewer, convinced a gubernatorial candidacy would be futile, decided to run for the office of lieutenant governor of Alabama.

Wallace succumbed on May 7,1968, and, as stipulated in the constitution, Albert Brewer succeeded to the office of governor.

Wallace's erstwhile legal counsel, Cecil Jackson, directed all executive cabinet members to offer their resignations to Albert Brewer to allow him to build a team of his choosing.

Albert Brewer ended up retaining most of the cabinet, though he fired the public safety director and the director of the Department of Conservation after they refused to offer their resignations.

Albert Brewer was personally bothered by these improprieties but, wanting to seek election to his own gubernatorial term in 1970, felt it would be unwise to anger Wallace supporters by publicly exposing and denouncing these practices.

At one such meeting in June 1968, Albert Brewer called for the establishment of a state motor pool, saying he would create one by executive order and then ask for the legislature to affirm it.

Albert Brewer had state insignia prominently affixed to all motor pool vehicles to increase their visibility as government property.

Albert Brewer had excess copy machines sold, consolidated the state's computer systems, eliminated 12 senior assistant positions, and dispatched various staff the Wallaces' had loaned to the governor's office back to their agencies of origin to handle their official competencies.

Albert Brewer took actions in accordance with his own socially conservative views which were popular among most Alabamians.

Albert Brewer offered funds from his office budget to support the commission's work.

Albert Brewer created the Alabama Program Development Office to link federal grant applications with local government's development efforts.

In legislative and policy disputes, Albert Brewer preferred negotiation and finding common ground rather than public spats or power plays with patronage, as George Wallace had.

Albert Brewer investigated the state of education in Alabama, and found that overall the system was not improving relative to other states, despite efforts at reform during the Wallace administrations.

Albert Brewer believed that a school choice policy which permitted integrated schooling options could satisfy the federal government's demands and be accepted by most Alabamians, thus preserving popular support for his goal of improving the public education system.

Several weeks after Brewer communicated to President Lyndon B Johnson that he would engage the federal government in good faith on school segregation issues, the United States Attorney General sued in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama to replace school choice options.

Albert Brewer warned that under a more directed desegregation plan, most white parents would simply enroll their children in private schools.

At the beginning of the 1969 session, Albert Brewer announced that he would push for new pollution control laws.

Albert Brewer supported Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign, soliciting donations and delivering speeches on his behalf.

Albert Brewer hoped to build a coalition of black people, educated middle-class whites, and working-class whites from northern Alabama, traditionally a more liberal part of the state.

Albert Brewer unveiled a platform calling for more funding for education, an ethics commission and a commission to revise Alabama's 1901 state constitution, which had been deliberately framed to disenfranchise black people and poor whites.

Albert Brewer led Wallace in the Democratic primary but failed to win an outright majority.

Albert Brewer was succeeded by Wallace on January 18,1971, after 987 days in office.

Albert Brewer considered challenging Wallace again in the 1974 gubernatorial election, hoping that the salience of racial politics would decline by that point, but decided against it as Wallace's popularity persisted unabated after the 1972 assassination attempt on Wallace by Arthur Bremer.

When Wallace ran again in 1982, Albert Brewer endorsed Republican Emory Folmar in the general election.

Albert Brewer was an active leader with the Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform since 2000.

On January 2,2017, Albert Brewer died in Jackson Hospital, Montgomery, Alabama, at 88.