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This Week In Alabama History November 1, 1865: Alexander Beaufort Meek, lawyer, poet, newspaper editor, and state legislator, dies at age 51. Meek was responsible for the passage of the Public School Act of 1854, the first statewide legislation to create a fund for public education and the position of state superintendent of education. Meek's most famous poem, The Red Eagle, a lyrical epic about Creek chief William Weatherford, was published in 1855. November 3, 1813: The Battle of Tallushatchee occurs in what is now Calhoun County. General John Coffee led the Tennessee volunteers, including Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, and Cherokee scouts John Ross and Sequoyah, as they attacked the Creek Indian village. The American forces killed all adult males (at least 186) and captured an additional 84 women and children. This was the first offensive as Andrew Jackson made his way south to Horseshoe Bend. November 3, 1970: Fred Gray and Thomas Reed are elected to the state House of Representatives to become the first black Alabama legislators since Reconstruction. Both men won seats from the 31st House District, composed of Macon, Bullock, and Barbour counties. November 5, 1867: The Alabama Constitutional Convention, consisting of delegates elected under U.S. Congress's Radical Reconstruction plan, begins meeting in Montgomery. The 100 delegates, of which 96 were Republicans, including 18 African Americans, drafted a liberal document that was declared ratified the next year to become the Alabama Constitution of 1868. November 10, 1972: Southern Airways Flight 49 is hijacked on a flight from Birmingham to Montgomery. Three armed men wanted by Detroit police demanded a $10 million ransom while diverting the plane from one airport to another in the United States, Canada, and Cuba, where the ordeal ended thirty hours after it began. The hijacking resulted in heightened security measures at American airports, including required use of metal detectors.
November 11, 1901: Alabama's 1901 Constitution is ratified by statewide vote in an election fraught with corruption. Following the trend of other southern states in this period, Alabama used the constitution to effectively disfranchise blacks and poor whites. With hundreds of amendments, the 1901 Constitution carries the distinction of being twice as long as the constitution of any other state.
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