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| | Alabama Public Television |
 | | Following two decades of tax cuts that strangled education and public services, together with a steady decline of white yeoman farmers into tenancy and sharecropping, Alabama politics exploded in the late 1880s and 1890s. |
 | | The Progressive block of 32 members (of 155 total delegates) tended to represent towns and cities, was better educated than most delegates, generally consisted of active church men, and was concerned especially about urban problems. |
 | | These delegates wanted stronger government regulation of railroads and great wealth, more government provision of public services, clean government, honest elections, termination of the convict lease system, higher taxes to support better schools and public health, and a strong anti-lynching law. |
| www.aptv.org /constitution/history.html (2309 words) |
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