Emory Folmar

Emory McCord Folmar (born June 3, 1930) was the mayor of Montgomery, Alabama from 1977 to 1999. Although the mayor's office is nonpartisan, Folmar was known to be a Republican.

Background

A veteran of the Korean War, he entered politics by winning election to the Montgomery City Council in 1975 and shortly becoming its president. After the resignation of then-mayor Jim Robinson over a police cover-up, Folmar was elevated as president of the City Council to interim mayor and won the subsequent general election.

Entertainment

One notorious incident of many was his crackdown on rock-n-roll concerts in the city --- a mass arrest of concert-goers at the Montgomery Civic Center early in his tenure set the tone for his administration. Subsequently, few live rock-n-roll acts appeared in Montgomery during his tenure. The arrests were later nullified by a federal judge who rebuked Folmar's tactics. Further incidents against entertainment venues included a noise curfew against a motorsports park which was over 2 miles away from the nearest residences.

To his credit, Folmar was part of the city effort to relocate the Alabama Shakespeare Festival from Anniston to Montgomery, on land and money both donated by Winton "Red" Blount, a wealthy construction magnate and former US Postmaster General.

Racial Issues & Bigoted Remarks

Folmar's controversial stances were cast at the outset of his political career in the 1970s in highly-controversial City Council votes along racial lines. Among them were the championing of a vote to spend a large portion of federal grant money on a public golf course & softball fields on the predominately-white east side of the city rather than using all of the grant money to end urban blight by providing necessary city utility infrastructure on the predominantly-black west side. Many western areas of the city are without utility infrastructure over 25 years later.

A number of incidents involving his hard-line stances include long-time racial tensions between the police and black citizens which zeroed in on Folmar's leadership as the precursor; as mayor, he was known to be the true, de-facto leader of the city's police force and he routinely furthered that image by getting proactive in on-the-scene police investigations and was known to carry a pistol. He instructed police on night-watch 3rd shift to start wearing SWAT-team, military-style black uniforms & baseball-style black caps. A notorious incident happened on Todd Rd. in 1983 when 2 white policemen allegedly barged into a home where black mourners had gathered after the fatal shooting of a black man by a white officer. The officers were detained by the black occupants and held until police arrived, who subsequently arrested the mourners under allegations of assault & torture of the officers, with resulting claims by local black leaders of police abuse during questioning of the suspects.

Folmar was quoted in 1997 using the word "queer" publicly in a detrimental fashion noting his disapproval of the lifestyles of gay & lesbian individuals.

Public Transportation

The Montgomery City Bus Transit System had a long historical past of serving the city and stepped to the forefront with the arrest of Rosa Parks in 1955 and the subsequent year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott thereafter, which still didn't destroy the Transit System --- it took a political decision by Folmar to selectively ban certain ads on buses, namely an anti-death penalty ad, to dismantle the bus system. When Folmar was told that he couldn't ban the ad as discriminatory, he banned all ads, which saw advertising revenue plummet, a large portion of the Transit System's income. Within a couple of years, the traditional system of large buses and fixed routes and the historical Montgomery buses were abolished in favor of a demand system equal to a public taxi shuttle, which many citizens found unfair and troublesome for impromptu use, requiring 24-hour advance booking.

Race for Governor & Bad Timing

Folmar ran unsuccessfully for Governor in 1982, defeated by George Wallace, though the race was noted as being the first truly 2-party race in Alabama history due to strong Republican political gains on the national, state and local levels after a long history of state Democratic domination in Alabama. Afterward, he served as Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party from 1985-1989. With his high position in the party and with Ronald Reagan enjoying widespread popularity, Folmar could have sought the Republican gubernatorial nomination again in 1986, which instead went to Guy Hunt who was thought to be the Republican's "sacrificial lamb". The Democratic side featured 2 strong candidates, Bill Baxley & Charles Graddick. Graddick won the primary, but the Alabama Democratic Party argued that many Republicans had crossed-over and voted for Graddick in hopes that he would become governor. The Democrats successfully managed to have Graddick's win nullified in favor of Baxley. The resulting negative press led to a voter backlash against Democrats and Guy Hunt was subsequently elected the first Republican Alabama Governor since the post-Civil War Reconstruction period. Folmar later become State Chairman for George H. W. Bush's 1988 & 1992 US presidential campaigns.

Defeat & Other Significant Events

After 22 years as mayor, Folmar was defeated in 1999 by Democrat Bobby Bright. In 2003, he became the administrator of the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. He has also engaged in commercial real estate development and is considered to have much personal wealth; his annual salary as mayor was only $1 at his request.

ources

* [http://archives.state.al.us/famous/academy/e_folmar.html Emory Folmar short bio at Alabama State Archives]
* [http://beck.library.emory.edu/southernchanges/article.php?id=sc05-4_002&mdid=sc05-4_001 Archived article from Southern Changes circa 1983 about Folmar's tenure]
* [http://www.thenation.com/doc/20001225/wypijewski Article about the fall of the famous Montgomery Bus Transit System under Folmar]
* [http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/events/071598ev.htm Article quoting anti-gay remarks by Folmar]
* [http://halfbakered.blogspot.com/2004_08_08_halfbakered_archive.html Details of 1986 Governor's race involving Folmar's decision not to run]
* [http://www.samford.edu/schools/artsci/scs/gibson.html Details of 1986 & all other Alabama governor's races]
* [http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1983-3/1983-03-11-ABC-14.html Archived ABC Story about the 1983 Todd Rd incident]

In 1982, he was the Republican Party nominee for Governor of Alabama. He lost the election to former governor George Wallace in what would be Wallace's last campaign.