Fulfilling Governor Albert Brewer’s vision: the public affairs research council of Alabama (PARCA)

Abstract

This article examines the professional career of Governor Albert P. Brewer and the development of his vision for a public affairs research group, that exists to give objective facts about state and local governments. The research question of this article is if Albert Brewer’s goal was fulfilled. The careful planning and the quality reputation of the published research of Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama (PARCA) has fulfilled the goal that Brewer had in mind. A methodology in arriving at this conclusion can be found in investigating the published output and broad, favorable reception of that output. This article examines the major events in the career of Governor Albert Brewer. He was a state legislator, speaker of the house, lieutenant governor and governor of Alabama. Brewer had many accomplishments, including the creation of the Alabama Development Office (ADO), the Alabama Commission of Higher Education (ACHE), substantial increased funding for public schools, and an effort to produce a new state constitution. A goal of Brewer was to create the PARCA, as a source of objective data and other facts that all people could use. PARCA is a non-profit and non-partisan group. The goals of Brewer for PARCA have been met and the organization continues to flourish. Brewer is one of the most decent professionals to ever occupy the Alabama governor’s office. Brewer was governor and decided to pursue another term with the 1970 election. In his political campaigns he projected the goal of being inclusive as opposed to the strong desire of George Wallace to cause division between African American citizens and some other citizens. That is, Wallace pursued a campaign tactic of creating a racist environment, to get votes. That election is considered by historians to be one of the most racially charged elections. The result was that Brewer and Wallace were in a run-off, and Wallace won by less than 34,000 votes. Later, in 1972 Wallace survived an assassination attempt. Some people think that event changed him, as he did stop pursuing a racist ideology for the rest of his political career. In contrast, Brewer consistently pursued a more inclusive message in appealing to citizens to work together for progress. PARCA, a group championed by Brewer furthers that goal. To help policy makers, PARCA provides objective data, which people of all political views can refer to. Brewer’s goals of an organization that provides accurate information has been achieved.