When Larry Langford, the mayor of Birmingham, was found guilty on all 60 counts of corruption on Wednesday, it took the jury less than two hours to return its scathing verdict. There was no longer any doubt in anyone’s mind (but one) the man is clearly a crook.

On the courthouse steps in Tuscaloosa, where the trial had been moved in a further effort to be as fair as possible, Langford’s wife, Melva, told a throng of reporters, “He is not guilty. Only in Alabama can a black man not get a fair trial. The Justice Department has been conspiring and working hard to get my husband.”

Mathews Johnson, the lead prosecutor, immediately fired back. “Not true! It was a diverse jury,” he said, noting three of the 12 jurors were black, but the ugly smear was there and it is perhaps the saddest indictment on a state where that is not what happened at all.

Anyone who had followed the case knew that two of Langford’s co-conspirators had already pleaded guilty and that both testified against him. Thusly, it was reported in the Birmingham News, “At trial, the heart of the government's case was the testimony of Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre. Both pleaded guilty in the case and testified that Langford received bribes from them that amounted to $236,000 in money, clothes and jewelry.”

The newspaper’s next paragraph read, “In return, jurors heard, Langford ensured that Blount's investment bank, Blount Parrish & Co., was included in Jefferson County bond deals and interest-rate swaps that reaped the firm $7.1 million.”

Is there anyone in the world (except Melva Langford) that sees race as an issue here? But that’s why I was incensed after hearing her obvious lie because it slaps at every single soul who is so fervently trying to erase racism forever. If Melva Langford ever wanted to exacerbate a divide, her ill-timed remarks stuck a dagger in Alabama’s determined climb to overcome a tragic image born in the 1960s.

No one can dispute horrible things happened in Alabama as this country continued to come of age with desegregation. Neither can many of us ever erase the sickening images of Bull Connor’s police dogs, the water hoses, or Rosa Parks on that Montgomery bus, but rather than wallow in 50-year-old misery, it behooves all of us to move forward, to look ahead, as we right the wrongs we had nothing to do with.

I don’t live in Alabama, but I know hundreds, if not thousands, who do and for anyone – black or white – to suggest the laws of our nation are anything but color-blind is preposterous. I am sorry Larry Langford didn’t live up to his expectations. I am also sorry that the city of Birmingham is on the very brink of bankruptcy and that residents are fleeing the city in droves.

But as those who are standing steadfast know, part of the ongoing process is to root out any corrupt politicians and replace them with honest people. Langford’s conviction means he was the fifth Jefferson County official to be caught in scandal. That is a terrible statistic, but it is also solid evidence of a justice system that promises each one of us a safe and fair place to live.

Birmingham’s problems are huge. The city has debt of $5 billion, largely due to a horribly botched sewer project, and – should the city go under – it will become the largest municipality in the nation’s history to do so. But just as there are those have fought so hard to eliminate any form of racism in the state, there are those who know the importance of making the Alabama city a decent and viable place.

Tim James, a former Baylor School boarding student who is now 47, is among those running hard for governor. There are other good candidates in the upcoming gubernatorial race, while, in Birmingham, Carole Smitherman has just been installed as the interim mayor.

Does it make any difference that Carole, who has been the president of City Council, is black? Or that Tim is white? My point is that if race has little to do with who can be elected, it also has nothing to do with breaking the law, or what kind of trial a white man or a black man gets if accused and solid evidence is produced.

For Melva Langford, no matter how heartbroken, to cast aside guilty verdicts on all 60 counts in order to play the race card in her husband’s failed defense is sickening and inexcusable. After what so many have done for so long to fight racism in Alabama, I’m not entirely sure she shouldn’t have been charged with contempt right on the spot because, in my view, she was guilty of it.

royexum@aol.com