We are at a point in the country’s history when we are looking, again, at the denial of the right to vote for African Americans in this country. We say ‘again’ because the history of the vote in the country for African Americans is simply that African Americans can’t vote because of their race. Tactics to obstruct voting rights were devised such as impassible tests like, how many bubbles in a bar of soap, how many beans in a jar of beans, cite the Preamble of the United States Constitution, pay a Poll Tax, or The Grandfather Clause, if your grandfather couldn’t vote, neither can you.
Voting is a right that has been governed by State Legislatures and, therefore, is ruled by States Rights, even at a time when Segregation was the legitimate state of affairs. The legitimate state of affairs in America was Plessey versus Ferguson which says, “There is no law or right that white folks are required to enforce for Black Americans”. It is frightening to even think we could get back to the point where States Rights is the rule of the law. The Fifteenth Amendment granted the right to vote to all citizens of eighteen years of age, and their race or previous condition of servitude shall be of no consequence. States had the right to choose which citizens could exercise the right to vote. Black African Americans are passionate about the right to vote. They have suffered the deaths of numerous people who have died fi ghting for the right to vote. Black families have a history of having to gather their meager funds to raise the poll tax in order to have the right to vote. A major portion of Dr. Martin Luther King’s movement, next to integrating the schools, was based on gaining the right to vote for Black Americans. Black African Americans are passionate about the right to vote. They have suffered the deaths of numerous people who have died fi ghting for the right to vote. Black families have a history of having to gather their meager funds to raise the poll tax in order to have the right to vote. A major portion of Dr. Martin Luther King’s movement, next to integrating the schools, was based on gaining the right to vote for Black Americans. The proposed law includes no overnight voting, no more than one person per car for drive-through voting. The number of voting locations will be reduced from a few thousand to one. The question that comes up is what about blind people and their ability to navigate the voting conditions? Can they go to the drive-through if they can’t or don’t drive? What about mothers who have no caretakers for their toddlers. I once represented a disabled teacher who used a wheelchair. She needed access to the school administration building. On rainy days she couldn’t enter the building because it had no automatic door opener, she had to wait, sitting in the rain in her wheel chair, until a Good Samaritan came along. In Texas, there is a group of Blacks who are representing people for Reparations for the fi rst time since Reconstruction. It is important that young people understand what their fore-parents fought for years ago facing death because the torch falls to them to keep up the battle for the promised right to vote. The young people must understand they must maintain the right to vote, and those who would take it away must do it only after the fi ght. As an additional insult to Black Americans, the Republicans have come up with a theory they call Critical Race Theory. It is supposedly something taught in the last years of Law School. I am a Law School Graduate and a member of the California Bar Association having practiced law for the past forty years. I’ve never heard of Critical Race Theory. What I have heard of is that white folks treated black folks so bad that they were afraid of what black folks would do to them as retaliation. The white folks gave blacks a Bible that taught them to be obedient as good slaves and that vengeance is the Lord's. They’ve now gone on and are making it a law that says don’t teach children what was done to Blacks in America. Teachers are not teaching children Critical Race Theory. Critical Race Theory is a part of college curriculum. Adults in college should be aware of the theft of black lives, slave labor, the brutality, rapes and beatings, the verbal and physical abuse, humiliation, and other unthinkable acts perpetrated against blacks as well as other people of color in America for hundreds of years. Those fi ghting so hard against Critical Race Theory really don’t want us to tell the truth and tell the story. Why not? I think it should be told at church, in your social organizations, and private clubs. Just tell it and tell who told you not to tell it. Let's not forget the LYNCHINGS. These were community events. The community was invited, the school was dismissed so the kids could come, and postcards were used to invite individuals to come and watch the hanging as the weeks’ entertainment. There was nothing theoretical about watching a man, woman or child have the life snuffed out of him, or her. Now they want to keep it up by stopping you from voting so maybe they can elect more like the “visitors” to the Capitol with their gallows and nooses to keep up the practice. Tell it! |
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