Tuesday, November 4, 2008
A Great Day
A few moments ago, I watched a news report about a 99 year old Black Woman who was going to vote. It was a momentous day for her because not too very long ago, if she were going to vote, they would possibly shoot her for trying. Today, not only is she able to cast her vote, but she is also able to vote for a Black Man for President! It brought tears to my eyes. No matter what your political beliefs are, when you think about the fact that forty or so years ago, black people were not permitted to vote in this country and now a black man could potentially be our next President.... Well, it is awe-inspiring to say the least. It seems as though this was a long time coming and I am proud that the day is here, no matter who wins.
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5 comments:
I don't mean to split hairs, and I do get the message you are trying to convey, but African Americans got the right to vote in 1870, a little longer than 40 years ago.
The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865 after the Civil War, abolished and prohibited slavery and secured a minimal degree of citizenship to former slaves. The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all people “born or naturalized in the United States,” and included the due process and equal protection clauses. This amendment FAILED to explicitly prohibit vote discrimination on racial grounds.
The prohibition of voting rights discrimination on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of slavery was first codified by the 15th Amendment to the Constitution in 1870. Soon after the end of Reconstruction, starting in the 1870s, Southern Democrat legislators found other means to DENY the vote to blacks, through violence, intimidation, and Jim Crow laws.
From 1890 to 1908, 10 Southern states wrote new constitutions with provisions that included literacy tests, poll taxes, and grandfather clauses that permitted otherwise disqualified voters whose grandfathers voted (thus allowing some white illiterates to vote), some with the aim and effect of re-imposing racially motivated restrictions on the voting process that disfranchised blacks. Although the 15th Amendment established particular voting rights, and gave Congress the authority to enforce those rights and regulate the voting process, state provisions applied to all voters and were upheld by the Supreme Court in early litigation, from 1898 through 1904. In practice, the provisions had dramatically adverse effects on voting by blacks. During the early 20th century, the Supreme Court began to find such provisions unconstitutional in litigation of cases brought by African Americans and poor whites. States reacted rapidly in devising new legislation to continue disfranchisement of most blacks and many poor whites. Although there were numerous court cases brought to the Supreme Court, through the 1960s, white Democrats in the South effectively disfranchised most blacks.
In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was created with the mission to promote blacks' civil rights, including to "secure for them impartial suffrage." The NAACP's success was limited: although they did achieve important judicial rulings by the Supreme Court and some legislative successes, Southern legislators quickly devised alternate ways to keep many southern blacks disfranchised through the early 1960s.
Following the 1964 election, a variety of civil rights organizations banded together to push for the passage of legislation that would ensure black voting rights once and for all. The campaign to bring about federal intervention to prevent discrimination in voting culminated in the voting rights protests in Selma, Alabama, and the famous Selma to Montgomery marches. Demonstrations also brought out white violence, and Jimmie Lee Jackson, James Reeb, and Viola Liuzzo were murdered. President Lyndon B. Johnson, in a dramatic joint-session address, called upon Congress to enact a strong voting rights bill. Johnson's administration drafted a bill intended to enforce the 14th and 15th Amendments, aiming to eliminate various previously legal strategies to prevent blacks and other minorities from voting.
I am not sure who wrote the previous comment but this should clarify things for you a bit. --Alison
I also never said that this black woman COULD not vote in the 6o's, I said if she were to try, she might have been shot. Those were HER words I was just repeating.
You go girl!!!!!
I agree with you 100%, Allison. I am, for the first time in my adult life, proud and excited about our country's future.
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