Honestly, I am sure that the decision by the Supremes today to take us back 50 years has a lot of other people of color thinking the same thing: abandoning the good ship, Apple Pie.
Of course I know why they did it. The last national election scared the living s*** out of them, and now all this talk of immigration reform and allowing immigrants who are already here in this country to "normalize" their status has them seeing a shift in where the voting power lies.
"But history did not end in 1965. By the time the Act was reauthorized in 2006, there had been 40 more years of it. In assessing the “current need[]” for a preclearance system that treats States differently from one another today, that history cannot be ignored. During that time, largely because of the Voting Rights Act, voting tests were abolished, disparities in voter registration and turnout due to race were erased, and African-Americans attained political office in record numbers. And yet the coverage formula that Congress reauthorized in 2006 ignores these developments, keeping the focus on decades-old data relevant to decades-old problems, rather than current data reflecting current needs.
The Fifteenth Amendment commands that the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race or color, and it gives Congress the power to enforce that command. The Amendment is not designed to punish for the past; its purpose is to ensure a better future."
No doubt Chief Justice Roberts is hoping for a "better future", because he didn't like this past election very much. He, and others like him, are hoping that the new schemes that republican state houses are coming up with to make it harder and harder for poor people and people of color to vote, will make it easier for them to win elections and impose their extreme will on the rest of us.
"Bloody Sunday," nearly 50 years ago, Hosea Williams and I led 600 peaceful, nonviolent protesters attempting to march from Selma to Montgomery to dramatize the need for voting rights protection in Alabama. As we crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, we were attacked by state troopers who tear-gassed, clubbed and whipped us and trampled us with horses. I was hit in the head with a nightstick and suffered a concussion on the bridge. Seventeen marchers were hospitalized that day.
In response, President Lyndon Johnson introduced the Voting Rights Act and later signed it into law. We have come a great distance since then, in large part thanks to the act, but efforts to undermine the voting power of minorities did not end after 1965. They still persist today.
....These men that voted to strip the Voting Rights Act of its power, they never stood in unmovable lines, they never had to pass a so-called literacy test...It took us almost 100 years to get where we are today. So will it take another 100 years to fix it, to change it?" [Source]
Mr. Lewis I would like to thank you for fighting and literally bleeding for this precious right that we all hold so dear. Sadly, today, men like Clarence Thomas and his four friends in black robes, have put us all back on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Finally, speaking of republicans and voting rights, before some of you Negroes join the party of Lincoln; you might want to consider the following letter a good friend of mine in Louisiana was kind enough to send me. It was sent by a Negro who thought that she could fit in under the republican tent.
"House GOP Focuses on Female Recruits for 2014
June 23, 2013
House Republicans are putting the first touches on what they hope will be a formal program to recruit more female candidates for the 2014 midterm elections.
My name is Sarah Holliday. I am very interesting in your article today. Thanks for a well written article. I can gave a lot of reasons why their[sic] are issues. I joined the GOP in 2008. I am a graduate of LSU and Southern University. After I changed my party affiliation, I joined the Republican Women of Baton Rouge. That was an experience. So, I called upon a group of women and chartered Capital City Republican Women (CCRW) in Baton Rouge on June 17, 2010. We are the most diverse republican women group in the state. I was the first black president of a republican women group in the state making history. I currently serve as the Vice President of the CCRW. In March 2011, at the biennial Louisiana Federation of Republican Women I ran for Region 6 Vice President and won by five (5) votes in Monroe, Louisiana. Making history again, the first black to hold that position since LFRW inception. Then, LFRW changed the rules making it impossible for me to win so I did not seek the office in March 2013. It is the treatment in the party that is disturbing. I ran for office in 2011 being the only female republican in the race and no help from the LAGOP. (Louisiana GOP) I ran in 2012 which consisted of 13 parishes and the only female republican in the race and again no help from LAGOP. I would love to interview with you to enlighten a list of things regarding your article. I can be reached at 225-***-****. Thanks, Sarah
Poor Sarah is reaching out to Roll Call because reality has slapped her in the face.
Now let's see how long it takes another black Louisianan who recently made a high profile switch to the party of Lincoln to realize that "republican outreach" is just a sham.
Of course, with the Supremes in their pockets, they won't need you Negroes anymore.
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