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Œl'1 ^¡.ìortlattì» (©bscrucr
October IO. 2012
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The Roots of Voter Suppression
Hiding behind
claims of fraud
R on C arver
W hen I hear
conservatives like
M ississippi Gov.
Phil Bryant, Ala
bama State Sen.
Scott Beason, and
P en n sy lv an ia H ouse M ajority
Leader Representative Mike Turzai
try toTationalize their bid to disen
franchise minority, elderly, and stu
dent voters, I pivot quickly to memo
ries of the terror I witnessed in the
early 1960s.
At that time, just out of high
school, I joined the Southern civil
rights movement's efforts to regis
ter hundreds of thousands of black
M ississippians.
Ninety-five years after the 15th
Amendment affirmed the right of
black people to vote, I stood with 30
African Americans in the rotunda of
the DeSoto County, Mississippi,
courthouse. Lit cigarettes rained
down on us from the second story
balcony, cou rtesy o f a dozen
sheriffs deputies and highway pa
trolmen. Trying to keep everyone's
spirits up, Menk Dockery strode
over to take a sip from the "whites
only" water fountain and declared,
by
"This freedom water sure is fine."
We chuckled at Menk's comment.
But the white registrar had the last
laugh as he drew out the process of
administering Mississippi's "voter
literacy test" and allowed only
four blacks to even attempt to
register. That morning, he failed
them all on the final exam ques
tion, which required the interpre
tation of a section of the Missis
sippi State Constitution.
The local newspaper also had a
hand in voter intimidation. It rou
tinely published the names of all
who took the literacy test — whites
in one column, blacks in another—
so that plantation owners and em
ployers could evict black sharecrop
pers and fire workers who were bold
enough to attempt to register.
Today, many have accepted the
right wing's line that efforts to sup
press minority voting are really a
response to voter fraud. Yet the
proponents can't produce any sig
nificant examples of fraud. To re
member our history is to understand
the real motivation.
On Nov. 10, 1898, 1,500 armed
white men, who also denied any
ra c ist m o tiv a tio n , rode into
Wilmington, N. C., set the Daily
Record newspaper office on fire,
and forced the elected multiracial
city officials to resign. These vigi
lantes set up a new all-white local
government and "convinced" the
state legislature to pass restrictive
requirements including poll taxes
and literacy tests.
By the end of the century, poll
taxes and literacy tests had effec
tively rolled back the gains made
during the Reconstruction period at
the close of the Civil War. Blacks in
much of the country would have no
voice in local, state, or national elec
tions until the passage of the Voting
Rights Act of 1965.
Proponents of the post-Recon-
struction literacy tests claimed that
democracy would be threatened if
voters lacked skills to read newspa
pers and study the issues and posi
tions of candidates. But in practice,
right through to the 1960s, South
ern registrars enrolled tens of thou
sands of illiterate white voters while
rejecting college educated blacks
who were willing to risk their lives
and employment to register to vote.
With this history in mind, the
burden must be on those who fol
low in the footsteps of the Ku Klux
Kian to prove the need for new voter
restrictions.
No one should be allowed to hide
behind unsubstantiated — and of
ten refuted — claims of fraud. The
real threat to our painfully achieved
democracy is from those eager to
limit the rights of millions of legiti
mate voters.
Ron Carver, aformer Student Non
Violent Coordinating Committee
field organizer, is an Institute fo r
Policy Studies associate fellow.
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