Opinion
Voting Rights Celebration Dimmed
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hursday, Aug. 6, marks the
50th anniversary of Pres-
ident Lyndon B. Johnson
signing the 1965 Voting Rights Act
into law. The Southern Christian
Leadership Conference (SCLC),
the organization co-founded by
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., will
hold a Call to Action Rally at 9
a.m. on Thursday at the Martin
Luther King Memorial on the Na-
tional Mall.
The NAACP hopes to cap its
Selma, Ala. to Washington, D.C.
relay march, called America’s
Journey for Justice, in the nation’s
capital on Sept. 16.
Other celebratory activities are
planned for different times.
Considered among the most
far-reaching legislation in histo-
ry, the 1965 Voting Rights Act
removed many of the impedi-
ments to voting created by cities,
counties and states that prevented
many African Americans from ex-
ercising their right to vote under
the 15th Amendment to the Con-
stitution.
Dallas County, Ala., which in-
cludes the city of Selma, was typ-
T
George E.
Curry
NNPA
Columnist
ical.
As the Joint Center for Political
and Economic Studies, a Wash-
ington, D.C.-based think tank, ob-
served, in 1965, more than half of
Dallas County was Black. How-
ever, of the county’s 15,000 vot-
cials on April 7, 1965, known as
“Bloody Sunday,” to stir the na-
tion’s conscience against ballot
box indignities. That provided the
momentum for passage of the bill.
“Only in the wake of the Voting
Rights Act did black voter regis-
tration in the South begin to ap-
proach that of whites,” the Joint
Center said in a report titled, “50
Years of The Voting Rights Act:
The State of Race in Politics.” It
continued, “Five years after the
passage of the Act, the racial gap
in voter registration in the former
Confederate states had closed to
single digits. By the start of the
Since the 2010 election, 21 states have
new laws making it harder to vote
ing-age African Americans, only
156 were registered to vote. By
contrast, two-thirds of voting-age
Whites were registered.
It took the savage beating of
600 protesters, including future
U.S. Congressman John Lewis,
by White law enforcement offi-
1970s, the Black/White registra-
tion gap across the Southern states
was little more than 8 percentage
points.”
In four of the 12 presidential
elections since 1964, Black vot-
ers have turned out at higher rates
than their White counterparts, ac-
cording to the Joint Center. And
the number of Black elected of-
ficials have increased from less
than 1,000 in 1965 to more than
10,000 in 2015, including Presi-
dent Barack Obama.
While properly appreciating the
accomplishments of the Voting
Rights Act, we should not lose
sight of the challenges that lie
ahead.
“Since the 2010 election, 21
states have new laws making it
harder to vote – ranging from
photo ID requirements to early
voting cutbacks to registration
restrictions – and 15 states will
have them in place for the first
time in a presidential election in
2016. Those 15 states are: Ala-
bama, Indiana, Kansas, Missis-
sippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire,
North Carolina, North Dakota,
Ohio, Rhode Island, South Caro-
lina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia,
and Wisconsin,” according to the
Brennan Center for Justice at New
York University School of Law.
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Blacks May Have Failed Sandra Bland, Too
S
andra Bland is dead.
While many are
concentrating on how
she died, we must also face
the reality of why she died.
All of the circumstanc-
es surrounding her death
notwithstanding, Sandra is
still dead. I cannot help but
think that along the three-
day period from her arrest
James
Clingman
NNPA
Columnist
to her final moments in
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Page 2 August 5, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner
that lonely and frightening
jail cell, there were oppor-
tunities to rescue her from
such a horrible experience
and tragic end.
This is not a rehash of all
the conversations, utter-
ances, conjecture and the-
ories put forth after Sandra
died. Rather, this is a sim-
ple critique of what we all
saw on video and heard
from Sandra herself when
she called someone to
let them know her status,
having received a $5,000
bond. To say the least, she
was totally frustrated by
the entire situation.
Why Sandra Bland died
is also obviously connect-
ed to who played a role
in her death, whether
directly or indirectly.
Where were the in-
tervention points by
which Sandra’s three
days of horror could
University, knew about
the incident on the day
it took place. If someone
did know, did they follow
up to check on Sandra and
make an effort to help her?
Surely, there are a couple
of Black lawyers in Prairie
View as well.
I am not a lawyer, but I
know there is something
called “habeas corpus,”
which directs a person,
usually a prison warden or
jailer, to produce the pris-
oner and justify the prison-
er’s detention. If the pris-
Was there any way, leading
up to her demise, for her to
have survived?
have been stopped?
Was there any way,
leading up to her de-
mise, for her to have
survived?
My initial inquiry
would be directed to-
ward the person who
shot the cellphone vid-
eo, the one to whom the
cop said, “You need to
leave.”
The bystander re-
plied, “Is this public
property?” That person
obviously had enough
backbone to refuse to
leave and even ques-
tion the officer’s order;
thanking him for re-
cording the incident, I
would ask if he make
any attempt to see what
happened to Sandra af-
ter she was taken away?
In such a small town,
I am sure the news
of Sandra’s arrest got
around pretty fast.
I wonder if anyone
at her new employer,
Prairie View A&M
oner argues successfully
that the incarceration is in
violation of a constitution-
al right, the court may or-
der the prisoner’s release.
Am I misinformed about
that legality?
Finally, there was the
$5,000 bond, which re-
quired a 10 percent pay-
ment – a measly $500 –
for Sandra to be released.
Does anyone believe that
$500 was such an enor-
mous amount of money
that Black folks in Prairie
View could not raise it to
pay her bond? Even the
full $5,000.00 could have
been put up by a group
of people until Sandra’s
family was able to send or
bring it to the court. Now
we have to live with the
fact that a major reason
this young lady died is the
lack of $500! Surely, her
life was worth far more
than that.
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