January 10, 2018 The Skanner Page 19
Freedom
cont’d from pg 12
kept coming down hard-
er, and it was getting
harder to get people to
vote.”
When not facing off
with armed Klan mem-
bers, the Ladners and
their freedom fighter
colleagues also had to
contend with the coun-
ty voter registrars, who
put up any barrier they
could to keep African
Americans from the bal-
lot box.
They clashed with
the registrars not only
as activists but also as
citizens trying to vote
themselves.
Joyce tells me she tried
to vote three times, but
without success.
“I couldn’t pass the lit-
eracy test,” she said.
At the time, she was
a senior at Tougaloo
College in Mississippi,
which Dorie had attend-
ed, too, before dropping
out to join the freedom
struggle full time. Both
were well-read, but the
literacy tests weren’t
about comprehending
words on the page.
“It’s not that they were
difficult, it’s just that
your skin color deter-
mined that you wouldn’t
pass,” said Joyce.
“White people didn’t
have to take them. The
registrars failed just
about every Black per-
son who came before
them. I knew I was much
better educated and
read than most White
people in Mississippi,
but the registrar was
asking me thing likes
how many grains of
sand were in this jar.”
By the end of Freedom
Summer in 1964, many
of their closest friends
in the struggle — Law-
rence Guyot, John Lew-
is, Fannie Lou Hamer,
and others — had shed
a great deal of blood in
the long, often ugly cam-
paign to have Congress
finally pass the Voting
Rights Act in 1965.
The legislation put an
end to the literacy tests,
grandfather
clauses,
and many other acts of
intimidation used to
prevent Black people
from voting.
‘I knew there was
something about it
that would not last’
But racial discrimina-
tion didn’t end. Dorie
knew that it wouldn’t, as
she told me in a phone
conversation back in
February 2013. During
that talk, she recalled
hearing President Lyn-
don B. Johnson employ
the civil rights slogan
“We shall overcome,” to
urge passage of the Vot-
ing Rights Act.
“I was cynical,” she
said. “I accepted it, but
deep down in my heart,
I knew there was some-
thing about it that would
not last.”
Dorie’s worry was
not misplaced. A few
months later, on June
25, 2013, the Supreme
Court delivered a crush-
ing blow.
In Shelby v. Holder, the
court limited enforce-
ment of Section 5 of
the Voting Rights Act,
the protective clause
that screened election
laws for racial discrim-
ination in formerly Jim
Crow states. The justices
noted that the Act was
not meant to last forev-
er, and that the country
had made considerable
progress in eradicating
racism, particularly on
the issues of the enfran-
chisement of black vot-
ers and the election of
Black officials.
“It’s disappointing,”
Dorie said in a phone in-
terview shortly after the
Shelby ruling. “But we
have to mobilize. Con-
gress is not going to do
a damn thing (to change
“
fighting the new restric-
tive voter laws in court
in seven states: Arizo-
na, Arkansas, Kansas,
North Carolina, Ohio,
Texas, and Wisconsin.
It promises to be a
long,
back-and-forth
fight.
In recent years, more
states have passed vot-
er ID laws, impacting
hundreds of thousands
of voters, most of them
Black and Latino.
‘I will never give up
this fight’
The Ladner sisters are
well aware of all of these
developments.
In 1964, the sisters
pushed for whites to
come help with the
Freedom Summer vot-
ing-rights project, in
part because they fig-
ured white activists
would came with some
access to power.
“Our view was that if
the sons and daughters
of the rich and powerful
came and saw what was
happening in Missis-
sippi, they were able to
It’s not that they were
difficult, it’s just that your
skin color determined that
you wouldn’t pass
this), but the people will
do something.”
While people of color
are no longer subjected
to the voting suppres-
sion devices outlawed
by the Voting Rights
Act, they have, over the
decades, been subjected
to more surreptitious
maneuvers that some
believe have been used
to limit voting.
New restrictive voting
laws are slated to kick in
over the next few years
in 22 states that had no
such things during the
2010 elections. Unless
blocked by court chal-
lenges,
burdensome
voter
identification
laws requiring photo ID
will take hold in North
Carolina, where Section
5 might well have oth-
erwise blocked them.
A similarly restrictive
voter ID law was rein-
stated last year in Texas,
despite it being blocked
by a Section 5 ruling
just two years ago.
It’s not just the photo
ID requirements that
many consider prob-
lematic.
States
have
also
passed laws to cut early
voting, which Black and
Latino voters rely heav-
ily upon, and to make
voter registration more
difficult.
Most of these restric-
tions were passed in
states that saw increas-
es in minority turnout
during the 2008 and
2012 elections.
Civil rights groups are
call their congressmen
and demand changes,”
said Joyce. “I never had
a congressman I could
call.”
Pressuring Congress
has proven less effec-
tive these days, she says.
“Congress has been
bought out. They only
respond to whichever
person or company is
giving them the biggest
campaign
contribu-
tion.”
The skepticism she
holds was underscored
by two recent U.S. Su-
preme Court decisions,
Citizens United v. Fed-
eral Election Commis-
sion and McCutcheon v.
Federal Election Com-
mission, both of which
enhanced the power of
political money to influ-
ence elections.
“I’m very concerned
about voter suppression
today and that Section 5
of the Voting Rights Act
has been eradicated,”
Dorie said in her talk
with the Georgetown
students.
It’s in such moments
that Dorie likes to re-
call the musical group
The Impressions, and
the spirit at the heart
of their song, “Keep on
Pushing.”
“I will never give up
this fight, and I’ll do it
until I die,” she said at
Georgetown.
“But it’s kind of hard
to have to keep doing
this over and over and
over again.”
Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Brother-in-law of
Martin Luther King
Jr. Dies at 83
ATLANTA (AP) — The brother-in-law
of Martin Luther King Jr. and a found-
ing member of The Martin Luther King
Center for Nonviolent Social Change
has died.
Isaac Newton Farris Sr., who suffered
from prostate cancer and Parkinson’s
disease, died at his Atlanta home Dec.
30, his daughter Angela Farris-Wat-
kins told The Associated Press. He was
83.
Farris married Christine King in a
ceremony performed by Martin Luther
King Jr. and their brother A.D. King on
Aug. 19, 1960.
“He wasn’t caught up marrying into
a prominent family,” Farris-Watkins
said by phone. “He was secure in his
own right.”
Farris was a successful entrepreneur
and founder of Farris Color Visions. He
also served a project manager for the
construction of The King Center.
“Through all the tragedies and victo-
ries he helped build the King Center,”
Farris-Watkins said.
Isaac Newton Farris Sr., brother-in-law of slain civil
rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr.
The center was founded by Martin
Luther King’s wife, Coretta Scott King.
Farris was also a deacon and trustee
at the historic Ebenezer Baptist church
where he was a member for over 60
years.
“He was such an integral part of our
family who will be sorely missed,” Far-
ris-Watkins said.
In addition to his daughter, Farris is
survived by his wife, Christine, his son
Isaac Farris Jr., his granddaughter, Far-
ris Watkins, his sister Gail Farris Joyce
and many nieces, nephews and cousins.
Funeral arrangements will be han-
dled by Willie A. Watkins Funeral
Home in Atlanta.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light
can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love
can do that.
—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.