The Voting Rights Act Was Paid for in Blood. Is America Dismissing That Sacrifice?
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was paid for in blood. And as Georgia prepares for its May 19 election and the Supreme Court continues to narrow voting rights in America with its April 29 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, I keep returning to one question: is America becoming dismissive of that sacrifice?
We simply cannot afford to take fairness in voting for granted or watch with glazed eyes as it is steadily unraveled before us. At the foundation of the Voting Rights of 1965 were ordinary people: protesters, organizers, church members, students, laborers, and parents who pushed the president and Congress to protect the right to vote for everyone.
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged.”
In the centuries since this country was founded, Black people repeatedly tried to find various ways to actualize their ability to consistently vote and have autonomy over their lives. Black people politely requested to vote. They tried demanding to vote. They even played all the “games” with racist requirements (i.e.poll tax and illiteracy test) to be able to vote. None of these strategies worked. In 1965 not everyone was able to exercise their right to vote, no matter what the Constitution claimed on paper.
In 1965, both my parents were under the age of 10. I add this fact to highlight the fact that this all happened within living memory. This is recent history.
It became apparent to civil rights organizers that the only thing that might work is to shed their own blood on national television in the hopes that those watching would find their humanity.
Many of these civil rights fighters’ names are unknown to history. They had families, jobs, friends and wanted a better life for themselves and others. We may never know all their names, but we are living inside the precious sacrifices they made.
Some names we do know and unfortunately, we know their names because they often received the brunt of the violence.
Mrs. Fanny Lou Hamer joined the civil rights movement in 1962 when she was 42 years old. She attempted several times to exercise her right to vote but was threatened and prohibited from voting. Returning from a voting registration workshop, Mrs. Hamer and several others were arrested. While in police custody, Mrs. Hamer was repeatedly groped by police. At one point she was pinned down and her dress was raised above her head while five men stood around her. She was also beaten within an inch of her life while being held down. Four days later, when Mrs. Hamer was finally released, she sustained lifelong injuries including to one of her kidneys. All of this state action violence against her was in response to her desire to want to vote.
That reality should make every American pause.
I highlight these gruesome facts because all Americans need to have our eyes wide open and our minds attuned to what is actually happening in this moment and what it means for our nation going forward.
The Voting Rights Act is often discussed as though it only impacts Black people. That framing is both false and dangerous. The Act protected democracy itself. Other racial groups also faced barriers to voting, and Black Americans were not the only people attacked or killed while fighting to secure that right for everyone.
“Bloody Sunday” is not simply Black history. It is American history.
And everyone — not just Black Americans — should be alarmed by the continued erosion of the Voting Rights Act.
Voting is essential in a democracy. If it were not powerful, people would not fight so hard to restrict it.
As I continue to process the recent actions of the Supreme Court, I plan to will vote every single time I have the opportunity — in primaries, local elections, runoff elections, and national elections — because every election matters.
I will pay attention. I will raise my voice. I will contact my elected officials and I encourage my fellow Americans to do the same.
And I will remember the people who shed their blood, sacrificed their dignity, and risked their lives so that I could have power and autonomy over my own life — freedoms many of them were never fully allowed to experience themselves.
It isn’t fair that Black people or any group had to pay with their blood so that all people could vote. But that is what happened. And now with the continued attack on the Voting Rights Act of 1965 it's as if the Supreme Court has told our ancestors that their blood wasn’t enough to protect the right to vote for their descendants. We are the descendants of those known and unknown protesters and organizers. I am the descendant of people who were chained to the bottom of a ship and survived the Middle Passage. I plan to continue to make one of the purposes of my life to honor them and all they endured and sacrificed.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
America has always loved those words. They sound eloquent, powerful…and exude fairness and justice. The question is will we collectively agree as Americans that enough blood was paid for the right to vote. Blood shouldn’t have even been required - but it was. Let’s not let those prior sacrifices be for naught.
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