In early 1965, I arrived in Selma to work with SCLC on the Voting Rights Campaign. After two years with CORE, I knew all about it. I was famiar with Dixiecrats and white primaries, literacy tests and grandfather clauses, economcic retaliation and KKK violence. But that was all head knowledge, I didn't really understand voting rights at all — not in my gut. It was a young Black woman whose name I never knew who schooled me on the real meaning of the vote.
In the wake of Bloody Sunday, the Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR) set up an emergency aid station in the basement of 1st Baptist Church on Sylvan Street (today Martin Luther King Street). White doctors in Selma insisted on up-front cash payment from impoverished Afro-Americans and the tax-supported public hospital was still thoroughly segregated in violation of the Civil Rights Act with severely limited care available to Blacks. So when they weren't treating injured protesters MCHR's volunteer nurses and doctors offered free services to those who needed them.
One day before the final march to Montgomery I was down in the 1st Baptist basemen on an errend when I noticed a young woman creeping hesitantly down the stairs. I could see she was frightened, terrified but determined. In her arms she cradled an newborn infant and even a medical ignoramus like be could see that baby was bad sick.
I assumed she was scared for her child, and of course she was, but she also feared these strange white folk who rumor said were friends but she knew them not. The MCHR nurse and doctor reassured her and I listened as she poured out her tale. //// Sharecropper rural plant. Owner wouldn't let her bring infant to doctor. Like most sharecroppers she had no money and owner didn't want to pay the dollar. She heard of free docs at 1st Baptist. Owner forbid her. Idea contam? In the dead of night like a runaway slave she escaped on foot carrying her child. Miles through fields and bogs to reach 1st Baptist Church in Selma Alabama. She had defied the landowner and she was terrified of what he would do to her. I don't know much about Las Vegas, but I do know that what happened on those feudal-like cotton plantations stayed on those plantations. Beatings, rapes, tortures, murders. Cops attitude: Don't Ask, Don't Tell She knew that if Sheriff Clark or deputies caught her they'd turn her over to the master. He was rich an powerful and she had no vote. She was not part of WTP -- she knew it. She begged the MCHR doctors & nurses not to turn her in. They assured her they wouldn't. Dr. Khron later wrote this: "Most people are malnourished. Especially with vitamin deficiency. I have seen some babies with starvation diarrhea. One baby was brought to me at the point of death. I saw a child with a classical case of malnutrition such as you read about in concentration camps. It is very common to see malnutrition masquerading as obesity because of the high starch and low protein diet." I was just there for an errand and I never learned that woman's name nor what happened to her child. But I owe her a debt of gratitude because without realizing it, without even noticing my presence, she taught me the real meaning of being part of WTP and voting rights The Selma voting rights campaign, was a fight to restore voting rights. I'm sure you've all heard about the infamous "literacy test" was to deny the vote to nonwhites. It wasn't a test --> trick because the registrar could pass or flunk you by his whem regardless of how well you answered the questions. At first CRM tried to teach people to pass. Black college professors answered every question right. Then asked "bubbles bar of soap" It wasn't a literacy test at all. Race test. So Dr. King & Freedom Movement cut though the lies by rejecting the entire concept of "voter qualifications" Adtoped the African cry of "One Person One Vote" If you have to obey laws that politicians enact your have a right to elect them. Regardless of how educated you are.
The opening words of the American Constitution are: "We the people ... do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
It does not say: "We the states"
It does not say: "We the politicians"
It does not say: "We the rich and powerful"
It says: "We the People."
But who are We the People?
As a matter of practical politics, those who are eligible to vote — and who actually DO vote — are members of We the People. They are the recognized stakeholders of our society to whom elected officials must come for reelection.
Also as a matter of practical politics, those who are barred from voting are inherently excluded from We the People.
At the time we were founded as a nation there was a fierce political battle over who would have the vote — over who would be included in We the People. We have been fighting that political war ever since, and we continue to fight it to this day. The issue of who has the vote continues to be a fight because those who are well-served by the status-quo want to limit the voting power of those who they fear have good reason to be dissatisfied with the way things are. And, of course, the dissatisfied and disenfranchised want to have their voices heard and counted.
In 1789 We the People consisted of wealthy white men. Period.
Women, half the population, were denied the vote.
So were Native Americans
Slaves were were a species of livestock and free men of color couldn't vote
either
In order to vote you had to own property — meaning real estate. So renters and dependents couldn't vote. Neither could workers who lived where they labored such as apprentices, miners, farmworkers, sailors, and so on. In the election of 1800 no more than 10% of New York City residents could vote. Can view all U.S. history as a 200 year struggle to expand who is WTP Women 72 years of marching, jailing, violence, to become part of WTP 1848 U.S. conquered northern portion of Mexico. The peace treaty promised voting rights for the former Mexicans living TX, CA, NM, AZ. Thru violence & legal trickery those rights were denied. Last state property qualification ended 1856. NC -- last in so many respects. Poll taxes, another $ bar, not ended till 64 Native Americans 1948. Chinese exclusion acts barred Asians from citizenship. Not fully ended 'till 1952 Expanding WTP not easy or straight. Victories & defeats, advances & setbacks because wealthy & powerful want to limit the vote of people who might not be satisfied with the status quo Civil War 360,000 Union soldiers died to end slavery and exp WTP to include Blacks. 40,000 of them were Black. 12 years later in 1877 the Republican Party did corrupt political deal to reverse gains made in C.W. Led to Jim Crow, segregation, literacy tests, and lynchings. The CRM that I, Carol, Rugsy and so many others participated in fought to restore the voting rights to nonwhite people that had been stripped away when the Republican Party did a deal with the southern planters and power brokers. If they feel that voters should be well educated then they should provide quality public schools. If the sheriff can arrest you, your have the right to elect him. Regardless of who you are or your past. "Literacy test" often refers to the whole elaborate system to deny, of which "test" just one part. fear & intimidation losing job, eviction, (econ terrorism) arrest on phony charges violent white terrorism In order to register you had to supply name/address of employer, landlord. That info was passed on to the Citizens Council for economic retaliation and the KKK for violent terrorism. On our website we have copies of the actual literacy tests and application forms. Check them out. One of the other lessons I learned in Selma is that for social justice & change the "Vote is necessary but not sufficient." If you have candidates who promise the moon but once in office serve only themselves and their high-donors and do nothing for their constituents = no change When that is allowed to persist year after year, people feel voting is a scam and they become non-voters. The largest electoral bloc in US are not Democrats, Republicans, or Independents, but people who don't vote. In 2016 63M Trump: 66M Clinton 97M No vote: That can be changed, but to do so we need ongoing political action between elections to find/support good candidates and to hold our elected officials accountable to their constituents once they are in office. "An informed electorate is essential for democracy." Otherwise voters are prey to demagogues -- as we are seeing. So we need people and organizations between elections that educate, and "wake," and inform the PUBLIC on issues. Groups like SCLC, NAACP, Indivisible, churches like this one. 50 years ago we won a great victory by forcing Congress to enact the Voting Rights Act. Now those who want to deny the vote to nonwhites, the poor, the elderly, and to anyone else who might vote for Democrats rather than Republicans are trying to undo what we won on the Edmond Pettus Bridge. gutting the VRA voter ID laws barring former prisoners gerrymandering districts election tricks and hacking For 200 years Americans been fighting for The right to vote For fair and free elections And expand who is included in WTP. That fight continues today. And we're going to win it. We're going win it because we beat them before and we can beat them again.
See Selma Voting Rights
Campaign for background.
Copyright © Bruce Hartford, 2018
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