Let us all walk in the foot steps of John Lewis

By John King In Selma, Alabama, on Sunday, March 7, 1965, John Lewis, standing in the lead of a long line of marchers, looked down from the crest of The Edmund Pettus Bridge at the line of police armed with clubs, whips and truncheons and said, “I am going to die here.” Lewis intended to lead the marchers from Selma to the capital Montgomery, to demand access to voting for Black people in Alabama. Sheriff Jim Clark lowered his gas mask and led the deputies, some on horseback and some on foot, into the line of marchers. Under swinging clubs and hooves trampling, Lewis was the first to go down. Women and children were not spared. Choking and blinded by tear gas, they were struck by clubs and truncheons wrapped with barbed wire.

Lewis, with a fractured skull and a severe concussion, almost did die. The nearby Good Samaritan Hospital did not have enough beds to care for the injured marchers. A nation watched in horror as news footage of that bloody day appeared on TV and in the papers. Congress was galvanized to act, especially President Lyndon Johnson, and by September the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed and signed. The Voting Rights Act singled out a handful of states, mostly in the south, that had a dark history of denying African Americans the right to vote. Terrorism, lynching and a system of restrictive voting laws in the Jim Crow south prevented African Americans voting so only a fraction of eligible voters actually registered and voted. The Act was a phenomenal success. It required these states to seek prior approval before making changes to their voting laws. The federal government would shortstop any discriminatory or restrictive voting laws. As a result, African American voter registration soared to rival white voter registration, and some cities and states elected African American leaders. But this law proved too burdensome for the white majority. The courts, in 2013, concluded that the Jim Crow South, with its infamous voter suppression tactics, was dead and gone and federal oversight of state election laws was no longer needed. So key provisions of the law were struck down and states became free to make their own laws without federal supervision. Sadly, the courts were overly optimistic in their thinking that voter suppression was a thing of the past. If they were to revisit their decision in 2021, it's likely they would change their mind. Hardly was the ink dry on the 2013 decision when states rushed, like chickens on a June bug, to change their voting laws. North Carolina wasted no time in passing HB 589, a bill which put in a strict photo I.D. requirement, eliminated same-day voting registration, and shortened the early voting period, among other restrictive policies. One policy in particular banned early voting on Sundays, which North Carolina admitted in court was because counties that offered it were likely to have higher black populations. Within 24 hours of the 2013 court decision Texas had a strict photo ID law on the books. A strict voter ID law in Alabama cut off 180,000 voters with a disproportionate number being African Ameicans. The bills, in the way they are crafted, target the shortcomings in the American voting system. Unlike other countries, there is no national voting holiday. And there is no automatic registration. As a consequence, people must take time off, or perhaps stand in line for long periods during peak voting times. Low wage workers without this kind of time, thus become a target for these bills. Many people, including the elderly and people living in poverty, have no transportation, so closing some polling places becomes a suppression tactic. These suppression bills are like a virus exploiting preexisting conditions. Many reservations have no street addresses so crafting a voter ID bill that requires a street address disenfranchises Native Americans. Eliminating early voting, mail in voting and, as some of the bills do, eliminating Sundays from early voting, makes it harder for the working poor to vote. Eliminate both mail in voting and early voting and long lines will form at the polling places. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is gutted and John Lewis died of cancer in August. But his name and his legacy will live on in the passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2021. This bill, known as HR1 in the House, will establish uniform standards for voting access and increase voter participation. It will take the partisan politics out of congressional redistricting and will reform campaign finance. It is an ambitious bill with many other provisions, some of them open to legitimate debate. But it is a much needed piece of legislation that will allow America to live up to its promise of Democracy for all. John King Long Prairie