The Supreme Court ruling to get rid of the very voting rights protections that allow millions of minorities to vote, particularly in those states that have a history of denying or making it difficult for blacks to vote, should be a wake-up call.
What a setback on the long road to achieving equals rights, for blacks in particular. No doubt, the ruling will also impact Hispanics and other minorities as states like Texas, North Carolina, Mississippi and others rush to put in place arduous and suppressive requirements for citizens to exercise their right to vote.
The Supreme Court chose to reverse a law that protected minorities’ right to vote during the very year minorities and majority partners are commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March to Freedom. During this month, Medgar Evers, along with many others, is being remembered for his brave and gallant work in Mississippi to register blacks to vote. Evers lost his life doing so, gunned down in his drive way upon returning from a NAACP meeting.
Fifty years ago, during 1963, Civil Rights activists were threatened, beaten, and killed trying to secure the right for blacks to go to the polls and cast a vote in the bastion of racism and oppression, where hate crimes were worn like a badge of honor. The very states that were the focus of the March for Freedom – Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and others – must be feeling that the Supreme Court has just handed them a new lease on life. They can go back to their old ways of doing business. While the packaging may be different, the product will be the same: fewer votes cast by minorities in future elections.
This latest ruling is a wake-up call that the right to vote is still very much at risk in many states and communities across the nation. There really isn't much time for celebration and commemoration of what took place 50 years ago when the same threat looms large with the Supreme Court's ruling to gut the protections afforded in the Voting Rights Act.
There must be a massive campaign on two fronts: one, to get Congress to pass new laws with the appropriate protections so that all American citizens can exercise their right to vote without undue hardship; and two, there must be a sustained effort to educate all eligible minority citizens about the looming threat that may deny them their right to vote as early as the 2014 elections. In many states, they may find themselves unable to cast a vote.
What does this say about the democracy that boasts of being the greatest on earth?