Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Unfinished War
When I read recently about the failure of the State of Louisiana to provide readily available and proven technology to enable the displaced citizens of New Orleans to vote from the various refugee centers scattered across the South, in their first mayoral election since fleeing the floods, I thought momentarily about the blacks illegally deprived of the right to vote in Florida 2000, and again in Ohio 2004, but mostly I recalled the price they already paid for this civil right back in the 1960s.
What I remembered in particular was the sacrifice made by Southern blacks like Fannie Lou Hamer, who lost her job, her home, her health, and nearly her life for the right to vote, and the hope to participate someday in society's benefits on an equal basis with other citizens. That was only forty-five years ago when the Freedom Riders and blacks from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia were vilified, beaten, and murdered by vigilantes, state and local police for attempting to use Whites Only restrooms in bus stations, or for trying to register to vote at their county courthouses.
With veterans of that struggle for human dignity now in Congress and other positions of responsibility--people like John Lewis and Julian Bond--it seemed almost impossible that Americans would tolerate a return to the discrimination of Jim Crow. Then we sat stunned as Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris brought it back, as the US Supreme Court affirmed her dire deed, and the US Senate--led by Al Gore--refused to hear dissent from the Congressional Black Caucus.
Nothing, as they say, is set in stone when it comes to power politics. But maybe, around the corner, a black resurgence--like the indigenous resurgence seen in recent proimmigrant marches--is ready to bring down the wrath of moral sanction on the heads of White Supremacy, liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican, and the fight to finish the revolutionary war in our country can begin. Until it does, no honest American can proudly boast of the principles enshrined in our Constitution or Declaration of Independence without feeling ashamed.
What I remembered in particular was the sacrifice made by Southern blacks like Fannie Lou Hamer, who lost her job, her home, her health, and nearly her life for the right to vote, and the hope to participate someday in society's benefits on an equal basis with other citizens. That was only forty-five years ago when the Freedom Riders and blacks from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia were vilified, beaten, and murdered by vigilantes, state and local police for attempting to use Whites Only restrooms in bus stations, or for trying to register to vote at their county courthouses.
With veterans of that struggle for human dignity now in Congress and other positions of responsibility--people like John Lewis and Julian Bond--it seemed almost impossible that Americans would tolerate a return to the discrimination of Jim Crow. Then we sat stunned as Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris brought it back, as the US Supreme Court affirmed her dire deed, and the US Senate--led by Al Gore--refused to hear dissent from the Congressional Black Caucus.
Nothing, as they say, is set in stone when it comes to power politics. But maybe, around the corner, a black resurgence--like the indigenous resurgence seen in recent proimmigrant marches--is ready to bring down the wrath of moral sanction on the heads of White Supremacy, liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican, and the fight to finish the revolutionary war in our country can begin. Until it does, no honest American can proudly boast of the principles enshrined in our Constitution or Declaration of Independence without feeling ashamed.
