POWER TO THE PEOPLE By Tonya L. Killikelly
The Founding Fathers created The Separation of Powers that rule our government. The government was divided into an executive, legislative and judicial branch; all with the idea that not too much power would be concentrated in one area. The executive is the President; the legislative is represented by the Congress and Senate; and the judiciary is our court system, up to and most especially The Supreme Court.
The hypothesis of the Separation of Powers has worked rather well over the last two centuries. The Congress and Judiciary have acted as a great counter balance to the Executive office’s encroachments; and vice versa.
Now, we have another serious encroachment on the rights and powers of the American people.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the cornerstone provision of Section 5 are currently being reviewed and argued by The Supreme Court. Why is this important? The Voting Rights Act gave people of color the right to vote in America. Disregard the fact that the right to vote is an essential part of citizenship, and is yours by birth. Laws had to be created to ensure that the black citizens of America could get what America has fought so hard for for other peoples all over the world. Imagine that? We, black people, went to Europe and fought Hitler’s Nazis, Mussolini’s fascists and Tojo’s imperialism only to return to America and Nigger Status. I will not recuse my language or apologize. The Truth can’t always be wrapped up in pretty bows. It is what it is. There is much to be proud of in American history; and there is much to be ashamed for. All of it must be recognized; the good, the bad, the indifferent, the sublime and the disgraceful.
African-Americans were given the right to vote during the Reconstruction Period; but due to political and judicial shenanigans they were denied the true enforcement of such until 1965. How did the states do it? Well, there was the Ku Klux Klan lynching and murdering at will throughout the country. Yes, including “the free North”. There were Jim Crow laws giving “separate but equal” facilities to black Americans that were definitely separate, but not equal in any way. There were prohibitive poll taxes attached to your right to vote; and literacy tests along with proofs of citizenship, and abject gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is the manipulation of district boundaries along political and racial lines. You can laugh all you want, but the only proof many older people had of their birth was the family Bible.
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President Lyndon B. Johnson negated these processes with the signing of the Voting Rights Act Section 5 is the “teeth” of the document that forbids the states, specifically the formerly Confederate States, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Michigan, South Dakota and New York from creating new provisions to dilute the Voting Act without federal approval. Hey, nothing like a bad example from which to take your queue. It must always be so lest we return to this darkness. Currently, the challenge being made before the Supreme Court is that the provision is obsolete. A suit has been brought in Shelby County, Alabama saying that “the violence, intimidation and subterfuge that led Congress to pass Section 5 and this court to uphold it no longer remains”. Justice John Roberts notes that “things have changed in the South. The evil that Section 5 is meant to address may no longer be concentrated in the jurisdictions singled out for pre-clearance. The statute’s coverage formula is based on data that is now more than 35 years old, and there is considerable evidence that it fails to account for current political conditions”. Justice Antonin Scalia is example number 1A. He is on record as calling the Voting Rights Act a “perpetuation of racial entitlement”. Really? Umm, excuse me. The federal government is entitled to tax me to death, but I can’t vote? Recidivism is more like it. We, as a nation, are going backwards not forwards. MUST there be another Civil Rights movement? Why is America going back on her creed? Does it only apply if you’re white and male? I can hear the peanut gallery: oh, but things are better for black people! Yes, without a doubt; but if you believe in your heart that racism in America has been eradicated? I’d like for you to step right up! I have here in my possession this beautiful Brooklyn Bridge I’d like to sell you. You can “erase” racism from schools and history books; but you can’t erase it from people’s hearts. As long as there is ONE Confederate flag flying across this nation, there must be a strong voting rights law to protect the rights of African-American citizens. Remember, my disenfranchisement today is yours tomorrow. POWER TO THE PEOPLE! |
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