Freedom Summer 1964 Remembered

This past weekend marked the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer 1964, when three young men by the names of Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Adam Goodman were kidnapped, shot dead and burnt up, by the hands of a Mississippi Deputy Sheriff and the Ku Klux Klan, who the sheriff alerted to action after he pulled the men over for false speeding.

It took the wife of Michael Schwerner, the families of the men, many protesters and activists, who eventually found the bodies of the missing men 40 days later buried in an earthen dam side by side.

These men were killed because they were trying to register African Americans to vote, so that they too could have a voice in the political process within America.

For more information about Freedom Summer 1964, click here.

2014 LA

America's Voting History

Oppressor: the exercise of ones authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.

The United States of America has been a divided country for centuries, so when listening to news correspondents speak about the history of this country I often hear, "this is not America" or "this isn't the Republican party of the Reagan years", and "we need to get back to the principles on which this country was founded." 

Really? The principles? What country have they been living in?

The United States of America that I've come to now know, has an extended history of assassinating our extraordinary leaders for extending a helping hand to the oppressed. 

Leaders like our 16th President Abraham Lincoln, our 35th President John F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy's brother Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Civil Rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers; not to mention the countless lynchings and murders left untold. Yet America still has a reputation of being the best and most powerful country in the world.

"Of course he wants to vote for the Democratic ticket" "You're as free as air. ain't you?, say you are, or I'll blow yer black head off!" (Blacks seeking protection of the law from KKK efforts to keep African-Americans from voting in free elections.)  

~Harper's Weekly political cartoon, October 21, 1876 Politics, Government, Elections. 

This country couldn't have been much better in the past as some say, especially when so many people weren't factored into this "better" past history. 

Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery in 1865, giving African Americans the right to vote; literacy tests, poll taxes, hiding the locations of the polls, economic pressures, threats of physical violence, and other strategies were conducted to suppress the African American vote. 

Thanks to the pressure of Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., non-discrimination at the polls received public attention when the Federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 was written into law by our 36th president, Lyndon B. Johnson. 

Women didn't earn the right to vote until the year 1920, and is now written into law as the 19th amendment. White women attained the right to vote first, and eventually African American women would also receive the same right. 

Asian Pacific Americans didn't vote in large numbers until 1965; Mexican Americans didn't receive the right to vote until 1975; Native Americans didn't truly become citizens until 1924, although they are the original founders (Indigenous people) of American soil. 

These race of people all have one important thing in common; when trying to exercise their right to vote they were often met with violence and intimidation and were even subjected to rules that not all men had to follow. 

As President Obama stated, "America is a place where if you work hard enough, you can make it." 

This I do believe however, it would be simpler to attain life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, if there were not a constant "oppressor" unjustly and cruelly working to demise the American people at every turn. 

So the next time a news correspondent speaks nonchalantly about the "good ole days", I can only hope that they clarify what days they're talking about because as you can see the "good ole days" weren't very good for many. We've come a long way indeed, but there is more work to be done.

Our ancestor's struggle to vote should propel us all to emulate their actions. Their sacrifices to make a better place for future generations, our generation, should never be taken lightly. 

We must make them proud by consistently exercising the one right that truly made them American citizens and what binds us altogether as Americans; the right to vote. Vote like your lives depend on it because guess what? It does!

2012 LA
 
Register to voter here.