Protecting the Black Vote is a Never-Ending Battle
We won’t stop until we have what is rightfully ours.
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58 years later and yet here we are… fighting the same war.
Let’s go back in time for a moment.
It’s August 6th, 1965. A movement of supporters has flooded the streets of the capital city, blaring funky jazz music, dancing, and chanting “Freedom at last!”.
Meanwhile, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, Rosa Parks, and many other civil rights leaders have gathered in the White House to witness President Lyndon B. Johnson sign the Voting Rights Act.
Everyone is beaming with smiles as Johnson says,
“The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.”
They all raise their champagne and respond with a loud “Cheers!” followed by a clinking of glasses.
August 6th, 1965. A day that would go down in history — not only as a day to remember, but to honor and respect, and with all the sh*t we’re up against right now, it’s high time we recreate it.
To say the 60s was an unsettling time is a huge understatement.
They went through a lot…
- The Greensboro Four and the sit-in movement (1960)
- President Kennedy was assassinated (1963)
- The Civil Rights Act was signed (1964)
- Malcolm X was assassinated (1965)
- Martin Luther King Jr. marches from Selma to Montgomery (1965)
- The Watts riots left 34 dead and $40 million in property damage ($387 million today!). (1965)
- Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated (1968)
Then again, times aren’t too different right now.
Yet still, in the midst of such adversity, people like Dr. King and President Johnson chose not to respond with more violence but instead pressed forward and ensured that all Americans have their fundamental right in this country — the right to vote.
