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Voting Rights Act certainly due for review

Published 12:06am Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Mississippi and other Southern states acted like children nearly 50 years ago, thumbing their noses at the federal government over issues of race.havent

Southern states couched their childish, even crazy, behavior as an issue of “states rights.”

By today’s standards that makes about as much sense as an 8-year-old avowing he has the constitutional rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, thus he doesn’t have to mind his parents.

The federal government took its belt off, as it were, in 1965 with the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

In particular, a portion of the law — Section 5 — mandates punitive rules against Southern states. In particular, since the law’s inception, any change in the rules regarding voting in the states affected must receive pre-clearance from the U.S. Justice Department.

In 1965, it was sharp, but necessary punishment to ensure the institutional racism was clipped at the root.

The law worked, and evidence of that fact exists in nearly every corner of Mississippi.

Do racial patterns still exist in almost all politics? Sure, but that doesn’t indicate a need for federal scrutiny over every aspect of Mississippi’s elections.

In the next few months, the U.S. Supreme Court plans to review the constitutionality of Section 5, based on a case from Alabama.

We’ve long argued the requirement for preclearance is outdated and unfair for Southern states.

Nearly 50 years later, the constant reminders of wrongs done by citizens who are now quite elderly are not fair or justified. Fortunately, this is not your grandfather’s South.

Either the preclearance mandate needs to be lifted or it should be applied to all states.

 

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  • http://www.facebook.com/Bob.Buie.Sr Bob Buie Sr

    Democrat Editorial Staff,

    Your statement “Fortunately, this is not your grandfather’s South” is the most insulting statement ever printed in a newspaper.
    Perhaps tommorrow you can follow up with an article on your thoughts about the “redistribution of wisdom”.

    Bob Buie Sr

  • Khakirat

    My opinion is that all Americans should be able to vote in all states of this USA thru the federal laws as wrote without a humbug!! This is our privilege that our forefathers fought for that are of all races!! Also, I feel that we and myself included should respect each other no matter how we voted that we voted our way!!

  • Anonymous

    DEB, you are wrong if you don’t think that it is very possible to disenfranchise the minority in our state. If it were not for this law, the efforts by the republicans to disenfranchise voters in Florida would have worked. If this state every tries to go for the democrats you can bet your money on shenanigans from the right. You are living in your grandfather’s South to think otherwise.

  • Anonymous

    This remarkable historical record, collected by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), has never before been used to systematically evaluate societal change. The data reveal a number of sobering conclusions:

    ● While African Americans made rapid gains in the 1960s and, along with white women, in the 1970s, the post-1980s period has witnessed a clear deceleration in desegregation. Black employment integration with white men in the regulated private sector essentially came to halt after 1980.

    ● Since 1990, 43 percent of industries have had significant increases in employment segregation between white women and black women.

    ● Racial segregation among men is growing in one in six industries.

    ● In the 25 years after Ronald Reagan became President, employment segregation between white men and black men declined less than it did in two years in the 1960s.

    Barring additional political pressure, it is now likely that we will see increased segregation in more workplaces and decreased access to good jobs for groups other than white men. “The United States is no longer on the path to equal employment opportunity,” Stainback and Tomaskovic-Devey conclude. Read more here: https://www.russellsage.org/sites/all/files/Documenting-Desegregation_fact-sheet.pdf

  • Anonymous

    So, are you insulted that white men suppressed the black vote in Adams county? Or, are you insulted that the ND has the strength and courage to bring it up? It happened. I know; I was there when Montebello received bomb threats because it was a polling place, and we had to march out as though it was a fire drill. I remember the demonstration turned riot when MLK was murdered for pushing for equal voting rights. I remember the Klan leaving memeographed fliers on our driveway. I find it insulting that those and many, many more incedents like these occured, and that somehow, that doesn’t matter. I find it insulting that ignorant racists, somehow, don’t think the past has an influence on the present. I find it insulting that you can’t have an honest and open dialogue about the past and the present. Your fear mongering, ignorance and lack of historical context is insulting, and you should be embarrassed. But hey, good news; the Natchez Market has Surefine Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil on sale. You can make a new hat!

  • http://www.facebook.com/Bob.Buie.Sr Bob Buie Sr

    Cute!

  • Anonymous

    what about the minorities that vote for auntie,cousins,grandma, i personally heard several brag where i worked about voting for 8 or 10 other people in their family,it,s skunks in all th woods in this world.

  • Anonymous

    Think about it. How would one go about doing this? The poll worker would notice don’t you think? Or maybe you don’t even vote because if you did, you’d know you just cannot vote for somebody else.

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