Jim Crow Laws Are Coming Back

If you were born before 1965 and fell asleep in history class or just plain forgot, Jim Crow Laws were laws in this country enacted between 1876 and 1965. The laws mandated segregation of public utilities in the Southern states. Beginning in 1890 “separate but equal” status was given to African Americans and thus segregation. The Supreme Court declared school segregation unconstitutional in 1954 (Brown vs. the Board of Education.) The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 overruled the remaining Jim Crows laws. This happened during Lyndon Johnson’s administration who also got the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed.

The Essence of the Voting Rights Act was to prohibit states and local governments with a history of discriminatory voting history from making any voting changes before approval by the United States Attorney General or ad 3 judge panel in the District Court for D.C. Section 5 of this act has been renewed and amended by Congress 4 times, most recently in 2006 by George W. Bush.

Section 4 of the Voting Rights Acts was struck down with a 5-4 ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. In essence they said things have changed in the south in the last 50 years and that part was now unconstitutional. By doing away with Section 4 that wiped out section 5.

Ah how things have changed in 50 years. Actually many good changes have been made in the last 50 years as celebrated in the March on Washington led by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. But then I just read how recently 25 blacks were moved from the Wild Wing Café in South Carolina after one white person who said they made him uncomfortable after they had waited for service for 2 hours.

Folk have taken the new Supreme Court Ruling as open season to make new voting laws, the intent of which is to limit folk (generally seniors, minorities, students and women) from voting. This includes our state, which has the 2^nd highest voter turnout in the nation.

Tammy Baldwin has called our states leadership on this and is promoting a petition against such practices.  

Frankly I don’t want to be lumped in with states like Texas, North Carolina and others the are trying to get these Jim Crow type laws back on the books. To me it seems like a money issue again.

Sign Tammy’s petition if you feel so moved and what to continue the work for voter rights began 50 years ago. Wait, make that 94 years ago when women got the right to vote.