What is the importance of voting?
American presidents have been assassinated because of laws voted in to change America.
They killed Abraham Lincoln because he ended slavery and JFK was killed because he was reversing Jim Crow. (Remember they would Lynch blacks for voting in the south , why wouldn’t they kill Lincoln for giving blacks the right to vote?
The Grandfather Clause was a law enacted by the states in the south , after Reconstruction (1865-1877). At the voting polls whites created literacy tests, and poll taxes, to disenfranchise southern blacks. Thousands of black voters were slaughtered in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. Southern colonizers also intimidated and bullied Southern whites who supported the Republican Party.
“President” Andrew Johnson was trying to win over the pro slavery governors, so he put them in political positions, which gave these former slave masters to ability to create laws known as black codes against blacks people.
The NAACP endorsed democrat “Woodrow Wilson” in 1912 and he did absolutely nothing for black Americans. If anything he re-instated a form of slavery and reinforced segregation . This is the reason that black people were forced into to supporting the Republican Party because of its anti-slavery non black code policies. The realignment of black voters from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party began in the late 1920s.
The Democratic Party didn’t welcome blacks until 1924, at the Democratic conventions. Black people, began supporting Democrats following the rise of the Franklin D. Roosevelt. The election of Roosevelt in 1932 sparked the beginning of a switch. He got 71 percent of the black vote for president. Why? Because “The New Deal” was a series of program’s, that was created to help “poor people” between 1933 and 1936. Because majority of black people fit into the category of “poor” during the Great Depression, the democrats new deal was appealing to poor whites and normal blacks. This new voting for policies, erased the original traditional voting for republicans. It’s must be noted that before blacks voted democrat, black conservatism was culture in the black community. With the goal of bringing repair and success to the black community. This is the era that belonged to the black Wall Street, Madam Cj Walker, Booker T Washington & W.E.B Dubois of the world, blacks were voting republican at this time.
After the civil rights act bill became a law in June 2, 1964. This didn’t make a difference in the north. The Harlem riots of 1964 occurred between July 16 and 22, 1964. And 1964 Philadelphia race riot during black August. These riots happened after civil rights law was passed.
After the government killed Martin Luther King,
over 100 cities across the United States rioted after King was assassinated. These riots targeted white businesses & authorities, the last true slave rebellion in America. A war that only ended because Lyndon B Johnson offered blacks a peace treaty. The uprising lasted 7 days. On the 7th day the Fair Housing Act treaty was passed and the negro revolt ended after americas agreement to provide fair treatment for blacks was written in word.
In his own words Lyndon says:
“What did you expect? I don’t know why we’re so surprised. When you put your foot on a man’s neck and hold him down for three hundred years, and then you let him up, what’s he going to do? He’s going to knock your block off”.
Since 1870, blacks would vote for the lesser of two evils. It appears black people become better conservatives for the first 60 years out of slavery. After the depression, the Republican Party lost its black loyal vote and focused more on racist southern voters. After 1933 , specific deals for poor people or blacks were the min requirement all the way until 1964. X and King, used their muscle to get the 1964 law passed. And blacks rioting in 50 states forced lyndon b Johnson to pass the fair housing act .
The March on Washington was on 1963. Result: this protests gets credit for getting the “Civil Rights Act of 1964” passed . However my personal research, shows that pressure and threats coming from MLK and Malcom X is what really got the bill passed.
Selma was in 1963. it did get some voting laws passed for blacks, only at the expense of being beat up on live tv, did the president Johnson intervene, because it was a bad look. The law was “Voting Rights Act of 1965”
“March Against Fear” was in 1966. The result was nothing. No laws passed.
“The Memphis sanitation strike” was 1968, this is where MLK would be killed. The results: Increased wages for sanitation workers by City of Memphis, but that doesn’t replace MLK life.
Blacks have gotten more freedom over the past 60 years than the first 60 years post slavery, Black American respect is linked to our unpredictability at the polls. We are not equal without voting.
