During Black History Month, more than at any other time of year, we hear Black people say, “We’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go.”
Black people of every profession, ministers, local, state, and federal politicians, along with the average citizen, repeat the same refrain.
“We’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go.”
Blacks in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, New York, California, and every state in the U.S. repeat this truth about inequities that African Americans face.
“We’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go.”
My parents said the same thing, even though their lives were better than their parents’ and grandparents’, in terms of their opportunities, circumstances, and livlihood.
My mother was one of the first Blacks in Greensboro to pass the Alabama Voter Literacy Test, which was created to prevent Blacks from voting.
Blacks voting in the South before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 wasn’t tough; it was nearly impossible.
Although Blacks and Whites alike had to follow established procedures, the procedures were administered differently to each group.
The literacy tests administered to Black people were much more difficult than those administered to White people.
Blacks had to read a section of the Alabama Constitution aloud. This was not always the case for Whites.
Which of these two sections of the Constitution is more difficult, and which do you think was given to Blacks to read aloud?
Section 20: “That no person shall be imprisoned for debt.”
Section 260: “The income arising from the sixteenth section trust fund, the surplus revenue fund, until it is called for by the United States government, and the funds enumerated in sections 257 and 258 of this Constitution, together with a special annual tax of thirty cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable property in this state, which the legislature shall levy, shall be applied to the support and maintenance of the public schools, and it shall be the duty of the Legisture to increase the public school fund from time to time…”
The difference was that the White didn’t have to read a section, or they were given a section that a third grader could read, while a 189-word paragraph of legal jargon was assigned to Black people.
The white registrar recorded any mispronunciations by Blacks solely on their own opinion, which likely included words they couldn’t pronounce. In addition to the reading, it was not unusual for the registrar to ask a Blacks to interpret the constitutional section, copy the words, and even write the section from dictation.
The registrar determined whether the potential voter was literate, and that judgment was final and not appealable.
How were Blacks able to pass the literacy test and other qualifications to vote?
Citizenship Schools run by the Freedom Movement, which began in South Carolina, helped black men and women to qualify. The schools educated Black people about their rights and helped them learn to read, write, complete voter registration forms, and pass literacy tests so they could vote.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a constitutional law instituted to eliminate voter discrimination. The law was amended five times to protect the voting rights of Blacks and other minorities.
Things have changed a lot since the Alabama Literacy Test era, but Blacks still have a long way to go to achieve racial equality.
The right to vote and other constitutional freedoms are under attack today.
Racial equality is not a fight for a decade or century; in America, the fight never ends.
God has no favorites; all are created equal.
With God’s help, we shall overcome.
I hope you are happy and well.