Ari Berman on Alabama and voting rights:
Alabama is birthplace of Voting Rights Act
This is how hard it was to vote in the state before 1965
We can’t forget about this history
(p17 Give Us the Ballot) pic.twitter.com/iWWCuxLtUz
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) December 12, 2017
In Feb 1965 Alabama state troopers shot 26-year-old unarmed Jimmie Lee Jackson after civil rights march. He’d tried to register to vote 5 times. His death led to Selma march pic.twitter.com/CeuXBj3pjE
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) December 12, 2017
.@repjohnlewis was brutally beaten on Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965 when he marched for the right to vote. That march led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act pic.twitter.com/WuLfrjKph2
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) December 12, 2017
In Selma, Alabama, only 2% of African-Americans were registered to vote in 1965. In neighboring Lowndes County, which was 80% black, there wasn’t a single black registered voter pic.twitter.com/G9dsqilz0s
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) December 12, 2017
Comments
2 responses to “The birthplace of the Voting Rights Act”
I was 2 months old. Hard to believe this history is so recent. In some ways it explains why there are still people trying to turn back the tide. The fight is far from won.
Doug Jones won! The non-white, non-racist voters turned out in large numbers, in spite of all the obstacles put in their way. Go Alabama!