MLK Day

Abraham Lincoln and Martian Luther King Jr. did not just fight for equality and justice, but for the right for African-Americans to vote. Currently, a right the majority of African-Americans take for granted. Prior to the American Revolution, voting in America was a privilege restricted to white males who owned property. Hundreds into the thousands of people, black and white, died to give minorities, women and blacks, the opportunity make their voice heard. To understand the importance of voting, one must know the history. “The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.”(Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States).
The right to vote has been earned through the hardships suffered by past generations. Soldiers and civil rights workers died fighting for all citizens, including minorities of: black, Hispanic, women and those 18 or older for the right to vote. We owe it to them, yourselves and future generations to be actively engaged. Louis L’Amour stated “To make democracy work, we must be a nation of participants, not observers. One who does not vote has no right to complain!”

Although African-American slaves were freed in 1865 with the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, they did not receive the right to vote until 1870 when the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified. Immediately after ratification, anti-black voting laws were passed by states in the south that drastically restricted the rights of newly freed slaves to participate in a democratic nation. Literacy test were required in order to register and the tests were purposely made to prevent blacks from passing. Grandfather Clauses were passed which prevented anyone from registering to vote unless their grandfathers had been eligible to vote. Many states passed poll taxes. It was not until a hundred years later, on