OPINION
The Chronicle
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Ernest H. Pitt Publisher/Co-Founder
Donna Rogers Managing Editor
Elaine Pitt Business Manager
Our Mission
The Chronicle is dedicated to serving the
residents of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County
by giving voice to the voiceless, speaking truth
to power, standing for integrity and
encouraging open communication and
lively debate throughout the community.
Support
NAACP in
trial, rally
in full force
Time is ticking down as the trial to chal
lenge North Carolina's restrictive voter laws
draws near.
On Monday, July 13, the federal court trial
of N.C NAACP v. McCrory will be heard in
the federal court building in Winston-Salem.
That voting rights case against Gov. Pat
McCrory and the North Carolina legislature is
expected to take four weeks.
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this law is the first and the
worst since the Shelby v.
Holder decision by the
U.S. Supreme Court. That
decision affected the pre
clearance rules of the
1965 Voting Rights Act.
Federal lawmakers
thought it prudent to add a
section governing pre
clearance to prevent voter
discrimination by requir
ing all state and local gov
Roberts
ernments wnn a nistory ot voting discrimina
tion to get approval from the federal govern
ment before making any changes to any of
their voting laws or procedures. If state and
local governments have a history of discrimi
nation, that means they have done it before.
Chief Justice John Roberts said at the time
of the decision that times have changed, so the
preclearance should not be required.
N.C NAACP v. McCrory proves that times
have not changed in North Carolina. The
restrictions approved in 2013 show that the
top U.S. court misjudged the racism that still
exists in high places. The massacre in
Charleston, South Carolina shows how that
mistake has festered unchecked. The North
Carolina restrictive voter law is not designed
to enhance American freedom; it is designed
to take it away.
Not only is the law affecting the poor and
minority voters, it's affecting white voters,
too. Some people find it hard to obtain driver
licenses as an ID, for instance, because they
have been convicted of driving under the
influence. Those people have a burden of hav
ing to get an acceptable ID to vote when in the
past they could have simply shown a voter
registration card and signed a roster to vote.
And what happened to the voter registra
tion card, anyway?
We are thankful that the North Carolina
NAACP is still around to fight the civil rights
battles much like they were fought half a cen
tury ago.
We are thankful that the heritage of
African-American fortitude has not faded
amid the rollbacks of civil rights governments
have undertaken in the 21st century.
We are thankful that African-Americans
realize that freedom is not free.
We urge a united force for the Moral
Monday fight inside and outside the court
room on Monday.
We urge the people of all races to come out
in force and support the effort to secure our
freedoms again on July 13.
'THIS IS OUR SELMA!'
Remember our fight of yesterday; get ready for new fight
William J.
Barber
Guest
Columnist
We are going into one of
the most historic weeks of
our lives. 49 years and 11
months ago, civil rights lead
ers, whose steps were cov
ered in the blood of the mar
tyrs, were anticipating the
. passage of the Voting Rights
Act. They would wait 31
more days, until August 6,1965, for the to be signed into
law.
Today we find ourselves fighting to hold on to the very
things that they won 50 years ago. This is no small
moment and we have all been chosen for this. The
moment is bigger than any individual - it is a collective,
Kairos moment. Personally I am glad to be alive and glad
to be on this righteous team with you.
I know we were meant to be together, to fight together,
and to serve this present age together. So let us do it so
well that in the ages to come someone will recall how we
served, how we stood, and how we would not turn around.
The following is from "Give Us the Ballot," Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Address at the Prayer
Pilgrimage for Freedom (May 17,1957):
'Unfortunately, this noble and sublime decision has not
gone without opposition. This opposition has often risen
to ominous proportions. Many states have risen up in open
defiance. The legislative halls of the South ring loud with
such words as "interposition" and "nullification."
But even more, all types of conniving methods are still
being used to prevent
Negroes from becoming reg- ?
istered voters. The denial of
this sacred right is a tragic
betrayal of the highest man
dates of our democratic tra
dition. And so our most
urgent request to the presi
dent of the United States and
every member of Congress
is to give us the right to vote.
[Audience:] (Yes)
Give us the ballot, and
we will no longer have to
worry the federal govern
ment about our basic rights.
Give us the ballot (Yes),
and we will no longer plead
to the federal government
for passage of an anti-lynch
ing law; we will by the
power of our vote write the
law on the statute books of the
Martin Luther King
South (All right) and bring an
end to the dastardly acts of the hooded perpetrators of vio
lence.
Give us the ballot (Give us the ballot), and we will
transform the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs
(Yeah) into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens.
Give us the ballot (Give us the ballot), and we will fill
our legislative halls with men of goodwill (All right now)
and send to the sacred halls of Congress men who will not
sign a "Southern Manifesto" because of their devotion to
the manifesto of justice .5(Tell 'em about it)
Give us the ballot (Yeah), and we will place judges on
the benches of the South who will do justly and love
mercy (Yeah), and we will place at the head of the south
em states governors who will, who have felt not only the
tang of the human Jbut the glow of the Divine .Give us the
ballot (Yes), and we will quietly and nonviolently, without
rancor or bitterness, implement the Supreme Court's deci
sion of May seventeenth, 1954. (That's right)
/?
In this juncture of our nation's history, there is an
urgent need for dedicated and courageous leadership...'
The following is from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s
Address at the Conclusion of the Selma to
Montgomery March (March 25,1965): ^
'My dear and abiding friends, Ralph Abemathy, and to
all of the distinguished Americans seated here on the ros
trum, my friends and co-workers of the state of Alabama,
and to all of the freedom-loving people who have assem
bled here this afternoon from all over our nation and from
all over the world: Last Sunday, more than eight thousand
of us started on a mighty walk from Selma, Alabama. We
have walked through desolate valleys and across the try
ing hills. We have walked on meandering highways and
rested our bodies on rocky byways. Some of our faces are
burned from the outpourings of the sweltering sun. Some
have literally slept in the mud. We have been drenched by
the rains. [Audience:] (Speak) Our bodies are tired and
our feet are somewhat sore .But today as I stand before you
and think back over that great march, I can say, as Sister
Pollard said?a seventy-year-old Negro woman who lived
in this community during the bus boycott?and one day,
she was asked while walking if she didn't want to ride.
And when she answered, "No," the person said, "Well,
aren't you tired?" And with her ungrammatical profundity,
she said, "My feets is tired, but my soul is rested." (Yes,
sir. All right) And in a real sense this afternoon, we can
say that our feet are tired, (Yes, sir) but our souls are rest
ed. They told us we wouldn't get here. And there were
those who said that we would get here only over their dead
bodies, (Well. Yes, sir. Talk) but all the world today
knows that we are here and we are standing before the
forces of power in the state of Alabama saying, "We ain't
goin' let nobody turn us around." (Yes, sir. Speak)
[ApplauseJNow it is not an accident that one of the great
marches of American history should terminate in
Montgomery, Alabama. (Yes, sir) Just ten years ago, in
this very city, a new philosophy was born of the Negro
struggle. Montgomery was the first city in the South in
which the entire Negro community united and squarely
faced its age-old oppressors. (Yes, sir. Well) Out of this
struggle, more than bus [de]segregation was won; a new
idea, more powerful than guns or clubs was born. Negroes
took it and carried it across the South in epic battles (Yes,
sir. Speak) that electrified the nation (Well) and the
world...'
In the Spirit of Truth and Justice,
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II
President, N.C .NAACP
For more information about the N.C. NAACP's efforts,
go to http.//wwwnaacpnc .org/.
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