History and N.C. voting laws
Published September 5, 2013
by Dr. James Leutze, former Chancellor UNC-W, Wilmington Star-News, September 3, 2013.
To me, as a former educator, the attack on education being mounted by the Republicans in Raleigh is particularly alarming. As an example of how a lack of education can lead to wrong conclusions, I refer to a the Aug. 28 letter "Voter ID flap just baseless squawking."
The writer stated, "Democrats would have us keep 1776 standards of voting when all you had to do was sign an "X" for your name." He goes on to say that it is wrong to assume that the new laws are racist.
Voting rights have been hard won in North Carolina. Until the N.C. Constitution of 1835, there was a property qualification for white male and free black male and Indian voters. The same constitution disenfranchised all black and Indian voters but reduced the property qualification for white male voters.
Not until the end of the Civil War was North Carolina forced to accept the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U. S. Constitution granting voting rights to all male citizens. Violently opposed for the next 30 years by the KKK and the Red Shirts, they finally got their way in the 1898 North Carolina Constitution which put virtually insurmountable barriers between blacks and the voting booth. There is no question that these folks were racist.
Not until 1964 was North Carolina forced by federal law to grant blacks the unencumbered right to vote – almost 100 years after the Civil War. And it was not until 1920 that women won the suffrage by way of the 19th Amendment. North Carolina voted against the 19th Amendment, but enough other states acquiesced to make it law.
Not until 1930 did federal law grant full citizenship rights to Cherokee Indians in North Carolina. North Carolina did not formally ratify the 19th Amendment until 1971.
Knowing history is enlightening as well as a building block in making intelligent decisions. Many newcomers and other residents are unaware of North Carolina's checkered history when it comes to impeding the right to vote. It's a clichй, but maybe with good reason: Those who don't remember their history are doomed to repeat it.
September 5, 2013 at 9:02 am
Richard Bunce says:
You as a member of the government education industrial complex need to worry less about what the State Legislature is up to and more about the lack of performance of the government education system where the majority of students cannot read at grade level. Stop fighting reform and make something other than the government education funding stream your top priority.
September 5, 2013 at 10:04 am
TP Wohlford says:
Au contraire. WE learned it back in school, at least those of us who stayed awake in high school and government courses. Cause, you know, those courses were taught by liberal teachers, who ground that Jim Crowe axe a lot.
We learned that one political party was responsible for keeping slavery into the Constitution, and in fact proposed that black human beings have no value at all politically. We learned that one party had elements that favored a US invasion of Cuba and Central America to establish more slave states to secure slavery as the law of the land. We learned that the political party of everyone who fought for slavery for the Confederacy, and of those who opposed the war in the North. We learned the political party of 99% of the segregationists and the members of the various "white citizens" committees. I can hazard a guess at the political affiliation of the guy who shot Lincoln in an attempted coup in 1865. I could go on, but at least you see I know my history.
None of that applies here. Cause, you see, I know history. Several states, including Michigan (I'm a fairly new resident, relocated from Michigan) have much stricter voting laws than those recently passed here. You know -- photo ID (albeit with an affidavit option), only one day voting, and so on. And do you know the HISTORICAL voting trends of minorities since that law was passed and enforced? You got it -- minority participation has increased.
Ditto with Georgia -- voter ID laws passed, and more black people vote than ever.
You see, I do know my history.
September 5, 2013 at 12:23 pm
dj anderson says:
McCrory should remember that before walking out in the crowd to offer refreshments to be thrown in his face. Dr. James Leutze probably missed that lesson, or censored it out, but if history does repeat itself, that even fits the formula of today.
September 5, 2013 at 12:47 pm
dj anderson says:
Who ruled NC when property was used as qualification? Not Republicans.
Who supported slavery and refused slaves the vote while taking 3/5th representation for them in congress? Answer, Democrats!
"There is no question that these folks were racist." - article Agreed!
Who voted for secession and rebelled in the Civil War to keep from having the 14th and 15th Amendments? Democrats!
"There is no question that these folks were racist." - article Agreed!
"Not until 1964 was North Carolina forced by federal law to grant blacks the unencumbered right to vote" -- article -- and who ran NC from 1988 through 1964? answer, again, Democrats!
"There is no question that these folks were racist." - article Agreed!
That's true, so true, and many an inconvenient truth is buried by NC's Democratic Party, but the past is the past, and the party today is different. Nothing the Republicans today have done matches the past wrongs of the Democrats. Why tell the story in that context?
A picture ID in the 21st century is the worst of it. Really? NC still has a liberal stance in early voting with 10 days of it, and no less hours of early voting than before.
Those who dig up the past to thrown dispersion are going to discover their own dirty hands. Best to point out the exact thing that is so bad today and argue that, point by point.
