"pantslessprogressive:  ""Prior to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, African-Americans and many others faced regular and malicious restrictions to the free exercise of their constitutionally protected right to vote, especially in my native South. Literacy tests, poll taxes, and grandfather clauses: many insidious techniques were used by certain states to restrict, confuse, and write off, marginalize and disenfranchise so many eligible citizens from voting simply because of the color of their skin. Southern governors and those in Washington comfortable with the status quo hid behind arguments about ""states rights."" Yet these laws were little more than legislated racism and all knew the real goal behind their unequal effects. In a 1957 speech titled 'Give Us The Ballot,' Dr. King spoke plainly about the imperative of equal voting rights. 'So long as I do not firmly and irrevocably possess the right to vote I do not possess myself. I cannot make up my mind — it is made up for me. I cannot live as a democratic citizen, observing the laws I have helped to enact — I can only submit to the edict of others.' For Dr. King, the right to vote was sacrosanct and foundational. It is the very essence of our social contract. Free elections create legitimacy. They imply the consent of the governed. He knew that unfair elections laws did not just hurt minorities or the working poor, they rendered hollow the very essence of American government. It's a message that's as true today as it was then. The 47-year old Voting Rights Act has stood the test of time, but there are new obstacles to the ballot springing up in today's America. Around the country, conservatives in state legislatures are attempting to put fresh roadblocks in the path of this most basic right. The latest vogue in anti-suffrage legislation is mandatory photo ID laws. […] These laws disproportionately impact minority communities — groups much more likely than white voters to lack photo identification for reasons as simple as the fact that they may not own a car and use the city bus to get to work. According a study published in 2006 by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law, as many as 23 million American citizens — that's 11% of those of voting age — lack the government-issued photo ID many of these laws demand."" - Donna Brazile [Photo: Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders watch President Lyndon B. Johnson sign the Voting Rights Act on August 6, 1965. Credit: National Archives]"
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