ATLANTA – In 1965, my senior year at Druid High School in Tuscaloosa, Ala., I participated in the last leg of the Selma-to-Montgomery, Ala. march seeking passage of a federal Voting Rights Act. Ultimately, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill into law. Last Saturday, I found myself in the middle of another march, this one to extend key sections of the law set to expire in 2007.

One should not minimize the dramatic progress that has been made over the past four decades. Because of the poll tax, phony literacy tests, violence and intimidation, African-Americans were denied access to the ballot box. The 1965 Voting Rights Act, as civil rights activist are quick to note, was a result of Black demands, not the good intentions of Congress or LBJ.

In fact, Johnson, who was the greatest U.S. president on domestic issues – far exceeding anything ever accomplished by Bill Clinton -- did not think Congress would pass such a bill. So, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) took to the streets, forcing Congress and Johnson to act.

Consequently, the number of Black elected officials increased from 1,469 in 1970, the first year they were compiled, to 9,101 in 2001, according the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Despite what is being circulated on the Internet, African-Americans will not lose the right to vote if the three sections of the Voting Rights Act are allowed to expire. The 15th Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 1870, gives every citizen the right to vote.

However, the 15th Amendment did not become meaningful in the lives of Blacks until passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Of particular interest is Section 5 of the law. It requires states, cities and other political jurisdictions with a history of voter discrimination to obtain approval from the U.S. Department of Justice before making changes to their voting systems. This pre-clearance provision was placed into the law to make sure that even inadvertent changes do not unfairly dilute Black political strength.

Although the other two sections scheduled to expire are not as well known, they, too, are extremely important. One allows the Justice Department to send observers into areas where there have been allegations of voter fraud. Another provision is significant to the growing Latino population because it mandates bilingual ballots and language assistance in districts or precincts where many of the residents do not speak English.

An unintended byproduct of the drive to renew key sections of the Voting Rights Act is that African-Americans and Latinos are working closely to protect their mutual interests and, in the process, repair unacknowledged tension that is said to come from political and employment competition.
A recent report by the Southern Poverty Law Center concluded, “...Like the civil-rights-era alliance between blacks and Jews, the black/brown coalition has grown more and more strained. Many blacks resent what is seen as Hispanics leapfrogging them on the economic ladder, and some complain of the skin-color prejudices that are particularly strong in some Hispanic countries, notably Mexico.”

It continues, “The conflict is growing, as many Hispanic immigrants, legal and illegal, pour into neighborhoods that were in many cases previously dominated by blacks.”

Tension notwithstanding, both groups face discrimination.

USA Today carried an article last week that demonstrate the continued need for federal protection. In 2001, an unprecedented number of African-Americans decided to seek public office in Kilmichael, Miss. But three weeks before the election, the mayor and five-member Board of Aldermen cancelled the election. The Justice Department said the change represented a violation of the Voting Rights Act. Two years later, the town of 830 people elected its first Black mayor, along with three African-American aldermen.

The problems haven’t been limited to small towns in Mississippi.

Earlier this year, Georgia passed what is believed to be the most restricted voter identification law in the nation. It requires voters to present a driver’s license or other government-issued photo ID before being allowed to vote. In the past, about a dozen forms of identification were accepted, including utility bills and Social Security cards.

The Atlanta Constitution stated in an editorial, “…It’s hard not to draw the conclusion that the Republican-dominated Legislature and Gov. Sonny Perdue, the state’s first GOP chief executive in more than a century, want to restrict voting for partisan gain.”

Those are two of many examples of why the Voting Rights Act needs to be extended.

George E. Curry is editor-in-chief of the NNPA News Service and BlackPressUSA.com. He appears on National Public Radio (NPR) three times a week as part of “News and Notes with Ed Gordon.” In addition, his radio commentary is syndicated each week by Capitol Radio News Service (301/588-1993). To contact Curry or to book him for a speaking engagement, go to his Web site, www.georgecurry.com.