The state of black voting rights.

Originally posted in the first month of this blog's operation (exactly January 23rd, 2005), I thought it was about time to repost this. People are actually reading this blog now unlike back in early 2005 and this issue is coming up more as it gets closer to 2007. Enjoy!!!!

It has just come to my attention that there is a way to debunk this rumor that black voting rights will expire in 2007. That rumor has apparently been going around since January of 1997. According to this rumor the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is set to expire in 2007 which means that a black person's right to vote will expire at that time. In addition, this piece of legislation was merely an ACT not a law. Also this act was extended by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 for another 25 years after that, so I suppose it would have expired sooner. This rumor sought another extension of this act and to make this a law.

The rumor is false of course. The NAACP on November 19, 1998 in a publication, The Internet Tourbus, had to address this issue,

"African American voting rights were granted by the Fifteenth Amendment, which was passed immediately after the Civil War. Expiration of the Voting Rights Act will not terminate the rights granted under the Fifteenth Amendment."

The Justice Department even issued a statement on April 2, 1998,

"The basic prohibition against discrimination in voting contained in the Fifteenth amendment and in the Voting Rights Act does not expire in 2007 — it does not expire at all; it is permanent."

That being said the source that I got this information from says,

"...that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is indeed set to expire unless it is renewed by Congress before 2007. The rest is false. The basic right of all Americans to vote, regardless of race, is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights and can't expire with the Voting Rights Act. "

This act from 1965 isn't the only thing that guarantees a black person's right to vote. It's in the bill of rights and the constitution. Of course our voting rights have been stepped upon in the past by racism, but this email was only designed to scare black Americans. Even one famous black attorney Johnnie Cochrane came to a Border's in Chicago and discussed this and even he believed this rumor to be true.

And for your personal information as this journal seeks to be here is something from the Department of Justice of the United States about the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Hopefully this rumor will rest in peace.