Hey to Your Mama N'em

Martin Luther King, Jr. was among the dignitaries present in the White House on August 6, 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law.

Nearly 48 years later, the US Supreme Court is raising serious doubts about the constitutionality of the law, particularly Section V, which requires certain states— or parts of states— to receive federal clearance before changing voting laws. Justice Antonin Scalia described the law as a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.”

Photo: Creative Commons, United States Federal Government

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Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King

Drinking fountain on the county courthouse lawn, Halifax, North Carolina

April 1938

John Vachon, photographer

FSA/OWI Collection, Library of Congress

(Source: loc.gov)

The Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights, Alabama, March 1965

Peter Pettus, photographer

Formed part of the “Voices of Civil Rights” exhibit, Library of Congress

(Source: loc.gov)

H. Rap Brown (later Jamil Al-Amin) speaking at a SNCC news conference, July 27, 1967

Marion S. Trikosko, photographer

U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of Congress

“President Johnson go to Selma now!”

March 1965

World Telegram & Sun, Stanley Wolfson, photographer

New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection, Library of Congress

John Lewis (b. 1940) speaking at a meeting of American Society of Newspaper Editors, Statler Hilton Hotel, Washington, D.C.

April 16, 1964

Marion S. Trikosko, photographer

In the summer of 1964, Lewis (since 1986, the U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 5th Congressional District) coordinated the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s efforts for “Freedom Summer”, a campaign aimed at registering black voters across the South.

Civil rights leader James Meredith (second from right) leads a voter registration march in South Central Los Angeles in 1966.

Los Angeles Public Library

In June 1966, Meredith began his one-man “March Against Fear” to encourage blacks to stand up to oppression and register to vote.  Only 30 miles from his starting point, he was ambushed in Hernando, Mississippi. Meredith was shot several times but not seriously wounded. Once he recovered, he completed his journey. 4,000 black Mississippians registered to vote during the march.

(Source: photos.lapl.org)

“The first vote”

November 16, 1867

Alfred R. Waud, artist

Illustration in Harper’s Weekly, v. 11, no. 568 (1867 November 16), title page.

Library of Congress

Integration at Ole Miss [James Meredith walking on the campus of the University of Mississippi, accompanied by US marshals]

October 1, 1962

Marion S. Trikosko, photographer

U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of Congress

Crowd in Harlem chants and taunts police on Lenox Avenue, 1964

Stanley Wolfson, photographer

New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection, Library of Congress

The Harlem Riot of 1964 occurred after James Powell, a 15-year-old African American from Harlem, was shot dead by an off-duty New York City Police Lieutenant named Thomas Gilligan on July 16, 1964. On July 18, residents gathered at a Harlem police precinct to demand justice. When tactical officers tried to force the crowd back, a violent confrontation erupted. The ensuing riot lasted five days.

An estimated 500 people were injured in the rioting, one man was killed and 485 men and women were arrested. Gilligan, who maintained Powell pulled a knife on him, was cleared of any wrongdoing.

(Source: loc.gov)

Group of people viewing the bomb-damaged home of Arthur Shores, NAACP attorney, Birmingham, Alabama

September 5, 1963

Marion S. Trikosko, photographer

U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of Congress