ERNIE BROWN JR. Black voters must do their part with informed voting

On Tuesday, several races will be determined that will have significant impact on the city of Youngstown as well as the city's school board.
A look at the ballot shows several blacks running for elected positions, which should be of interest to the city's black voters.
Youngstown will have a black person serving as council president. A black candidate is running for Youngstown's 5th Ward seat, and six of the 13 candidates for the four seats on the school board also are black.
In Warren, veteran black politician Joe Williams is running for mayor.
I point this out because for years many black people in Youngstown and Warren have used the lame argument that voting is not that important because there aren't any blacks running for political office.
Voting is a right, but with that right comes responsibility.
Voters should study the issues, listen to what the candidates say and check out their track records. It takes time and effort to make informed decisions, and voting is no different.
Here's your duty
The most important decision that can be made, however, is to come out to vote. Your vote is no good unless you come out to cast it.
Several churches throughout Youngstown will make transportation available to get voters to and from the polls.
The importance of voting was emphasized at a recent political forum sponsored by the Junior Civic League and the Community Mobilization Committee at New Bethel Baptist Church on the city's South Side.
The rallying cry was "lift every voice and vote."
The forum featured school board, council and council president candidates.
The candidates elected to the school board and who will begin serving in 2004 face some daunting challenges.
They must continue to scrutinize the construction of new school buildings throughout the district and ensure that minority representation continues in that construction.
The board must select a new schools superintendent to replace Benjamin McGee. That selection will be critical to the school district's future, and I dare say, the city's future.
Council will have to continue working with Mayor George McKelvey's administration to clean up the city, continue progress on returning two-way traffic to Federal Street, and making sure the arena/convocation center gets built.
If you're concerned about the future of your schools and your city, you must come out and vote.
Clarifying a matter
Continuing on the subject of voting, I recently received an e-mail from a friend encouraging me to contact others in my address book to help protect the rights of black voters by petitioning U.S. legislators to continue the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The e-mail went on to say that black people would lose their voting rights in 2007 if the act was not continued by Congress.
Let me add some clarity to this matter. First, the 14th, 15th and 19th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution guarantee all Americans the right to vote regardless of race, color and sex.
The Voting Rights Act, championed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, empowered the federal government to oversee voter registration and elections in counties, primarily those in the Southern states, that had used biased tests to determine voter eligibility or where registration or turnout of black voters had been less than 50 percent in the 1964 presidential election.
It also banned discriminatory literacy tests and expanded voting rights for non-English-speaking Americans.
An article by Sarah Lane on the Web site www.classbrain.com further clarifies this issue.
Lane writes that although it was officially passed in 1965, the act has been amended in 1970, 1975 and 1982. The 1982 amendment extended a section of the act, called the pre-clearance requirement, that prohibits discriminatory voting prerequisites for 25 additional years. This would take it until 2007.
"But even if Congress doesn't act by that time, or does act but does not reauthorize the pre-clearance requirement, no one will lose the right to vote," Lane writes.
Black and white people suffered, bled and died to ensure all black Americans could cast their ballots and determine their own political destinies. Don't cheapen their efforts by staying home Tuesday.
The polls open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. in Ohio and are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Pennsylvania.
ebrown@vindy.com