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Leaders mark anniversary of 1965 Voting Rights Act
By SEAN BARRON
YOUNGSTOWN
It’s been more than four decades since a president’s stroke of a pen converted landmark voting-rights legislation into law.
Today, it’s vital that people remember the countless sacrifices made to ensure the voting process worked more fairly — and to resist letting complacency and apathy keep them from exercising their democratic right, several city officials and community leaders said during a brief ceremony Friday in city hall to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the Aug. 6, 1965, signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
The law “in effect ended discrimination and disenfranchisement regarding blacks’ being able to vote,” noted Mayor Jay Williams.
Williams cited having been elected as the city’s first black mayor as well as the election of President Barack Obama as examples of the law’s impact.
The VRA, among other things, made it illegal to deny people the right to vote based on race and color. Before its passage, many whites, blacks and others, especially in the South, suffered violence and economic reprisals for organizing voter-registration drives or for registering themselves.
Some, such as civil-rights activists Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner, were murdered in 1964 in Philadelphia, Miss.
Many positive changes for minorities have been made since the mid-1960s, but a danger with progress is complacency, Williams explained, noting that many blacks in the 1950s and 1960s were driven by a united sense of purpose and a desire to succeed.
Some of today’s young people need greater exposure to churches and other entities that can instill positive values, morality and discipline, the mayor continued.
“We have to get our own house in order,” the mayor said, referring to the importance of being responsible parents, staying in school, developing a strong work ethic and obtaining material goods via hard work and a solid education.
Sarah Brown-Clark, clerk of courts, noted that the most obvious gains from the VRA were made in the South, especially in rural areas. Voter disenfranchisement, however, was practiced in the North, just in more subtle ways, she explained.
For example, many of Youngstown’s wards in the 1960s were divided in such a way as to dilute the black vote, Brown-Clark said.
Tough economic times have necessitated the recent consolidation of some of Mahoning County’s 287 precincts. Just as important, though, is making sure those affected know where to vote and have a way to the polls, Brown-Clark continued. “The movement for equality in this country is never over,” she added.
The Rev. Kenneth L. Simon, pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church and a longtime member of the political-action group Community Mobilization Committee, called voter turnout in some city precincts “awful.” The committee is a voter-registration and education organization.
Trying to increase turnout at the polls is a main goal of Mildred A. Delgado, one of four volunteer field coordinators with the Mahoning County Democratic Party.
Since June, efforts have been under way to pass out information from the state to county residents, make phone calls and canvass neighborhoods, with the hope of bringing a greater number of people to the polls for the November general election, she noted.
“We want to show people this is how you empower the community,” she said.