Voter ID Is Just The Beginning

We've seen this movie before. A couple of years ago, I called attention to the voter suppression effort in Texas.

Now Texas has to take a back seat to North Carolina.

This is all so familiar. Until the US Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional in 1944, Texas, like other states of the former Confederacy, held whites-only primaries. In 1960, when I attempted to register in Mississippi while I was serving at sea in the Western Pacific, the Washington County registrar told me they had received my federal post card application form too late. I knew that was a lie. I was the ship's voting officer and I knew that voter registration in Mississippi was permanent. How could I be too late for permanent? I also knew what the real problem was. There was no block in the application to indicate race. What if the registrar had inadvertently registered a black man?

Return with us now to the thrilling days of yesteryear.