For Black Voters, A Return to the Age of Nefarious

I must have been asleep because I had no idea that so many schemes were being hatched -- yet again -- to keep African Americans from voting. Here I was, thinking -- or dreaming -- that if ever there was a year for the United States to showcase democracy in action, this was it. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, with commemoration of the 1965 Voting Rights Act just around the corner. This is the 40th anniversary of the sacrifices made by James E. Cheney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, who were murdered in Philadelphia, Miss., in 1964, for helping black people exercise their right to vote. And it is the 40th anniversary of the victory by residents of the nation's capital for the right to vote in a presidential election. I'd imagined that this would be a time for honoring our martyrs and celebrating the progress they helped bring about. Instead, I have been awakened to the reality of a backward drift into a century gone by, when suppressing the black vote was all the rage. Republicans appear to be back to their notorious black-voter intimidation tactics, which were exposed and condemned by the courts in the 1980s. Meanwhile, the IRS is threatening to revoke the NAACP's tax-exempt status and has targeted the nation's oldest civil rights organization for an audit for criticizing Bush administration policies. [more]