Defending "A Shining Moment"

In “The Vantage Point,” a self-authored (with some assistance) account of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, he described an attempt by The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others to lead members of a few organizations dedicated to the rights of African Americans and some other like-minded friends on a 54-mile march beginning in Selma, Alabama in 1965. The march’s final destination was to be the state capitol of Montgomery, and the reason for the march was to encourage support for the Voting Rights Act which Johnson was trying to get through Congress.

However, this is what transpired soon after the march began:

“The singing (of ‘We Shall Overcome’) came to an abrupt end early in the evening of March 7, when the marchers reached the Edmund Pettus Bridge at the southern edge of Selma and were confronted by Sheriff Jim Clark and a mounted posse. The sheriff ordered the marchers to turn around. They knew their rights and refused. The Alabaman state troopers took matters into their own hands. With nightsticks, bullwhips, and billy clubs, they scattered the ranks of the marchers. More than fifty men and women were severely injured. The march was over. But the struggle had just begun.”

The march subsequently resumed and reached its destination.

The culmination of the primary phase of the struggle was marked by Johnson’s introduction of The Voting Rights Act to a joint session of Congress on March 15th. Here is how he recounted it in “The Vantage Point.”

“As I stood before the assembled Chamber, the lights were blinding. I began slowly:

‘I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy…At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama.’

I could feel the tension in the Chamber. I could hear the emotion in the echoes of my own words. I tried to speed it up a little.

‘There is no constitutional issue here. The command of the Constitution is plain. There is no moral issue. It is wrong – deadly wrong – to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of states rights or national rights. There is only the struggle for human rights…This time, on this issue, there must be no delay, no hesitation, and no compromise with our purpose.’”

(note to Dubya: this is how a president of the United States is supposed to act.)

Johnson’s powerful message moved Congress to action, and the Voting Rights Act was signed into law on August 6, 1965. As Johnson recalled:

“I remembered the words Reverend King had spoken when his marchers finally reached Montgomery: ‘We are on the move now…Selma has become a shining moment in the conscience of man.’”

I said that Johnson’s speech marked the culmination of the primary phase and not the end because I don’t believe there will ever be an end to this struggle. As proof, I mention that key sections of the Voting Right Act are up for renewal on its 40th anniversary, and there is actually some question about whether or not these sections will be renewed (Mark Green on the Huffington Post provides an account of last weekend’s anniversary and a remembrance, and John Lewis provides more background from a radio address on Saturday – Conyersblog also had a good post on the anniversary also.)

Only a truly naïve person wouldn't realize that, in these sad days of conservative ascendancy, unscrupulous, bigoted individuals might use this opportunity to gut these sections of the act to ensure a Repug majority in their states once and for all (the individuals who would be hurt are black, Latino, and other people of color who likely would be poor and vote Democratic – let’s have no illusions about this, OK?).

We should contact our elected representatives and tell them to do something which should be stupidly obvious, and that is to renew the 1965 Voting Rights Act in its entirety. That is the least we can do to honor the sacrifices of all who are still with us and all who have come and gone to ensure everyone’s right to the universal franchise.

(Here is another background link.)

P.S. – One of the commenters on Mark Green’s column is right about corruption in the electronic voting process, but important as that topic is, that is something to be addressed at another time.

Update: Here's more from Helen Thomas (so James Sensenbrenner thinks renewing the act is "an open question"? This guy is a typical Repug conservative who is too busy screaming about the entertainment industry instead of trying to author and pass legislation that actually matters.)

Update 8/17: This is a fine editorial on this topic from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.