Browsing: Opinions

     My 104-year-old grandmother, Mamie Bland Todd, fought for civil rights her entire life. Now she and I are fighting to protect Black people and communities threatened by President Donald Trump and the people he has put in positions of power. We are working hard to elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

     It has always been about voting.  The Civil Rights Movement, the abnegation of the 15th Amendment by the United States Supreme Court; Shelby County vs Holder in 2013, the Freedom Rides, Freedom Summer in 1964; SNCC, Stokley Carmichael, Marion Berry and John Lewis walking those dark, foreboding roads in Mississippi.  It was always about voting.

If government-endorsed and recognized White militias, White supremacists, White nationalists, Klansmen, neo-Nazis, skinheads, Proud Boys, Boogaloo Brothers, 13 Percenters and other haters conspire to kidnap and kill one of their own kind, what in the hell do you think they will do to you?

      ” You are standing in a long voting line. Your legs are tired, your back is starting to hurt, and your left foot is killing you. You can quietly slip out of that line, go to your car and none of your friends will ever know,  but a few people looking down on you will say “STAY IN THAT LINE”. Your slave ancestors who were taken from their homeland, transported in the bottom of a ship, and treated less than dogs but never gave up are saying to you. “STAY IN THAT LINE”.

     Yes, amazingly, in 1895, Bram Stoker published a Gothic novel entitled, “Dracula.” This supernatural human monster used his powers to hunt humans and drink their blood. But, if you dig deeper, you’d learned that Stoker got inspirations to write his novel from a real-life 15th Century Romanian Prince named after his father Vlad II Dracul. However, the son later changed his name to just “Dracula.”

     Good luck to all of the candidates seeking victories in Tuesday’s elections. Large numbers of African Americans and other persons of color will be hoping to get a new “title”.