African Americans have made extraordinary contributions to the history and culture of the United States as part of the nation and apart from it. This month, Auction Finds presents “28 days (Plus 1)” of this collaborative history. The additional day is intended to break Black history out of the stricture of a month into its rightful place as an equal partner in the history of America. Each day, I will offer artifacts culled from the auction tables and my research, along with the stories they hold.
Feb. 28, 2022
’60s voting poster reminds us of sacrifices
The 15th Amendment in 1870 gave African Americans the right to vote, but it was only letters on paper. When the local laws hindering Blacks were challenged over the ensuing years, southern governments merely replaced them with new barriers. For almost a century, Blacks in the South endured the idiocy of literacy tests, grandfather clauses, poll taxes and violence that kept them from the voting boxes.
Tired of being denied common but significant rights, they marched on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, and crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge headed from Selma to Montgomery, AL, in 1965. That “Bloody Sunday” attack by state troopers led to the enactment of the Voting Rights Act that year.
The message on the poster is just as relevant today, if not more. Over the last decade, provisions of the Voting Rights Act have been challenged in court by some of the same states that had stemmed Black voting in the past. Now they have been joined by other states that have enacted laws to limit Black participation in choosing their local, state and national representatives. Read the full story.
