Sound Familiar?

Jack Minnis, A Chronology of Violence and Intimidation in Mississippi Since 1961, (Mississippi, circa 1963), 4, from the University of Southern Mississippi McCain Library and Archives.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that Tea Party activists are organizing “surveillance squads” to “photograph and videotape suspected irregularities, and in some cases to follow buses that take voters to the polls.”  What a terrifying return to an earlier era of voter suppression.

The photograph at left was published in a report chronicling the intimidation and violence towards African-American voting activists in 1963. As the original photo caption notes, police documented voters as they entered courthouses so that the “evidence” could later be used to identify them to employers and landlords for possible firing and eviction. The report was most likely published and distributed by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, though it was based on research that was originally compiled and entered into the United States Congressional Record in 1963.

I guess we should not be surprised that the same people who think the 1964 Civil Rights Act is unconstitutional would also ignore the principle and the letter of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Yes, there is a distinction between the vigilante nature of the Tea Partier squads, compared to the role of government officials in voter suppression as captured in this photograph. But there were plenty of self-appointed  squads, citizens’ councils, and klans who suppressed voters back then, too.

What we have is one of those perfect “teachable moments” to make connections between today and the past. I hope that teachers might find a way to draw upon events surrounding the 2010 elections, including the “Don’t Vote” advertisement targeted to Hispanic voters in Nevada, to talk about the history of voter suppression in the U.S. and the efforts of activists to document and counter voter intimidation.  It is also an opportunity to put the Voting Rights Act in the context of people’s lives today, rather than simply teaching the Act as the culmination of the black freedom struggle and the last point on a timeline of the civil rights era.  As today’s news suggests, civil rights, including the right to vote, is hardly a settled issue.

The above photograph will be included in HERB, our forthcoming database of history education resources.  In the meantime, if you are a teacher and would like a classroom-ready version in order to teach about voter suppression past and present, please let me know and I’m happy to send you a PDF.

Last 5 posts by Leah Nahmias

• Teaching "What This Cruel War Was Over" - March 28th, 2011
• State of Siege and Public Memory at Ole Miss - March 25th, 2011