This 2016 Presidential Election has probably been the most polarizing and disappointing one in my lifetime. I am not thrilled with either candidate, and to say “Choose the lesser of two evils” just doesn’t make it any easier. As a Black American that was born during the 50’s when Racist activity was at some of our histories worst atrocities against Black people. To be honest and fair over the years things got somewhat better because of good men and women BOTH black and white, like Martin Luther King, JFK, Malcom X, and the hundreds and thousands of people that were willing to die and suffer for the right to VOTE.
When we were brought here we were not even considered human. Slave owners also had the right to punish their slaves – and any slave who broke the rules was severely punished. According to regulations from September 5, 1733 by Governor Philip Gardelin, slaves who committed grand larceny or who encouraged others to escape, for example, were to be pinched three times with red-hot iron tongs and then hanged. If you tried to run away, you were to have your leg amputated or – if your master forgave you – get 150 lashes and lose one ear.
Slaves had no constitutional rights; they could not testify in court against a white person; they could not leave the plantation without permission. Slaves often found themselves rented out, used as prizes in lotteries, or as wagers in card games and horse races.
Even after slavery ended Black lives were still in danger and not worth much, often Black men would be arrested for little or nothing and forced into chain gangs and women forced into domestic jobs that paid very little and rape was a standard that came with working as the “HELP”.. The KKK would often burn down the few farms owned and run by Black families, men would be lynched and women often raped. Segregation and Jim Crow laws kept us from voting and being allowed to go to colleges. I saw my first Cross Burning at the age of 7 in a place called Crewe Virginia as my father and mother drove with the headlights out at night for fear that we would have been seen.
Even in the military Black soldiers like my uncles were separate and NOT equal, after fighting in WWII and serving with honor they STILL had to ride the back of the bus in their dress uniform when they came home to Virginia. I was stationed in Mississippi in 1977 and remember being given a list of places we (Black Airmen) were NOT welcome. I was ran out of a bar in Biloxi because I wanted a beer (I was in uniform), so am I surprised that Black men are being killed TODAY for little or NO criminal activities or reasons….Nah, because Black lives didn’t matter then and they still don’t.
Because of the RIGHT and ABILITY to vote many of these wrongs have been RIGHTED, so when I hear a Black person say “I don’t vote” you are literally spitting in the faces of everyone that fought and died so YOU could have a voice in this country….GO VOTE!
M. Hamilton Stevens, Th.D.
theafricanheritageblog 