Voting Rights Anniversary

Fifty years ago today, voting in the United States was changed forever.
August 6th 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law giving Black Americans the right to vote. But, why are so few Black Americans exercising that right? We spoke to local NAACP leaders who say it mostly boils down to a need for a history lesson.
“Today is a triumph for freedom as huge as any victory that’s ever been won on any battlefield.” These words were spoken by President Lyndon B. Johnson as he addressed the nation, moments before signing the Voting Rights Act on August 6th, 1965. 
Vice President of the Biloxi NAACP Gordon Jackson said, “And it took away all of things like poll taxes and all of the obstacles, all of the hardcore obstacles that were implemented to keep African Americans from voting at the time.”
President of the Jackson County NAACP Curley Clark said, “It put into place some federal oversight to insure that states in the Deep South did not try to intimidate or prevent blacks from being able to register to vote.”
Without barriers like literacy tests and poll taxes, Black Americans could finally have a voice in the country they lived in. Now, fast-forward 50 years later, African Americans are still going to the polls, but at a smaller ratio. “More people should definitely be getting out. And it’s not only in the African American community, but all across. Voter apathy is still an issue all across,” said Jackson.
Political activists say if today’s Americans knew the fight it took to earn their right to vote, more black voters would crowd the polls.
“It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears in order for blacks to have the right to vote, so it’s incumbent upon them to vote at every opportunity there is to vote,” said Clark.
Coast civil rights leaders agree rights for African Americans have come a long way since 1965. But today, in 2015, they say they have a new fight on their hands and it begins with a symbol flying high all across the state of Mississippi. “There’s a new fight. That fight is the Confederate flag emblem that’s ingrained in our state flag. We feel like its divisive issue that needs to be settled if Mississippi is going to move forward in a progressive manner,” said Clark.
Clark says no matter what the political battle is that blacks face, they can only be won with the rights that were earned 50 years ago.