When the United States of America was brand-new, back in the late 1700s, hardly any Americans had the right to vote. Generally, the only citizens who were allowed to cast their ballots were white men who owned property. Women, African Americans, Native Americans, and poor white men were excluded from the most important expression of democracy and equality. And though many changes were made to voting laws through the course of American history, women did not win the right to vote until 1920, and African Americans’ right to vote was not protected by federal law until 1965.
This book is intended as a commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of that monumental piece of legislation, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The act made it illegal for states to use literacy tests or poll taxes (or anything else) as a means of denying American citizens their right to vote. It also provided federal oversight of the election processes in the Southern states, where African Americans had historically been denied that right most often. The Voting Rights Act was passed only through the enormous courage and sacrifice of those who marched and protested—costing some their lives. Democratic president Lyndon B. Johnson’s strong support of this legislation lost him a huge amount of popularity in the South among white voters, many of whom left the Democratic Party for the Republican Party.
My “Lillian” was inspired by Lillian Allen, a resident of Pittsburgh’s Hill District, who was born in Alabama in 1908, the granddaughter of a slave. In 2008, at age one hundred, not only did she vote for the first African American president, Barack Obama, she also campaigned door to door in her hilly neighborhood, encouraging others much younger than her to vote. The image of this aged woman walking up a hill to vote seemed a fitting metaphor for the uphill climb faced by African Americans in the struggle for voting rights.
The sad coda to this story is that in 2013, the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, eliminating federal oversight of states’ election processes. Since that decision, many states have created “voter ID laws,” which require all citizens to present a state-issued photo ID when voting. Because such identification is often difficult for the poor and the elderly to obtain, these laws have the effect of denying many Americans a basic right—a right for which so many courageous people fought and died. The right to vote still needs protection. Will a new generation rise and continue this fight?