 | The Right to Vote, a Patriotic Gift
(October
31, 2008) | 
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| How much do you appreciate your right to
vote? Is it something that you truly cherish, or is it
something that you just take this for granted? Consider this
fact; throughout our American history, many average citizens
like you and me fought for this right, and in some cases, even
died for the right to vote! This is a patriotic gift from the
struggles of many patriotic citizens that we should never be
taken for granted.
Did you know that there are no laws for "the right to vote" in
our United States Constitution? These rights were added only in
the Amendments to the Constitution. Each state's standards have
evolved separately, unless federal laws were passed that applied
to every state. When our country was founded, only white men
with property were routinely permitted to vote, (although freed
African Americans could vote in four states). White working
men, almost all women, and all other people of color were denied
this right, that some take for granted today.
At the beginning of the Civil War, most white men were finally
allowed to vote, whether or not they owned property, due to the
efforts of those who championed this cause for frontiersmen and
white immigrants, (who had to wait 14 years for citizenship and
their right to vote, in some cases). Literacy tests, poll
taxes, and even religious tests were used in various states, and
most of the white women, people of color, and Native Americans
still did not have the right to vote.
Black Suffrage; The patriotic gifts of the 13th, 14th, and 15th
Amendments to the U.S. Constitution were passed following the
Civil War, in the later 1860s. Besides outlawing slavery, these
Amendments extended civil rights and suffrage (voting rights) to
former slaves. Even thought the right to vote for
African-Americans was established, there still were numerous
restrictions that kept many black Americans from voting until
the 1960s Voting Rights Act was passed. Thanks to the pressures
of Dr. Martin Luther King and a powerful civil rights movement,
the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 banned literacy tests and
provided federal enforcement of voting registration and other
rights in several Southern states and Alaska.
Five years later, the patriotic gift of the Voting Rights Act of
1970 provided language assistance to minority voters who did not
speak English fluently. Asian Pacific Americans and Latinos
were major beneficiaries of this legislation.
Women's Suffrage initiatives to promote voting for women have
been traced back as far as the 1770s, but the modern movement
for a vote for women traces its beginning to the Seneca Falls
Convention in 1848, when supporters of a Constitutional
Amendment to allow women to vote finally came together. While
this movement was slowed during the Civil War years, the two
major suffragist organizations united after the war and pushed
forward with a movement that culminated, and after many
difficult years, the patriotic gift of the 19th Amendment gave
women the right to vote in 1920.
Native Americans had to become American citizens, and give up
their tribal affiliations for the right to vote in 1887, but
many did not become U. S. citizens until 1924. Most of the
Western states continued to deny the right to vote through
property requirements, economic pressures, hiding the polls, and
condoning of physical violence against those who voted.
Asian Pacific Americans were considered "aliens ineligible for
citizenship" since 1790. Interim changes to naturalization and
immigration laws in 1943, 1946, and 1952 give the right to vote
to some but not all immigrant Asian Pacific Americans. Because
citizenship is a (precondition) for the right to vote, immigrant
Asian Pacific Americans did not vote in large numbers until 1966
when the immigration and naturalization laws were changed.
Asian Pacific Americans born on American soil were American
citizens, and had the right to vote. When 77,000 Americans of
Japanese ancestry were put in American concentration camps
during World War II, their right to vote was withheld during
there captivity.
Mexican Americans in Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico,
and Texas were supposed to get voting rights along with American
citizenship in 1848, when the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo ended
the Mexican American war. Property requirements and literacy
requirements were imposed in those states to keep them from
voting. The Sons of America, founded in 1921 fought for
equality and the right to vote, but all Mexican Americans did
not receive the right to vote until 1975.
Americans under the age of twenty-one in the late 1960s
protested over their lack of suffrage. Many truly felt that if
they were old enough to be drafted into service and go to
Vietnam, then they should be able to vote. A series of protests
ensued, most notably at the Chicago Democratic Convention, where
protestors screamed and chanted many slogans of President
Johnson's handling of the Vietnam War, and the right to vote.
In 1971, President Johnson signed our patriotic gift of the 26th
Amendment granting Americans the right to vote at age eighteen.
I hope you now realize that even in "The land of the Free", the
evolution for the right to vote in the America has cost a heavy
price for many, and should always be considered a true patriotic
gift from those that struggled, endured and gave their life for
this privilege that we have today | Steven Coffman
Family-eStore
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