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We must remember that the right to vote wasn’t just handed to
Americans.
When the polls open on Election Day, every citizen over the
age of 18 will be able to cast a vote. It is a right we take for
granted, one that defines our nation as a democracy. This
started over 200 years ago. At that time you had to be white,
male, and wealthy in order to vote. In other words, it was the
privilege of a chosen few. The Declaration of Independence
declared that “All men are created equal,” and demanded that
government represent the people’s interests. In order to cast a
vote in the new democracy, it could be only the select males. In
some places, that left more than 85 percent of the adult
population who did not have a voice.
Here are the brief accounts of some fights for these rights:
On a June night in 1842, two brass cannons were aimed toward
the city arsenal in Rhode Island. Behind the weapons was a huge
crowd of people, ready to march against their own government. It
was 60 years after the American Revolution established liberty
across the United States, but these people felt that tyranny
still reigned in America. Thomas Dorr led this uprising. His
rusty cannons failed to fire, everyone began to drift off, and
Dorr and 50 of his supporters had to drag the artillery back to
their head-quarters. Faced in the morning by 1,500 armed
supporters of the King’s government, Dorr had to admit defeat,
but at his trial he proclaimed, “The servants of a righteous
cause may fail or fall in the defense of it . . . but all the
truth that it contains is indestructible.” Dorr went to prison,
won a pardon after two years, and dropped out of the news. His
cause carried on . . . but by the time of the Civil War, nearly
every white man in the country--rich or poor, rural or
urban--could go to the polls on Election Day.
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The next battle took place in the fall of 1917. A Virginia
workhouse held an unusual group of women, a 60-year-old nurse, a
wealthy widow from Philadelphia’s high society, and a few wives
of important Washington newspapermen. The leader was Miss Paul,
a quiet, determined Quaker with a Ph.D. They were there to
demand that American women be given the right to vote.
Women had campaigned actively for suffrage in America since
1848. Most male and female citizens believed that women could
not handle politics. One speaker had the nerve to proclaim, “A
woman’s brain involves emotion rather than intellect, (which)
painfully disqualifies her for the sterner duties to be
performed by the intellectual faculties.” One newspaper
proclaimed, “You do not need a ballot to clean out your sink
spout.”
On Jan. 10, 1917, the women picketed the White House. This
did not make much difference, but when the U.S. entered World
War I in April, the pickets were really embarrassing, so the
women were arrested again and put in prison where conditions
were terrible. The press soon found out about it. Food was
terrible, and prison officials were cruel. Miss Paul was even
committed to an insane asylum. The president finally pardoned
the women and on Aug. 29, through the 19th amendment, women won
the right to vote.
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By law, blacks in Mississippi had been allowed to vote since
the passage of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution in 1868,
but every Southern state had found a way to keep blacks away
from polls. In 1964, fewer than 40 percent of black adults were
registered to vote. Bob Moses was the citizen whose determined
influence, even after cruel treatment, is still felt through
this nation. People began to feel that they were not helpless
anymore. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights
Act of 1965. The law stated that the federal government would
enforce equal access to the ballot in the South.
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The nation was in the middle of the war with Vietnam and
protests were taking place everywhere. Draftees were any male
over the age of 18. The people did not think it was fair that
they were allowed, or even forced by the draft, to die for their
country, but not allowed to vote. Young adults were the leaders
in this movement. They led sit ins that sparked many hot
feelings, but the amendment to the 26th amendment was passed on
July 1, 1971.
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These people fought the fight. Let’s register to vote, and
then cast our ballots.
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