‘We finally have a governor who attempted to right wrongs’
7/29/2016, 7:48 p.m.
When will the Republicans in the General Assembly stop the racist endorsement of continuing to maintain the Virginia Constitution to deny primarily African-Americans the right to vote?
The amendment (at the center of the lawsuit) was designed in the 1901-1902 Constitutional Convention as a means to keep us from voting.
Delegates to Virginia’s 1902 Constitutional Convention adopted new voting restrictions, including a ban on voting for all felons, poll taxes and a literacy test. They were not shy about their intentions. Virginia’s new Constitution would “eliminate the darkey as a political factor,” explained Carter Glass, a convention delegate and later a U.S. senator. Their goal was to ensure “complete supremacy of the white race in the affairs of government.”
All restoration of rights supporters believe this lawsuit and the subsequent response from the justices of the Virginia Supreme Court have returned us to the 100 years-plus of racial disenfranchisement, racial discrimination and racial disparities.
We finally have a governor who attempted to right the wrongs committed by the Commonwealth of Virginia legislation that has denied mostly people of color the fair chance of having a voice in the decisions that govern our lives.
Please join me to denounce the continued injustices that the General Assembly perpetuates against us through the Virginia Constitution. It is time to act against these outdated, racist laws.
RICHARD W. WALKER
Richmond
