Speaking on behalf of thousands of voters who voted for Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax in 2017, we urge Mr. Fairfax not to resign.

The current situation is nothing but an abuse of power against both Mr. Fairfax and the voters who voted for him, particularly African-American voters.

While I, and many others, don’t disparage those who have accused him, we ask the lieutenant governor to stand firm in the coming days, weeks and months. Our interest is in seeing due process used to work through this situation.

What comes to mind in this situation is “buck breaking,” a vicious game used by people of power in Virginia and elsewhere in America that continues even today in more subtle and much more effective ways. History is very clear about how many African-American men have been beaten, damaged, destroyed and killed resulting from the system of supremacy practiced regardless of political party or clandestine association.

As a black woman who is very active in the civil rights community and the activist community pushing for justice reform, I can assure you that increasing numbers of African-American women take offense at how Lt. Gov. Fairfax is being treated.

Sadly, more than 50 years after so many hard-fought civil rights achievements, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream continues to be a dream deferred as reflected by efforts to cast Lt. Gov. Fairfax and the votes of so many African-Americans on the trash heap because of political survival and brinksmanship by people in both political parties and corporate chieftains in Richmond and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Now more than ever, the voices of many are being heard privately, forming into a mighty force that, if nothing else, will be heard at the ballot box in June and November.

LYNETTA THOMPSON

Richmond