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Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Ain't nobody gonna turn me around!




This is why we vote.
There was a time when only the rich white land owner could vote,
A time when Black men and women were not only held in the chains, but not even considered human beings,
A time when women could not vote,
A time of Jim Crow voter suppression laws denied legally free black citizens the right to vote,
Not a hundred years ago, but in my lifetime,
Now there is a new Jim Crow sweeping our nations hidden behind so-called voter ID laws, and Provisonal ballots in Ohio,
A rose by any other name is still a rose,
And racism is still racism by any other name,
VOTE! VOTE!, and help others vote while you are at it.
If you see someone being intimidated at the polls start shouting, start complaining, start standing up for your fellow citizens.
Today I voted knowing full well in the year of my birth the following men were murdered for trying to register to vote.

May 7, 1955 · Belzoni, Mississippi
Rev. George Lee, one of the first black people registered to vote in Humphreys County, used his pulpit and his printing press to urge others to vote. White officials offered Lee protection on the condition he end his voter registration efforts, but Lee refused and was murdered.

August 13, 1955 · Brookhaven, Mississippi
Lamar Smith was shot dead on the courthouse lawn by a white man in broad daylight while dozens of people watched. The killer was never indicted because no one would admit they saw a white man shoot a black man. Smith had organized blacks to vote in a recent election.

I voted today for Rev George Lee,
I voted today for Lamar Smith,
I voted for James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Henry Schwerner, those young civil rights workers, who were arrested by a deputy sheriff and then released into the hands of Klansmen who murdered, and buried their bodies in an earthen dam in 1964. Their noble face are not only posted in the blog, but posted in my heart forever.
I voted for my brother the Rev George Lee,
I voted for my brother Lamar Smith,
I voted for my brothers James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Henry Schwerner,
I vote while whispering that old Gospel song Ain't nobody gonna turn me around,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ6mhRZ8LjM (Ain't nobody gonna turn me around The Roots utube)
Jesse The Voting Man Turner

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