After we voted today!
I took my son with me when I went to vote today because I want him to know the importance of exercising his right.
When I left work, OF COURSE I would have preferred to go home and crawl into bed...after all brisk weather is not my thing, but THIS had to be taken care of FIRST.
I vote because I am an American, because I have a voice, because I am black, because I am a woman and because I can.
Here are some facts to keep in mind when deciding whether or not to vote:
- Technically free blacks had the right to vote from the first US Election in 1789, but it was not until the 15th Amendment in 1870 guaranteed their right to vote that they got the franchise. Even then there were many attempts to limit or discourage them from voting up until the 1960s.
- Blacks were given the right to vote in 1870, but women were not given the right to vote until 1920. So 1920 is the first time a black woman would have been allowed to vote
- Finally, despite President Woodrow Wilson's opposition, Congress passed what became, when it was ratified in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment which prohibited state and federal agencies from gender-based restrictions on voting.
For the history of voting and ballots check: http://americanhistory.si.edu/vote/index.html
1 comment:
awwww! so special....I tooth the girls and made them sit in the car!!! shld have taken pics. My plan was to take them in and let them see, but it was so hectic on that day!!!!!!!
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