Civil Rights Gains
Old Dogs, Old Tricks, Try to Reverse Civil Rights Gains
Date: Monday, January 05, 2004
Author: David Person
The older I get, the more I believe that all the bad guys must be getting their dunderheaded schemes from the same old playbook. One of the latest ones came from Oliver Kitzman, district attorney of Waller County, Texas, who has decided for reasons that make sense to him and few others, that the students at PrairieViewA&MUniversity are not necessarily eligible to vote.
Kitzman’s move seems to have been ripped right out of a post-civil rights primer written by some clown who liked to wear a white sheet and pointed hat at night. In a letter dated Nov. 5, Kitzman told Waller County Elections Administrator, Lela Loewe, that the 5,000 students at the historically black university are not automatically eligible to vote in the county’s elections.
How he has come to this conclusion is beyond me. I’m no legal genius, but I can read. Twenty-five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a lower court’s ruling that upheld the right of Prairie View students to vote in WallerCounty.
Back then, a group of Prairie View students were indicted for voter fraud after casting their ballots in an election. All of the students were legally registered to vote.
A state district judge dismissed the charges against the students, but WallerCounty officials appealed. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals sided with the Prairie View students.
The county appealed to the nation’s highest court but the justices opted not to hear it – probably because of the glaring lack of constitutionality in the county’s position, a point not lost on members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
In a letter dated Dec. 30, 2003, Congressman Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Congresswomen Sheila Jackson Lee and Eddie Bernice Johnson, both of Texas, asked U.S. Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft to “Expeditiously launch an investigation into this matter to ensure that the fundamental right to vote, guaranteed by our democracy to every citizen, remains protected and preserved.” They cited Texas law, with which Kitzman ought to be familiar, which gives students the option of establishing residency at their school address or maintaining residency at their homes.
Cummings, Jackson Lee and Johnson also suggested that Kitzman might well be in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which they reminded Ashcroft, “was established in order to protect minorities from precisely this sort of voter intimidation and discrimination.”
Mind you, Kitzman’s argument against Prairie View students doesn’t reference race. But it doesn’t have to. If the students at 'historically Black' Prairie View aren’t able to exercise their right to vote in WallerCounty without being hassled, the end result is certainly racially discriminatory even if unintentional.
What amazes me is that Kitzman has merely regurgitated an old, tired ploy. He should know about the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1979 ruling, since this is its 25th anniversary and it involved the same school.
Makes me wonder that if in Kitzman’s twisted little world the only way to commemorate civil rights accomplishments is to try and dismantle them – if they have reached a major milestone like a 25th anniversary or can be in some way linked to an important moment in history, even better.
You may recall that it was nearly this time last year that the Bush administration announced its intention to challenge the affirmative action program at the University of Michigan by filing a brief in support a lawsuit against the program. This was announced, by the way, after a Bush spokesperson told reporters about the president’s plans for the Martin Luther King holiday and to give aid to certain African nations.
I don’t know about you, but with the King holiday just around the corner, I’m already getting nervous. What’s next, an announcement of plans to repeal the 15th and 19th amendments because they give minorities and women an unfair advantage in exercising the right to vote?
Fortunately, folks are getting riled up about Kitzman’s letter. Next week, the Rev. Herschel Smith will be leading a march and voter registration rally that will start on the Prairie View campus and end on the steps of the WallerCounty courthouse.
In fact, the march will be on Jan. 15, Dr. King’s birthday. No matter what else happens that day, at least we know there should be some good news coming out of WallerCounty.