An Anniversary of a Forgotten Amendment

In the lead-up to President Obama's historic inauguration, the media has plumbed the depths of civil rights movement history to point out how far America has come in the quest for racial equality. The president retraced Lincoln's train route on his way to the capital and Rev. Joseph Lowry took the podium after the inaugural address and preached a sermon of a benediction, as only an old Civil Rights preacher can, about how far we have come and how far we have to go in the quest for equality. ABC News even unearthed an old BBC interview with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. predicting the election of an African American president. The ghosts of the civil rights movement were certainly felt from the election to the inauguration.

But, an anniversary seems to have been missed as the media and the new administration strummed the mystic chords of memory. On January 23, 1964, the 24th Amendment gained ratification. Most Americans probably can't name six of the top ten amendments, so it's easy to understand why one so far down the list has escaped attention. The 24th Amendment outlawed the poll tax, an institution designed in the wake of Reconstruction to strip the right to vote away from African American men in the South. Now, you might say, the 15th Amendment gave African American men the right to vote. Right you are, but there are rights and then there are rights. After Reconstruction, southern states began to enact voting restrictions as soon as federal authorities turned their attentions elsewhere.The tax, however minimal it may have been, created an artificial barrier between the citizen and his right to vote. The poll tax, as part of a package of nasty and ingenious state voting requirements, effectively ended African American voter participation in the South until the 1960s. But the 24th Amendment ended the practice, and Congress soon followed with the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, both of which sought to extend political and social equality to every American, Nevertheless, the 24th Amendment remains something of a forgotten landmark of the civil rights movement. So 45 years (minus three days) after it became unconstitutional to use a tax to limit voting rights, our first African American president takes office. Powerful stuff. We all know that for President Obama, the hard stuff comes after the band packs up at the inaugural ball. But at a time of political transition, it is right and proper to pause and reflect.

How far have we come? All or part of eighteen states are still federally supervised under the Voting Rights Act so as to protect the rights of individual voters. In the last few years, Congress has considered getting out of the voter protection business, but President Bush signed a 25-year extension of the Act in 2006. Nothing is more fundamental to a democracy than the free exercise of voting rights. Hopefully, President Obama and his allies in Congress will make it their business to ensure that our American freedoms continue to be freely exercised. The anniversary of the 24th Amendment occurring the same week as President Obama goes to Washington reminds us that our rights are only as good as the willingness of leaders to guarantee them. And, that bad things can happen when our leaders turn a blind eye to the protection of every American's civil rights.