Monday, March 30, 2015

U.S. voting rights under siege- Ausia Jones


         A 93-year-old African-American woman named Viviette Applewhite, from Philadelphia, suddenly cannot vote. The Pennsylvania law requires that citizens present a state-issued photo ID card before voting, which, in Applewhite's case, required that she first produce a birth certificate. With the help of a pro bono attorney, she was finally able to obtain her birth certificate but on it, she is identified by her birth name Brooks, while her other forms of identification have her as Applewhite, the name she took after adoption. Her 1950s adoption papers are lost in an office in Mississippi, and the state is unable to track them down so she isn’t able to vote. She protested with Martin Luther King Jr. for this law and now she has lost it. This woman has seen the U.S change tremendously over the years.

Site:http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/06/opinion/hair-dianis-voting-rights/

3 comments:

  1. From the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, this women has surely witnessed how race relations in American culture have evolved. Considering the many decades it took for all women to receive the right to vote, it seems very unjust that Applewhite is being stripped of her rights now.

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  2. Nina, its great of you to look back to the 60's and how discrimination effected the ballot box. Also, the 24th Amendment helped to encourage more people to vote. Hopefully, everyone will see that voting isn't limited to a certain race or gender.

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  3. I am actually shocked by this I had thought people were a bit better than this, but apparently that is not everyone

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