LBJ said, "I know that advancing this legislation, voting rights and civil rights, is going to lose my party the South for two decades." And he turned out to be right, but it was the right thing to do at that time. Without the push of Dr. Martin Luther King, President LBJ wouldn’t have had the courage or the indictment to change the course of history. We now have the right to vote. There has always been something bitter sweet about the life of the African American.
From the terrible days, months, and years to decades of slavery to the courageous, forceful yet enduring time of the Civil Rights movement and fifty three years later the African American society feels like they have prevailed. There is a sweet relief of victory, a relief from fighting, and a relief from the spitting, a relief from the endured beatings and a relief from the unfortunate and most brutal of killings of great men such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers and many others. Voting has become a choice.
When the question was raised at a family reunion why you don’t vote? The comment and I quote was “My vote doesn’t matter” Maya Angelou stated “History, despite its wrenching pain cannot be relived but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. Voting for hope and change is important, it is important to liberate yourself so you can liberate someone else. Voting shows that you care about what happens to your children and your children’s, children. In the words of Maya