48-years ago today, Alabama cops beat and tear gassed Blacks seeking right to vote

 

By Chinta Strausberg

 

It is 48-years ago today that Alabama state troopers and their sheriff deputies unleashed their dogs, tear gassed and slug civil rights activists with Billy clubs all because they were marching for the right to vote—something today blacks take for granted and many times won’t even exercise their right to vote.

Many African Americans seem oblivious to the blood that was shed so that we could cast our votes today, or perhaps they do not care. What has happened to black people in just 48-short years that many don’t seem to have a soul, run from a social justice cause, wear pants below their butts and equate a gun, a weapon of mass destruction, to their manhood. What has happened to our people and what will it take to wake them up?

During 1965, it was a politically hot and even dangerous era. Back then, even some whites were killed marching for our right to vote—people like Rev. James Reeb, who was born on January 1, 1927 and died March 11, 1965 fighting to protect the Civil Rights of African Americans.

On March 7, 1965 Rev. Reeb, who was white, responded to a call by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for protesters in Selma, Alabama. Rev. Reeb, who was accompanied by two other ministers, made a wrong turn as they walked in Selma and was beaten by racists who called the “n” word.

At the Birmingham hospital, Rev. Reeb was told he had to have $150 to see a neurosurgeon, and to add insult to injury when he was in the ambulance going to the hospital; the truck had a flat tire. Rev. Reeb died hours later but his death ratcheted the support for the Civil Rights protesters.

But when Deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson, 25, a black man, was killed while trying to defend his mother who was being beaten by police at a café where protesters run for safety, his death was all but ignored. They had begun a voting rights protest march when the streetlights went off and Billy club carrying white cops attacked them. While one policeman held Jackson down another cop shot him in the stomach. He later died.

Born 1925, Viola Gregg Liuzzo, 36, a white suburban Detroit mother of 5, was killed by the KKK in 1965 as she was going to pick up more Freedom Riders. In recent years, I met one of her sons who spoke at Rainbow PUSH where he reflected on his mother and her passion to help others.

And, 48-years ago, there was the little known Oneal Moore, a black 34-year-old Army veteran born in 1931 who was killed by nightriders in 1965.  Moore was one of the first black deputies in Washington, D.C. After getting off work, his car was hit by a volley of bullets killing him. His death promoted the Deacons for Defense to station black-armed guards in African American neighborhoods.

These are a few of our ancestors or allies who died fighting for us to have the right to vote today. There should be no reason for African Americans not to come out on election day like they did in 2008 and this should be for every election.

We stand on the shoulders of a rainbow of people who literally died for the rights we take for granted every day. Yet we stay at home on Election Day oblivious of the past where African American and whites were shot up or clubbed to death…those who died protesting for our right to vote.

I now understand why my uncle, Milton B. Olive II, told his son, Milton Lee Olive III, to go back to school, get a job or join the military. You see, Skipper, as my family called him, had dropped out of school in Chicago and had gone to Mississippi to help the Freedom Fighters register blacks to vote.

Skipper’s dad was afraid that the KKK would kill his only child so he ordered him back home. After all, it was ten-years since Emmitt Till’s heinous murder took place in Money, Miss, and Uncle Olive didn’t want his son to be another statistic.

That was why Skipper’s father, who had given his son three choices to make, was in total shock when he learned about the death of his highly-decorated son who had chosen to die in order to save four of his comrades, two blacks and two whites.  Skipper spotted a live grenade, placed it on his stomach allowing the device to explode. Little did Uncle Milton know his son would become a military statistic?

So you see all of these modern day voter registration schemes like requiring ID that were fueled by the GOP are designed to roll back the clock on Civil Rights. Now, we have the U.S. Supreme Court poised to vote on whether we need a Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which is in effect until 2031, or not because they think we are living in a post-racial era. Section 5 prevents certain states, mostly in the South, from changing voting procedures prior to getting federal approval.

Don’t fall asleep at the switch and wake up too late to hit a brick wall because that is where the black community is going. Each has to take the responsibility to fight against internal and external violence, to hold elected officials accountable remain united and encourage each other to exercise his or her right to vote. There has to be a civil bonding and a rebirth of brotherhood in the black community for without, we all will die physically and psychologically.

So, 48-years-ago today, Alabama cops beat and tear gassed African Americans and whites fighting for the right to vote. Where are you today or do you care about your brother?

Chinta Strausberg is a Journalist of more than 33-years, a former political reporter and a current PCC Network talk show host. You can e-mail Strausberg at: Chintabernie@aol.com.