This opposition has often risen to ominous proportions. Mr. Berman's book started off as an entertaining read. I recommend it highly. When Dr. King says, "Give us the ballot " he is not only referring to a physical ballot (the piece of paper), he is also referring to the abstract process of voting. In the book, Give Us The Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights In America by Ari Berman, Berman discusses the evolution of American Democracy under the Voting Rights Act. I didn't know, when I added this to my 2020 to-read pile, that this would be John Lewis' last year with us, but it seems poetically right that I read this now. 1. These persons are silent today because of fear of social, political and economic reprisals. He is ultimately the hero of this narrative, even though many other players come in and take center stage at various moments. It should be required reading. Many states have risen up in open defiance. (In fact, as Justice John M. Harlan observed in his 1964 dissent from one of the original Supreme Court decisions regarding one man, one-vote, the framers of the 14th Amendment believed that the equal protection clause did not regulate voting or apportionment at all.) Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous Give Us the Ballot speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1957 on the occasion of the third anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Randolph was first to address the crowd. But the fight goes on and in his journalistic style, he gives the stories of those still inspired by Selma who remember the folks who died for their right to vote and arent ready to see their own taken away so easily. A search for books discussing it lead me to this fine account of the events that preceded the passage of the law in 1965 and the subsequent, relentless efforts on the part of opponents of the law to weaken and ultimately overturn it. This dearth of positive leadership from the federal government is not confined to one particular political party. A second area in which there is need for strong leadership is from the white northern liberals. Martin Luther King Jr. Gives His "Give Us The Ballot" Speech (Yeah, Thats all right), We must meet hate with love. Voter suppression, in various forms, has been with us since the founding of our nation and it does not appear to be going away any time soon. It is unfortunate that at this time the leadership of the white South stems from the close-minded reactionaries. Give us the ballot, and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law; we will, by the power of our vote, write the law on the statute books of the South and bring an end to the dastardly acts of the hooded perpetrators of violence.
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