Edited by Gerald Boerner
Commentary:
Yesterday we examined the Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade that established conditions for legalized abortions. That was in 1973. Today we examine the 24th Amendment, more significant that even a Supreme Court ruling that was ratified almost ten years earlier in 1964. The irony, if you will, didn’t come until almost 100 years after the end of the civil war and the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Why was a Civil Rights amendment still required in 1964 to guarantee access to one’s voting in federal elections (President, Vice President, Senators, and Representatives)? Were these rights not provided for by the Fourteenth Amendment? YES, but… During the Reconstruction Period following the end of the Civil War, there were groups in the American South (the old Confederacy) that did not want African Americans and Native Americams to gain equal rights, especially the right to vote.
A series of “Jim Crow” laws were passed to put obstacles in place to prevent the exercise of these rights. One of the most effective techniques was the “Poll Tax” to prevent the poor from voting. It proved to be robust and escaped legal challenges. Following the campaigns of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the early 1960s.
So, let’s take a closer look at the 24th Amendment now… GLB
These Introductory Comments are copyrighted:
Copyright©2011 — Gerald Boerner — All Rights Reserved
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Quotations Related to AMENDMENTS:
“The right wing always mobilizes around constitutional amendments: the right to bear arms, school prayer.”
— Al Sharpton
“We didn’t pass any constitutional amendments that affected the executive branch while I was governor.”
— John Engler
“I believe if we introduced the Lord’s Prayer here, senators would propose a large number of amendments to it.”
— Henry Wilson
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Few events in my lifetime have changed the face of education as much as the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954. This decision changed the reference point from “Separate but Equal” to Desegregation. Truman had applied this new standard to the military and a previous Supreme Court decision had desegregated the buses in “Jim Crow Country”, the South. Other changes would come from the Warren Court.
