If ever there was a time for Eric Holder to become proactive in his role as Attorney General, it is now. This does not mean taking big monopolistic corporations to task legally all of the time, but rather watching out for the average person and their constitutional rights.
Across the nation, Tea Party faithfuls and Republicans from the Federal to local levels are trying to strike down via law, guaranteed constitutional rights for many who have been historically disenfranchised. Almost historically identical to the manner in which the Black Codes were implemented. The Black Codes were passed during the period of Presidential reconstruction in 1865-66. By law, they effectively remanded blacks to almost complete servitude. Southern lawmakers enacted the Black Codes as a form of social control to replace slavery. As today, African Americans who were unemployed were considered vagrants by law and such could be arrested and fined and placed in prison to be used as free labor.
In more than thirty states, Republican controlled legislatures are re-drawing congressional districts. In many cases, they split traditionally minority communities, especially African American, to reduce their voting power. In places like Georgia, they are being redrawn to have democratic incumbents compete against each other.
In other states, this retro version of the Black Codes also include revised requirements for voters to present special photo identification. Far worse but equally common, traditional registration sites in large African American communities are being closed.
Holder as the nation’s first African American Attorney General has a job to do. He must vehemently evaluate the new laws and district revisions for the nine states required by the Voters Right Act and others if possible, to make sure liberty and justice is for all. -torrance stephens ph.d
