Some people are so gullible... if its on the internet it must be true :rolleyes:
Another Internet hoax made headlines today as the media got wind of reactions among black Americans to a widely-forwarded email message claiming their voting rights will vanish in the year 2007. Similar rumors have circulated since the mid-1990s.
The current email version reads as follows:
PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN!!!!
We are quickly approaching the 21st Century and I was wondering if anyone out there knew what the significance of the year 2007 is to Black America? Did you know that our right to vote will expire in the year 2007? Seriously! The Voters Rights Act signed in 1965 by Lyndon B. Johnson was just an ACT.
It was not made a law. In 1982 Ronald Reagan amended the Voters Rights Act for only another 25 years. Which means that in the year 2007 we could lose the right to vote!
Does anyone realize that Blacks/African Americans are the only group of people who still require PERMISSION under the United States Constitution to vote?!
In the year 2007 Congress will once again convene to decide whether or not Blacks should retain the right to vote (crazy, but true). In order for this to be passed, 38 states will have to approve an extension.
In my opinion and many others, this is ludicrous! Not only should the extension be approved, but ... this Act must be made a law. Our right to vote should no longer be up for discussion, review and/or evaluation.
We must contact our Congress persons, Senators, Alderpersons, etc., to put a stop to this! As bona fide citizens of the United States, we cannot "drop the ball" on this one!
We have come too far to let government make us take such a huge step backward. So please, let us push forward to continue to build the momentum towards gaining equality. Please pass this onto others, as I am sure that many more individuals are not aware of this.
The kernel of truth in the above is that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 will indeed expire (i.e., come up for renewal) in the year 2007. But the rest is false. African Americans\' right to vote is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights and will not expire with the Voting Rights Act.
The NAACP addressed the issue in a statement published in the Nov. 19, 1998 issue of the Internet Tourbus:
African American voting rights were granted by the Fifteenth Amendment, which was passed immediately after the Civil War. Expiration of the Voting Rights Act will not terminate the rights granted under the Fifteenth Amendment.
The U.S. Department of Justice concurs. In its "Voting Rights Act Clarification" dated April 2, 1998, it states:
The basic prohibition against discrimination in voting contained in the Fifteenth amendment and in the Voting Rights Act does not expire in 2007 — it does not expire at all; it is permanent.
The confusion apparently arises from an assumption that it\'s the Voting Rights Act alone which guarantees suffrage to minorities. In reality, all the Act does is keep in place a set of so-called "extraordinary remedies" designed to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment at state and local levels, where, in defiance of federal law, obstacles to black voting rights were still in place in some parts of the country as of 1965. The remedies, designed only to address problems existing at the time, were intended all along to be temporary, which is why the Voting Rights Act is set to expire if not renewed every 25 years.
It\'s impossible to determine exactly where and when the rumor got started, though Internet discussions in early 1997 made reference to the future of black voting rights being raised as an issue on the Tom Joyner radio talk show then. A Usenet posting dated January 24, 1997 reads like a precursor of the text now raising hackles in the black community.
"I\'d say we have gotten hundreds of calls on this over the past two years," Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina told reporters this week. "It\'s frustrating dealing with this hoax."
I thought I was the only one who had days like that.
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa120298.htmSo much for this useless thread... I didn\'t think this was true. Yes I took Con Law in college.
:rolleyes:
