Over Morning Coffee

The Jim Crow era was a time of bigotry, segregation and terror for Southern blacks who were subjected to all forms of humiliation and ostracized from society. They were disenfranchised by poll taxes, literacy tests and other unobtainable requirements. It was a dark and shameful period in our history.

Today, the radical left is raising the specter of Jim Crow to denounce recent voting reforms made by the Georgia Legislature, claiming the new law will disqualify minority voters. This either shows an appalling lack of knowledge about American history, or it deliberately twists the facts for political gain. The Election Integrity Act in Georgia does not disenfranchise anyone, including blacks and other minorities.

What the law does is shore up the integrity of the election process by requiring an official ID for all ballots, including absentee and mail-in ballots. Requiring identification to vote has been the law in many states since the 1950s. An official photo ID has been needed in most states since 2006. In 2021, 36 states, including Iowa, have a voter ID requirement. A recent Rasmussen poll found 70 percent of black voters supporting voter ID laws. Close to 90 percent of Republican, and 70 percent of Democrats also support this requirement.

Comparing the call for a voter ID with the cruelty of Jim Crow is ludicrous in the face of realities of that time. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves, and the three Civil War amendments gave them equal rights under the law. However, even with legal standing, life for freed blacks did not differ much from the days of slavery.

White Southerners, who had always viewed blacks as subhuman, enacted Black Codes to restrict their freedom, limit their rights and exploit their labor. When the Civil Rights Act of 1866 corrected the atrocities of the Black Codes, Jim Crow laws continued the bigotry of that time.

The 13th Amendment prohibited slavery, “except as punishment for crime.” This phrase gave whites the loophole they needed to criminalize daily activities of blacks. Blacks were under constant surveillance by authorities and often arrested for made-up crimes. When they were unable to pay their fines, they were forced into servitude. Black parents could be declared “unfit” for no reason and see their children taken away to orphanages where they were forced to do manual labor without pay. Because they were not allowed to buy or rent land, many black families became sharecroppers, earning a pittance of the value of the crop.

The 15th Amendment gave black males the right to vote, but Southern whites created state and local impediments to keep blacks out of the voting booth. They levied poll taxes, required property ownership, imposed literacy tests, and created ridiculous requirements like guessing the number of jellybeans in a jar. It was almost impossible for black Americans to vote. The few who managed to cast a ballot could expect a nighttime visit from the Ku Klux Klan. Many innocent blacks were lynched as a warning to others.

Jim Crow’s reign of terror lasted for the next 100 years, from Reconstruction through the 1960s. It ended when the decades-long Civil Rights Movement succeeded in getting federal legislation passed through Congress. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited racial discrimination in employment and public places. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 protected the right of African Americans to vote (with other minorities being added later). The Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibited discrimination in the sale, rent or financing of housing.

Against this historical backdrop, the hard left now equates a voter ID requirement with the old Jim Crow laws. They claim minorities are disenfranchised because they cannot easily get an official ID. The fact is, official IDs are free and required for many things such as renting a house or getting a fishing license.

Nevertheless, radicals have piled on, screaming, “Voter suppression!” The cancel culture is in full attack mode, raining hellfire down on Georgia’s economy. More than 100 corporations, including Delta and Coca Cola, oppose the law. Major League Baseball pulled the All-Star game out of Atlanta – ironically, to Colorado, which also requires a voter ID.

Mark Keith Robinson, Lt. Governor of North Carolina, and a black man, summarized it well: “I categorically reject the notion that a people who were strong enough to survive and overcome the horrors of slavery and the violent bigotry of Jim Crow are now too weak to obtain a free ID to protect the integrity of their vote.”

Equating Georgia’s voting reforms with the horrors of Jim Crow is an insult to blacks that suffered through the terror and endured the indignities of that time. It also diminishes the heroic contributions of brave men and women of all races who fought to end these contemptible laws. There is no comparison between requiring an ID to vote and experiencing the vicious cruelty of Jim Crow.

Bonnie Ewoldt, of rural Milford, is a retired teacher, news junkie and freelance writer. Her opinion pieces have appeared online and in newspapers across Iowa and neighboring states. Visit her blog at http://www.bonniesblogbox.wordpress.com.