DOES MY VOICE COUNT?

VOTER SUPPRESSION THEN AND NOW

PHOTOS AND DISCUSSION presented by JIM LEMKIN

In 1965, the Voting Rights Act was enacted marking the beginning of the end of voter suppression and disenfranchisement of blacks and people of color in the U.S.

Within weeks, the National Student Association, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and the Congress of Racial Equality issued a call to students to come to Mississippi to help register black voters during the 1965 Christmas vacation. It was called Mississippi Freedom Christmas.

Jim Lemkin, a volunteer photographer for SNCC, traveled the rural roads of Tylertown, Mississippi with a group of northern college students getting the word out that voter suppression was now illegal. Against a backdrop of southern resentment and hostility, students went door to door informing black residents of Walthall County that they could now register to vote (most for the first time in their lives) and bringing them to a Federal registrar to complete the voter registration process.

Join us for a slide show & discussion

This slide presentation documents the work of a handful of students moved by compassion and the call to action for social justice.               

In public conversation following the slides, we will explore the consequences of the elimination in 2013 of a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Your voice counts!