A Ballad of Voter Suppression

This is a tale about voting--

Something that we take for granted.

But what we see happening here

Is leaving folks quite disenchanted.

 

Democracy counts on its voters

To shape it and keep it alive.

If votes are taken away,

How will it ever survive?

 

After a failed Reconstruction,

Voter restrictions took root

Way down in ol' Mississippi.

Then other states followed suit.

 

In many states people kept seeking

Unfair ways of promoting

Strategies that were intended

To stop many Blacks from voting.

 

Imagine: you show up to vote.

You wouldn't get very far

If YOU had to guess the number

Of jellybeans in a jar.

 

Or let's say that you were forced

To pass an unfair test

Or pay what you couldn't afford.

Those were ways votes were suppressed.

 

Intimidation became

Another tool that was used

In places where Blacks cast their votes.

That shows how our rights were abused.

 

Congress had to step in

To pass legislation to take

Biased laws off the books.

There was so much at stake.

 

But red states now are trying

To make it harder once more

For people of color to vote

With laws that we ought to deplore.

 

Americans should be united

In helping democracy grow.

However, in order to do that,

Jim Crow laws have to go.

Yes, in order to do that,

Jim Crow laws have to go.

-by Bob B (9-21-21)