Will You Vote on November 4th?

Election Day is approaching and it is time for Americans to step out to the polls and elect a president. It is one of the key ideals of our nation that every citizen has a vote and is part of the election process for our president.

In recent history too few Americans have voted in the election for president. There have been many jokes in recent years that more Americans vote for the finals of American Idol than vote for president. That is truly sad.

Many notable Americans have lost their lives for our right to vote. Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Medgar Evans, James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Good, and too many fighters for liberty and the American Dream for all have lost their lives due to violence. Too many Americans do not understand the violence of the civil rights movement where people just trying to ensure all Americans would have the vote were murdered.

Medgar Evans

Medgar Evans is one reason why all Americans should vote. He was active in the fight against Jim Crow law in the South and he was assassinated for his efforts. He was the field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi. He was murdered at the age of 37 while working to obtain voting rights for blacks in the South. He had served in the American military but did not have the right to vote.

Murders of Civil Rights Activists

America has an unfortunate history during the civil rights movement of murdering young people on a quest to ensure all Americans could vote, including African Americans living in the South. In the summer of 1964 three young men in their twenties were murdered in Mississippi while working to gain voting rights for all. They were James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman. The Ku Klux Klan is believed to be responsible for their murders. Their bodies were buried in a dam and it took a very long time for them to be discovered. Our nation fought hard against allowing all to have the right to vote. This is a very unfortunate aspect of American history.