The Fight for Voting Rights
Many years ago, I wrote about voting rights. Now in 2022, it is time again to mention information on voting rights, because our voting rights are being suppressed in a level not seen before in America since the Jim Crow days. That statement is not part of exaggeration, but it's very much real. Our ancestors fought hard to promote our human rights. With a far-right movement, our rights are being depleted constantly in an unparalleled fashion. These extremists are not only suppressing who can vote, but they want to control who counts the votes in general. This plan is not new. For centuries, extremists (who worship state's rights, hate the Golden Rule, and believe that only a small amount of people should have equal rights) have executed policies that harm the general welfare of our society. For example, many states of the Union back then prevented black people to vote in any election at every level of government. It took a massive movement for the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act to be passed by the American government. Also, many men and women (of many colors) lost their lives for those laws to be passed too. That is why it is important for us to realize that our freedoms must be protected. Voting rights decide who governs our schools, our Congressional seats, our judges, and other functions of our society. The lie is that voting doesn't matter. If voting never mattered, why do far right Republicans constantly try to limit who can vote and count the votes. Why do Trump supporters fear the growth of black political power and the changing demographics of American society? The obvious answer is that voting does matter for real. The movement in Selma decades ago is a clear example of courage and a reminder that we, in this generation, must do our parts to make sure that voting rights must be strengthened completely. There is no naivete here. We're grown now. The time for constructive action is now.
Early America and Voting Rights
To understand the evolution of voting rights in the United States of America, you have to look at history chronologically like always. Long ago, the Americas was originally inhabited by Native Americans. They didn't speak English, and they existed in diverse cultures including creeds. After the Last major Ice Age, they traveled from Siberia into the Americas over 10,000 years ago. Later, European explorers came into the Americas. Some traded, and others committed war crimes and other evils against Native American human beings like Christopher Columbus and Cortes. Black African people were kidnapped and sent to the Americas too. The 2 great crimes of American history are the genocide of the Native Americans and the enslavement of African human beings. Back in the 1600's and 1700's, voting rights was very limited. Most people voting were only a select group of human beings. By 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed by colonists during the midst of the American Revolutionary War. Back in that year, only mostly white male landowners (who owned land, mostly Protestant, and over 21 years old) could vote. Also, there was no federal voting rights standards in American society. States decided who can or couldn't vote. Voting mostly were in the hands of white male landowners. By the time George Washington was President in 1789, only 6% of the population could vote. Things would continue to be this bad for long decades. In 1790, the Naturalization Law was passed. It stated overtly that only "free white" immigrants can become naturalized citizens.
As time existed in the 19th century, the growth of the anti-slavery or abolitionist movement including the women's rights movement existed. These revolutionary movements not only wanted the right to vote but total equality without exceptions. Many people used the Underground Railroad to save lives, diverse people were in both movements, and they later had numerous victories. In 1848, there was the women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Frederick Douglass, who was a former slave and newspaper editor, attended the event. He gave a speech supporting universal voting rights. His speech helped to convince the convention to adopt a resolution calling for voting rights for women. In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe ended the Mexican American War. It gave U.S. citizenship to Mexican people living in territories conquered by the U.S. Yet, English language requirements and violent intimidation limit Mexican access to voting rights. North Carolina was the last state to remove property ownership as a requirement to vote in 1856 (allowing voting to exist only for all white men). Just before President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, he wanted voting rights for some black people. This stirred up John Wilkes Booth to murder the late President in April 1865.
After the American Civil War and Early Jim Crow
By 1866, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony (who are First Wave feminists) formed an organization for white people and black people to fight for the goal of universal voting rights. This organization later divided and regroup over disagreements to gain the vote for women and African Americans. This is not unusual as many white feminists would be stone cold anti-black racists. In 1868, the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was passed. Citizenship is defined and granted to former slaves. Voters were defined as male. So, voting rights were given to all black men. The Amendment forbid states from denying any rights of citizenship. Yet, voting regulation is still left in the hands of the states. So, many states use grandfather clauses and Jim Crow methods like literacy tests to restrict black people the right to vote. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was passed. It states that the right to vote can't be denied by the federal or state governments based on race. Yet, states started to use measures like voting taxes and continued literacy tests to restrict African Americans the right to vote. Violence and other intimidation tactics are used by racist institutions constantly. In 1872, Susan B. Anthony was arrested and sent to trial in Rochester, New York. The reason was that she tried to vote in the Presidential election. During this time, Sojourner Truth (who was a black former slave and fighter for equality and justice) appealed at a polling booth in Grand Rapids, Michigan demanding a ballot. Yet, she was turned away. In 1876, indigenous people can't vote via the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court falsely classified Native Americans as not citizens defined by the 14th Amendment. The racist 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act banned people of Chinese ancestry from naturalizing to be U.S. citizens. The 1887 Dawes Act was passed, and it give Native Americans the right of citizenship with the catch to give up their tribal affiliations. In 1890, the state of Wyoming admitted to statehood, and it's the first state to legislate voting for women in its constitution. The Indian Naturalization Act of 1890 granted citizenship to Native Americans whose applications are approved (similar to the process of immigration naturalization).
During the 20th century, the fight for voting rights intensified. In 1919, Native Americans, who served in the U.S. military during World War I, are granted citizenship. The suffrage included people of every color. They constantly fought for women voting rights all of the time. With their efforts and other people's activism, women were given the right to vote in both state and federal elections via the 19th Amendment (in 1920). In 1922, the Supreme Court made the racist decision that people of Japanese heritage are ineligible to become naturalized citizens. In the next year, the Supreme Court found that Asian Indians are also not eligible to naturalize. In 1924, the Indian Citizenship Act grant citizenship to Native Americans, but many states made laws and policies to stop Native Americans from voting. In 1925, Congress banned Filipinos from U.S. citizenship unless they serve 3 years in the Navy. This time saw massive anti-black riots harming and murdering black Americans from Red Summer, etc. In 1926, a group of African American women were beaten by election officials when they tried to register to vote in Birmingham, Alabama. By 1947, Miguel Trujillo (a Native American and a former Marine) sued New Mexico. He wanted to vote. He won the case. This caused New Mexico and Arizona to be required to give the vote to all Native Americans. The 1952 McCarran-Walter Act grant all people of Asian ancestry the right to become citizens. In 1961, the 23rd Amendment is passed. This gave citizens of Washington, D.C. the right to vote for U.S. President. To this day, Washington, D.C. doesn't have voting representation in Congress (its district's residents are heavily black Americans).
1964 was the turning point in American history. This was the time when the Civil Rights Act was passed by Congress. It was one of the greatest forms of progressive legislation in American history. For decades, the American Civil Rights Movement grew massively. Its leaders from Ella Baker, Septima Clark, Dr. King, and Medgar Evers worked all of the time to promote freedom for black people including the rest of the human race. This movement was part of the overall black freedom struggle too. After Red Summer, WWII, the death of Emmett Till, and other events, grassroots black people organized into organizations, religious groups, political groups, and other institutions to attack plus defeat the system of Jim Crow apartheid. Jim Crow is wrong because it is based on oppressing people, it restricts the right of free association, it violates democratic rights on every level, and it establishes a racist system whose goal is to make a white racist aristocracy minority to dominate the majority of the people (via division, bigotry, hatred, and economic exploitation). Jim Crow apartheid is the opposite of legitimate black self-determination and human independence. By the early 1960's, demonstrations occurred nationwide. Diverse factions of the black freedom movement spread from the NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, CORE, Malcolm X's OAAU, etc. Each had differences on many points, but they were unified in the same goal of freedom and justice for black people.
The 1964 Civil Rights Act
To understand the Civil Rights Act of 1964, you have to learn about the time when it was passed. After WWII and the New Deal, government increased its role in promoting commerce even more than after the U.S. Civil War. The problem with the 1957 Civil Rights Act was that it didn't go strong enough to promote a just society. By this time, Brown V. Board of Education ruled public segregation as unconstitutional in public schools. Racist Southern Democrats used massive resistance to promote segregation. The 1957 Civil Rights act formed the United States Commission on Civil Rights and the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. By 1960, black voting had increased by only 3%, and Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which eliminated certain loopholes left by the 1957 Act. After the sit-ins, after the Birmingham protests in 1963, and after the 1963 March on Washington, black people weren't free. This was the time during the Presidency of John F. Kennedy. President Kennedy has to be pushed to support more progressive civil rights federal legislation, but he was light years better than Eisenhower on the issue of Civil Rights. President John F. Kennedy proposed a real, strong Civil Rights bill on his famous speech on June 11, 1963, to advocate for equality and justice for African Americans. This came after the Birmingham campaign. Racial tensions were high. A possibility of another civil war did exist in the 1960's. So, President Kennedy advocated a bill to eliminate segregation in all aspects of society. Martin Luther King Jr. watched the address with Walter E. Fauntroy in Atlanta. When it was over, he jumped up and declared, "Walter, can you believe that white man not only stepped up to the plate, he hit it over the fence!" He then sent a telegram to the White House: "I have just listened to your speech to the nation. It was one of the most eloquent[,] profound, and unequivocal pleas for justice and freedom of all men ever made by any President. You spoke passionately for moral issues involved in the integration struggle." Proposing legislation and passing it are 2 different things. It took a long time for the Civil Rights Act to be made law in 1964. Did JFK make that speech to curb tensions? Yes. Was JFK perfect? No. Do I feel that JFK was sincere in his speech? Yes.
Now, the journey begins. On June 11, 1963, President Kennedy met with Republican leaders to discuss the legislation before his television before his TV address to the nation that evening. Two days later, Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen and Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield both voiced support for the president's bill, except for provisions guaranteeing equal access to places of public accommodations. This led to several Republican Representatives drafting a compromise bill to be considered. On June 19, the president sent his bill to Congress as it was originally written, saying legislative action was "imperative." First, the bill had to go to the House of Representatives. The bill was strengthened. It added provisions to ban racial discrimination in employment, providing greater protection to black voters, eliminating segregation in all publicly owned facilities (not just schools), and strengthening the anti-segregation clauses regarding public facilities such as lunch counters. They also added authorization for the Attorney General to file lawsuits to protect individuals against the deprivation of any rights secured by the Constitution or U.S. law. In essence, this was the controversial "Title III" that had been removed from the 1957 Act and 1960 Act. Civil rights organizations pressed hard for this provision because it could be used to protect peaceful protesters and black voters from police brutality and suppression of free speech rights.
By October 1963, President Kennedy called the congressional leaders to the White House to get the votes to make the House pass the bill. The bill was reported out of the Judiciary Committee in November 1963 and referred to the Rules Committee. Segregationist from Virginia Howard W. Smith wanted to keep the bill bottled up indefinitely. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson was President. Johnson had huge legislative experience, and he was firm with Congressional leaders to get legislation passed. He supported the bill, and he used the bully pulpit to get things moving. In his first address to a joint session of Congress on November 27, 1963, Johnson told the legislators, "No memorial oration or eulogy could more eloquently honor President Kennedy's memory than the earliest possible passage of the civil rights bill for which he fought so long." After the return of Congress from its winter recess, however, it was apparent that public opinion in the North favored the bill and that the petition would acquire the necessary signatures. To avert the humiliation of a successful discharge petition, Chairman Smith relented and allowed the bill to pass through the Rules Committee. 50 signatures required the bill to go through. Labor groups and civil rights groups were in a coalition (in the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights) fought for the Civil Rights Act. The principal lobbyists for the Leadership Conference were civil rights lawyer Joseph L. Rauh Jr. and Clarence Mitchell Jr. of the NAACP.
Now, the Senate must pass it. Normally, the bill would have been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was chaired by James O. Eastland, a Democrat from Mississippi, whose firm opposition made it seem impossible that the bill would reach the Senate floor. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield took a novel approach to prevent the bill from being kept in limbo by the Judiciary Committee: initially waiving a second reading immediately after the first reading, which would have sent it to the Judiciary Committee, he took the unprecedented step of giving the bill a second reading on February 26, 1964, thereby bypassing the Judiciary Committee, and sending it to the Senate floor for debate immediately. When the bill came before the full Senate for debate on March 30, 1964, the "Southern Bloc" of 18 southern Democratic Senators and lone Republican John Tower of Texas, led by Richard Russell, launched a filibuster to prevent its passage. Russell proclaimed, "We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would tend to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our [Southern] states." Strong opposition to the bill also came from Senator Strom Thurmond, who was still a Democrat at the time: "This so-called Civil Rights Proposals [sic], which the President has sent to Capitol Hill for enactment into law, are unconstitutional, unnecessary, unwise and extend beyond the realm of reason. This is the worst civil-rights package ever presented to the Congress and is reminiscent of the Reconstruction proposals and actions of the radical Republican Congress." Obviously, Thurmond failed to realize that Reconstruction laws helped to increase the rights of black people.
After the filibuster had gone on for 54 days, Senators Mansfield, Hubert Humphrey, Mike Mansfield, Everett Dirksen, and Thomas Kuchel introduced a substitute bill that they hoped would overcome it by combining a sufficient number of Republicans as well as core liberal Democrats. The compromise bill was weaker than the House version as to the government's power in regulating the conduct of private businesses, but not weak enough to make the House reconsider it. Senator Robert Byrd ended his filibuster in opposition to the bill on the morning of June 10, 1964, after 14 hours and 13 minutes. Up to then, the measure had occupied the Senate for 60 working days, including six Saturdays. The day before, Democratic Whip Hubert Humphrey, the bill's manager, concluded that he had the 67 votes required at that time to end the debate and the filibuster. With six wavering senators providing a four-vote victory margin, the final tally stood at 71 to 29. Never before in its entire history had the Senate been able to muster enough votes to defeat a filibuster on a civil rights bill, and only once in the 37 years since 1927 had it agreed to cloture for any measure. The most dramatic moment during the cloture vote was when Senator Clair Engle was wheeled into the chamber. He had terminal brain cancer. He couldn't speak. He pointed to his left eye showing his affirmative "Aye" vote when his name was called. He died 7 weeks later. On June 19, the compromise bill passed the Senate by a vote of 73–27, quickly passed through the conference committee, which adopted the Senate version of the bill, then was passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by President Johnson on July 2, 1964. The Congress passed the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to fight sex discrimination. The prohibition on sex discrimination was added to the Civil Rights Act by Howard W. Smith, a powerful Virginia Democrat who chaired the House Rules Committee and who strongly opposed the legislation. Smith's amendment was passed by a teller vote of 168 to 133. Historians debate Smith's motivation, whether it was a cynical attempt to defeat the bill by someone opposed to civil rights both for blacks and women, or an attempt to support their rights by broadening the bill to include women. Historians speculate that Smith was trying to embarrass northern Democrats who opposed civil rights for women because the clause was opposed by labor unions. Representative Carl Elliott of Alabama later claimed "Smith didn't give a d___ about women's rights", as "he was trying to knock off votes either then or down the line because there was always a hard core of men who didn't favor women's rights." Smith asserted that he was not joking and he sincerely supported the amendment.
President Lyndon Baines Johnson celebrated the 1964 Civil Rights Act as a huge achievement. Dr. King was there along with others during the signing of the bill into law officially. President Kennedy and President Johnson knew that this legitimate law would cause Democrats to lose the South for generations. They supported the bill anyway. The 1964 Civil Rights Act was a monumental part of American history. It inspired by ending of the poll tax in the 24th Amendment. Racists resisted the law even in 1968 in Orangeburg, South Caroline that led to the Orangeburg Massacre. The law has 11 titles showing protections of human rights and eliminating discrimination on the basis of color and sex since LBJ signed the law on July 2, 1964. In essence the 1964 Civil Rights Act is a landmark of civil rights legislation that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, and later sexual orientation and gender identity (as ruled by a later June 2020 Supreme Court decision). It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requirements, racial segregation in schools and public accommodations, and employment discrimination. Later, the 1965 Voting Rights Act would exist via protests, sacrifice, and courage.
The 1965 Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 remains one of the greatest form of legislation in American history (and human history) in my view. It is that important. It is the cornerstone of the sacrifice of so many of our black Brothers and black Sisters (including human beings who every color) who worked hard to make this bill into law. Its history is monumental and not without bloodshed. It was created to enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment of the Constitution to ensure voting rights for Americans without racial discrimination or oppression. The Voting Rights Act is a landmark piece of federal legislation. It was passed during the end one era of the Civil Rights Movement. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Act is considered to be the most effective piece of federal civil rights legislation ever enacted in the country. It existed after Reconstruction. After Reconstruction, Jim Crow policies grew in violation of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution. Jim Crow wasn't just about segregation. It was about literacy tests, poll taxes, and property ownership requirements to just vote. There were grandfather clauses, moral character tests, and other evils that prevented many African Americans to vote in the South and parts of the Midwest (like Missouri). Unjust rulings like Giles v. Harris (1903) permitted states to continue to deprive black people the right to vote. Only a small percentage of black people voted in the South from 1957 to 1964. That is why civil rights leader wanted a powerful voting rights legislation after the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed. President Lyndon Baines Johnson knew of these things. President John, after the 1964 election, privately instructed Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach to draft, "the god____est, toughest voting rights act that you can." Johnson didn't publicly push for legislation at that time, because his advisers warned him of the political costs for vigorously pursuing a voting rights bill so soon after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Johnson didn't want his Great Society reforms to be gone by angering Southern Democrats in Congress. After the 1964 election, civil rights leaders in SCLC, SNCC, and other groups pushed for federal action to protect the voting rights of racial minorities. Their efforts were heavily focused in Selma, Alabama. County Sheriff Jim Clark and his police force used violence against peaceful protesting African Americans who wanted voter registration. Clark was a very vicious, racist person. James Forman of SNCC said: "Our strategy, as usual, was to force the U.S. government to intervene in case there were arrests—and if they did not intervene, that inaction would once again prove the government was not on our side and thus intensify the development of a mass consciousness among blacks. Our slogan for this drive was 'One Man, One Vote." Amelia Boynton, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Kwame Ture, and other civil rights leaders organized many peaceful demonstrations in Selma. Violence happened against many black protesters by the police and racist white counter protesters. In January and February 1965, the protests were given national media coverage and attention to the issue of voting rights. Dr. King and other demonstrators were arrested during a march on February 1 for violating an anti-parade ordinance; this inspired similar marches in the following days, causing hundreds more to be arrested. By February 4, 1965, black revolutionary Malcolm X gave a heroic speech in Selma where he said that he believed in self-defense. He told Coretta Scott King in private that he wanted his words to inspire change, so people could support Dr. King's cause of voting rights. The next day, King was released and a letter he wrote addressing voting rights, "Letter From A Selma Jail", appeared in The New York Times.
President Johnson soon would go on national TV to advocate for federal voting rights legislation by February 6, 1965. Johnson didn't reveal the proposal's content or disclose when it would come before Congress. By February 18, 1965, another tragedy happened. This was in Marion, Alabama where state troopers violently broke up a nighttime voting rights march. Officer James Bonard Fowler shot and killed the young black American Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was unarmed and protecting his mother. This event caused Bevel and others to march from Selma to Montgomery on March 7, 1965. They wanted to go into Montgomery, or Alabama's capital to promote voting rights and present then Governor George Wallace their grievances. On the first march, demonstrators were stopped by state and county police on horseback at the Edmund Pettus Bridge near Selma. The police shot tear gas into the crowd and trampled protesters. Televised footage of the scene, which became known as "Bloody Sunday", generated outrage across the country. A second march was held on March 9, which became known as "Turnaround Tuesday". That evening, three white Unitarian ministers who participated in the march were attacked on the street and beaten with clubs by four Ku Klux Klan members. The worst injured was Reverend James Reeb from Boston, who died on Thursday, March 11, 1965.
In the wake of the events in Selma, President Johnson, addressing a televised joint session of Congress on March 15, called on legislators to enact expansive voting rights legislation. He concluded his speech with the words "we shall overcome", a major anthem of the civil rights movement. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was introduced in Congress two days later while civil rights leaders, now under the protection of federal troops, led a march of 25,000 people from Selma to Montgomery. Back then, the United States Department of Justice fought to end discriminatory election practices on a case by case basis, but this wasn't enough. There were tons of federal anti-discrimination laws on the books, but state officials refused to enforced the 15th Amendment to eliminate voting discrimination. That is why a federal bill being comprehensively made was necessary to advance human rights. The United States Supreme Court explained this in South Carolina v. Katzenbach (1966). In South Carolina v. Katzenbach (1966) the Supreme Court also held that Congress had the power the pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965 under its Enforcement Powers stemming from the Fifteenth Amendment. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was introduced in Congress by March 17, 1965 as S. 1564. It was jointly sponsored by Senate majority leader Mike Mansfield (D-MT) and Senate minority leader Everett Dirksen (R-IL), both of whom had worked with Attorney General Katzenbach to draft the bill's language. Although Democrats held two-thirds of the seats in both chambers of Congress after the 1964 Senate elections, Johnson worried that Southern Democrats would filibuster the legislation because they had opposed other civil rights efforts. He enlisted Dirksen to help gain Republican support. Dirksen did not originally intend to support voting rights legislation so soon after supporting the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but he expressed willingness to accept "revolutionary" legislation after learning about the police violence against marchers in Selma on Bloody Sunday.
Dirksen helped Katzenbach to draft the legislation. After Mansfield and Dirksen introduced the bill, 64 additional senators agreed to cosponsor it. There was a total of 46 Democratic and 20 Republican cosponsors. The bill had parts that targeted state and local governments with a coverage formula that determined which jurisdictions were subject to the Act. There was the "preclearance" requirement that prohibited covered jurisdictions from implementing changes to their voting procedures without first receiving approval from the U.S. attorney general or the U.S. District Court for D.C. that the changes were not discriminatory; and the suspension of "tests or devices", such as literacy tests, in covered jurisdictions. The bill also authorized the assignment of federal examiners to register voters, and of federal observers to monitor elections, to covered jurisdictions that were found to have engaged in egregious discrimination. The bill set these special provisions to expire after five years. Many people didn't like the formula, especially in the Deep South. Yet, the bill had a general prohibition on racial discrimination in voting that applied nationwide. The bill also included provisions allowing a covered jurisdiction to "bail out" of coverage by proving in federal court that it had not used a "test or device" for a discriminatory purpose or with a discriminatory effect during the 5 years preceding its bailout request. Mansfield used a motion to require the Judiciary Committee to report the bill out of committee by April 9. He did this from preventing the bill from dying in committee. The Senate passed the bill with a vote of 67 to 13. Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts wanted the bill to ban poll taxes, but it was later banned via the Twenty-fourth Amendment banning them in federal elections. Many parts of the bill passed. The Senate passed it officially by a vote of 77-19 on May 26, 1965.
Then, the bill came into the House of Representatives as H.R. 6400. The House Judiciary Committee was the first committee to consider the bill. The committee's ranking Republican, William McCulloch (R-OH), generally supported expanding voting rights, but he opposed both the poll tax ban and the coverage formula, and he led opposition to the bill in committee. The committee eventually approved the bill on May 12, but it did not file its committee report until June 1. The bill included two amendments from subcommittee: a penalty for private persons who interfered with the right to vote and a prohibition of all poll taxes. The poll tax prohibition gained Speaker of the House John McCormack's support. The bill was next considered by the Rules Committee, whose chair, Howard W. Smith (D-VA), opposed the bill and delayed its consideration until June 24, when Celler initiated proceedings to have the bill discharged from committee. The House debated the bill on July 6. McCulloch wanted to defeat the bill by promoting an alternative bill. The House passed the Voting Rights Act by a 333-85 vote (Democrats had 221-61 and Republicans had 112-24). The conference committee existed to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill.
A major contention concerned the poll tax provisions; the Senate version allowed the attorney general to sue states that used poll taxes to discriminate, while the House version outright banned all poll taxes. Initially, the committee members were stalemated. To help broker a compromise, Attorney General Katzenbach drafted legislative language explicitly asserting that poll taxes were unconstitutional and instructed the Department of Justice to sue the states that maintained poll taxes. To assuage concerns of liberal committee members that this provision was not strong enough, Katzenbach enlisted the help of Martin Luther King Jr., who gave his support to the compromise. King's endorsement ended the stalemate, and on July 29, the conference committee reported its version out of committee. The House approved this conference report version of the bill on August 3 by a 328–74 vote (Democrats 217–54, Republicans 111–20), and the Senate passed it on August 4 by a 79–18 vote (Democrats 49–17, Republicans 30–1). On August 6, 1965, President Johnson signed the Act into law with Dr. King, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, and other civil rights leaders in attendance at the signing ceremony. Later, Congress enacted major amendments to the law in 1970, 1975, 1982, 1992, and in 2006. Each amendment coincided with an impending expiration of some or all of the Act's special provisions. Originally set to expire by 1970, Congress repeatedly reauthorized the special provisions in recognition of continuing voting discrimination. In the future, the Supreme Court ended the coverage formula of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act via the infamous, evil Shelby County v. Holder decision (2013). The original 1965 Voting Rights Act banned discriminatory voting laws, especially in Section 2.
The impact of the 1965 Voting Rights Act was huge. It immediately decreased racial discrimination in voting. The banning of literacy tests and using federal examiners and observers allowed many racial minorities to register to vote. Nearly 250,000 African Americans registered in 1965, one-third of whom were registered by federal examiners. In covered jurisdictions, less than one-third (29.3 percent) of the African American population was registered in 1965; by 1967, this number increased to more than half (52.1 percent), 702 and a majority of African American residents became registered to vote in 9 of the 13 Southern states. Similar increases were seen in the number of African Americans elected to office: between 1965 and 1985, African Americans elected as state legislators in the 11 former Confederate states increased from 3 to 176. Nationwide, the number of African American elected officials increased from 1,469 in 1970 to 4,912 in 1980. By 2011, the number was approximately 10,500. Similarly, registration rates for language minority groups increased after Congress enacted the bilingual election requirements in 1975 and amended them in 1992. In 1973, the percent of Hispanics registered to vote was 34.9 percent; by 2006, that amount nearly doubled. The number of Asian Americans registered to vote in 1996 increased by 58 percent by 2006. Preclearance helped to fight against discriminatory annexations, redistricting plans, and other methods to hamper votes. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 caused a massive political realignment in American society among the Democratic plus Republican parties.
Between 1890 and 1965, minority disenfranchisement allowed conservative Southern Democrats to dominate Southern politics. After Johnson signed the Act into law, newly enfranchised racial minorities began to vote for liberal Democratic candidates throughout the South, and Southern white conservatives began to switch their party registration from Democrat to Republican en masse. These dual trends caused the two parties to ideologically polarize, with the Democratic Party becoming more liberal and the Republican Party becoming more conservative. The trends also created competition between the two parties, which Republicans capitalized on by implementing the Southern strategy. Over the subsequent decades, the creation of majority-minority districts to remedy racial vote dilution claims also contributed to these developments. By packing liberal-leaning racial minorities into small numbers of majority-minority districts, large numbers of surrounding districts became more solidly white, conservative, and Republican. While this increased the elected representation of racial minorities as intended, it also decreased white Democratic representation and increased the representation of Republicans overall. By the mid-1990s, these trends culminated in a political realignment: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party became more ideologically polarized and defined as liberal and conservative parties, respectively; and both parties came to compete for electoral success in the South, with the Republican Party controlling most of Southern politics. A 2016 study in the American Journal of Political Science found "that members of Congress who represented jurisdictions subject to the preclearance requirement were substantially more supportive of civil rights-related legislation than legislators who did not represent covered jurisdictions." Today, the 1965 Voting Rights is threatened to be gone completely by the far-right movement. Yet, we will continue to defend this law 100 percent.
The Era After 1965
In 1971, there was the 26th Amendment signed. This was signed by President Richard Nixon to allow American citizens who are 18 years old or older the right to vote. During the 1960's, the movement to fight for a younger voting age from 21 existed strongly. This movement was strengthened by the increase of student activism and the anti-Vietnam war movement. Many people, who were 18, were drafted to war but couldn't vote until 1971. By 1975, we see the Voting Rights Act to expand to protect language minorities. Congress added new provisions to the Voting Rights Act to require jurisdictions with significant numbers of voters (who have limited or no proficiency in English) to have voting materials in other languages (and to provide multilingual assistance at the polls). By 1982, Congress passed a law extending the Voting Rights Act for another 25 years. The extension required states to take steps to make voting more accessible for the elderly and people with disabilities. In 1993, the Motor Voter became law. This is about the law requiring states to allow citizens to register to vote when they applied for their drivers' licenses. This required states to offer mail in registration and to allow people to register to vote at offices offering public assistance. More than 30 million people finished their voter registration applications or updated their registration via the law after the first year of the law's implementation.
After the 2000 Bush v. Gore controversial election, new changes happened. There was a recount in the state of Florida. So, new policies existed to upgrade faulty equipment and bad ballot designs. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled to stop the Florida recount and cause George W. Bush to be President of the United States of America. By 2002, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act. This law streamlined election procedures in America. It placed new mandates on states and localities to replace outdated voting equipment, create statewide voter registration lists, and have provisional ballots to make sure that eligible voters are not turned away if their names are not on the roll of registered voters. The law made it easier for people with disabilities to cast private, independent ballots. By the 2010's and 2020's, new reforms existed along with massive voter suppression policies on another level. Many programs and institutions have invented to promote voting rights and expand voting among historically underrepresented communities. In 2011, Florida changed its felony voting rights to make felons wait 5 years after sentencing and apply for the right to vote again.
By June 2013, the Supreme Court made one of its worst decisions in history by ending the Section 5 part of the Voting Rights Act. The case is Shelby County v. Holder. The Supreme Court gutted a major part of the law. Now, states and localities, with a history of suppressing voting rights, can no longer require to submit changes in their election laws to the U.S. Justice Department for review (or preclearance). The 5-4 decision ruled unconstitutional a section of the landmark 1965 law that was key to protect voters in states and localities with a history of race-based voter suppression. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg was right to state in her dissent of the case that, "Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet." By August of 2013, more states increase their policies to put up more barriers to voting. By August 11, 2013, North Carolina's governor signed a voter ID law. Many critics of the law said that it was an attempt to suppress the votes of people of color. After a lawsuit (sent by civil rights groups and the U.S. Department of Justice), that North Carolina law was struck down by a federal judge who said that it targeted African Americans with "almost surgical precision." Voter ID laws were passed in Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, and Florida. The problem with these voter ID laws is that they sometimes restrict the time when people can vote, limit how people can vote, and even go to use restrictions causing discrimination in many ways. By 2014, more civil rights and social justice groups united to fight the far-right voter suppression agenda.
This fight has been done by the NAACP, National Action Network, the ACLU, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), and other groups. This battle involves racial gerrymandering, strict voter ID laws, and other efforts to reduce the voting rights of black people, other people of color, the poor, the elderly, and other underrepresented populations. By 2016, Trump won the election. Voter fraud never existed in a massive scale regardless of Trump's claims. This lie of massive voter fraud would continue to be advanced by some folks in 2020, 2021, and 2022. By October of 2018, Georgia promotes efforts to advance more barriers to voting. This measure to cut voting hours in Atlanta and restricting early voting on the weekends were defeated by 2018. Record voters in 2018 existed. The 2020 Census existed, and Trump failed to try to add a question to the 2020 census to see if someone is a citizen of America. 2020 saw some voting rights victories. For example, in that year, California restored voting rights to citizens serving parole, Washington D.C. passed a law to allow incarcerated felons to vote, voting rights increased for those with felony convictions, and in New Jersey felons can vote (after conviction and release from prison plus citizens on parole or probation can vote). North Dakota reached an agreement with the Spirit Lake Nation and the Standing Rock Sioux to recognize tribal address as valid for voting purposes. In 2020, Trump lost. Afterwards, new voting restrictive laws existed in Texas and Georgia. In 2021, the Supreme Court's ruling on Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee had broad removals of the remaining sections of the Voting Rights Act, which was wrong. The fight for voting rights continues.
New Threats to Our Freedom
In our generation, we must make it be known that threats to our voting rights continue, even decades after 1965. By December 6, 2019, the Democratic led House passed HR 4. This would revise parts of the gutted parts of the Voting Rights Act. HR 4 wasn't brought up for a vote in the Senate (which was controlled by the Republicans back then). It hasn't been introduced in the current Congress. After Joe Biden won the 2020 election on November 7, 2020, the voter suppression actions by many far-right Republicans have accelerated, not decreased in intensity. To be honest, black people in Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and other places in America contributed heavily to make sure that Trump lost the election. So, the big lie about the election is an attack on the integrity of black people and all freedom loving people too.
By March 3, 2021, the Democratic led House passed the For the People Act or HR 1. It still hasn't been passed by the Senate to this day. In his first speech on the Senate floor, Rep. Warnock (on March 17, 2021) spoke about the precarious state of voting rights. “We are witnessing right now a massive and unabashed assault on voting rights unlike anything we’ve ever seen since the Jim Crow era,” he said. “It is a contradiction to say we must protect minority rights in the Senate while refusing to protect minority rights in the society.” On March 25, 2021, Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed an anti-voting rights bill into law. It is called SB 202. It imposes new voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, allows state officials to take over local election boards, curbs the use of ballot drop boxes and makes it a crime for people who aren’t poll workers to approach voters in line to give them food and water. Democrat Stacey Abrams — who founded Fair Fight after losing to Kemp in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race, which was choked with controversy — has been vocal in her opposition to Georgia Republicans’ antidemocratic maneuvering. “At a time when Georgia ranks as the worst state for Covid vaccination rates, Georgia Republicans instead are singularly focused on reviving Georgia's dark past of racist voting laws,” Abrams said in a March 2021 statement.
On May 6, 2021, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed another restrictive anti-voting rights bill into law. It's called SB 90. It has stricter voter identification requirements for voting by mail, limits who can pick up and return a voter’s ballot and prohibits private funding for elections, among other things. Mere minutes after DeSantis signed the bill, a coalition that includes the League of Women Voters of Florida and the Black Voters Matter Fund filed a lawsuit to challenge several of the new law’s provisions. Democratic state Rep. Michael Grieco saw clear parallels between Georgia’s SB 202 and Florida’s SB 90. “That bill that was passed in the state just north of us sent us a message, and the response to that bill should let us know we should not be doing this,” he said during House debate in 2021. Grieco also made an appeal, “Please do not Georgia my Florida.” On September 7, 2021, Texas Republican Governor Gregg Abbott signed SB 1 into law. It is terrible. “It specifically targets voting initiatives used by diverse, Democratic Harris County, the state’s most populous, by banning overnight early voting hours and drive-thru voting — both of which proved popular among voters of color last year,” The Texas Tribune reported at the time. Notably, SB 1 prompted the Department of Justice to file a lawsuit against Texas. “Laws that impair eligible citizens’ access to the ballot box have no place in our democracy. Texas Senate Bill 1’s restrictions on voter assistance at the polls and on which absentee ballots cast by eligible voters can be accepted by election officials are unlawful and indefensible,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
By December 6, 2021, the DOJ sued Texas over GOP approved redistricting maps. It was the 2nd voting rights related lawsuit that the Biden administration have filed against Texas in 2021. The maps, adopted by Texas Republicans, are accused of disadvantaging black voters and fail to recognize the growth of the state's Latino population. At least 19 states passed 34 laws that make it difficult for people to vote according to the New York University Law School's Brennan Center for Justice. On January 19, 2022, Congress failed to pass voting rights legislation. Senator Joe Manchin and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema refuse to end the filibuster on Dr. King's holiday. Dr. King was right to say that, “the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens’ Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the White moderate who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice.” On February 7, 2022, the Supreme restored the GOP drawn Alabama Congressional map. It was a 5-4 decision. This was another bad decision. Previously, a lower court rejected the policy as it harmed black voter's electoral power in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Justice Elena Kagan of the Supreme Court dissented with the Supreme Court's decision. She was joined by Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor. Kagan wrote that, "It does a disservice to the district court, which meticulously applied this Court’s longstanding voting-rights precedent...And most of all, it does a disservice to Black Alabamians who under that precedent have had their electoral power diminished — in violation of a law this Court once knew to buttress all of American democracy.” New states have introduced bills to restrict voting so far in 2022 alone. So, we have to stand up for our democratic rights.
Focused on Legitimate, Positive Action
With all of the voting rights suppression laws, we do recognize the activists fighting back for our freedom. One of the most unsung heroes fighting for voting rights is LaTosha Brown. She is the co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund and the Black Voters Capacity Building Institute. She was one of the many human beings who have worked in Georgia to grow a coalition to make sure that Georgia was blue in 2020. Expanding voting access in Georgia is a large part of her great legacy as an activist. The 2022 midterm elections are coming up. We have to expand voting rights, fight voter ID restrictions, fight unfair gerrymandering, and harbor a love of truth. We want racial justice as well. We know about Charles Neblett, Ruth Mae Harris, and other civil rights singers advocating for freedom. Yolanda Renee King (or the granddaughter of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) has spoken out, protested, and use great activism in defending our human rights. Cliff Albright of Black Voters Matter is continuing to fight for voting rights. Other civil rights leaders and scholars like Kim Crenshaw, Helen Butler, and other people are making the point that voting restrictions are evil plus critical race theory is not equivalent to racist extremism. Tons of people are standing up like Ruby Sales (who was part of SNCC and other groups), etc. We have to show solidarity with Crystal Mason who was in jail when she didn't know that she was ineligible to vote. The late John Lewis spoke out about how extremists who try to turn back the clock, and we won't let that happen in the future.
The 2022 Winter Olympics (Beijing China)
The 2022 Winter Olympics taking place in Beijing China has always been part of the Olympic tradition. It has lasted from February 4 to 20, 2022. This event is not without controversy. It has much more political controversy than the previous 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. The vast majority of the people in China want justice and freedom. Yet, a small minority of many political leaders in China have executed the policies of: massive Internet censorship, suppression of the rights of the people of Hong Kong, oppression against Uighur Muslims in Western China, heavy restrictions of religious freedom among Christians (and those who follow other creeds), and an authoritarian one child policy (resulting in population issues in China). These realities are real, and they can't be denied. The motto of this year's Olympics is Together for a Shared Future. There will be 109 events in many sports. President Xi Jinping is the political leader of China. All venues will be run on renewable energy. Sports like speed skating, ice hockey, curling, and snowboarding will be found in the Winter Olympics. The 2022 also have stories dealing with many previous Olympic legends retiring before the 2022 Winter Olympics like the short track speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno. He was born in Seattle, Washington being 40 years old by May 22, 1982. This time would be the last Olympics of many athletes like Shaun White, who helped to expand the X Games into another level of prominence. Elana Meyers Taylor of bobsledding plan on possibly making this her last Winter Olympics in 2022 too. The unity of people in athletics is certainly inspiring.
It is important to understanding the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and Beijing culture including its history. Beijing is the capital of the nation of China. It is the largest city on Earth in population with over 21 million people. It has over 6,000 square miles of hand. Beijing is a global city being an Eastern center of culture, diplomacy, politics, finance, business, and economics. It has centers for sports, tourism, research, sport, science, technology, and transportation. Like Shanghai, it is one of the megacities on this Earth. It houses China's corporations and many of the Fortune Global 500 companies. Many billionaires live in the city filled with highways, expressways, and high-speed rail. It has the Beijing Capital International Airport being the 2nd busiest in the world by passenger traffic.
Combining both modern and traditional style architectures, Beijing is one of the oldest cities in the world, with a rich history dating back over three millennia. As the last of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, Beijing has been the political center of the country for most of the past eight centuries, and was the largest city in the world by population for much of the second millennium CE. With mountains surrounding the inland city on three sides, in addition to the old inner and outer city walls, Beijing was strategically poised and developed to be the residence of the emperor and thus was the perfect location for the imperial capital. The city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, parks, gardens, tombs, walls and gates. Beijing is one of the most important tourist destinations of the world. In 2018, Beijing was the second highest earning tourist city in the world after Shanghai. Beijing is home to many national monuments and museums and has seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites—the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Ming Tombs, Zhoukoudian, and parts of the Great Wall and the Grand Canal—all of which are popular tourist locations. Siheyuans, the city's traditional housing style, and hutongs, the narrow alleys between siheyuans, are major tourist attractions and are common in urban Beijing.
Many of Beijing's 91 universities consistently rank among the best in the Asia-Pacific and the world. Beijing is home to the two best C9 League universities (Tsinghua and Peking) in the Asia-Pacific and emerging countries. Beijing CBD is a center for Beijing's economic expansion, with the ongoing or recently completed construction of multiple skyscrapers. Beijing's Zhongguancun area is a world leading center of scientific and technological innovation as well as entrepreneurship. Beijing has been ranked the No.1 city in the world with the largest scientific research output by the Nature Index since 2016. The city has hosted numerous international and national sporting events, the most notable being the 2008 Summer Olympics and 2008 Summer Paralympics Games. In 2022, Beijing became the first city ever to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics, and also the Summer and Winter Paralympics. Beijing hosts 175 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of many organizations, including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Silk Road Fund, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the Central Academy of Drama, the Central Conservatory of Music, and the Red Cross Society of China. During ancient times, Beijing was called the Northern Capital. Jicheng was its first walled city in Beijing being the capital city of Ji (and built in 1045 B.C.). The First Emperor era unified China. The Three Kingdoms period saw Beijing experience changes. During the Sixteen Kingdoms period when northern China was conquered and divided by the Wu Hu, Jicheng was briefly the capital of the Xianbei Former Yan Kingdom. The Ming Dynasty was a powerful era in Chinese history. The Forbidden City existed in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Imperialists harmed Beijing during the 2 Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion. The nationalist Republic of China existed and then Communism dominated China after the Chinese Civil War. There was the Cultural Revolution with Mao, and the Tiananmen Square Massacre in Beijing. Expansion of Beijing continues in the 21st centuries with issues of heavy traffic, poor air quality, loss of historic neighborhoods, and new workers from rural areas. The city has also hosted major international events like the 2015 World Championships in Athletics. Beijing remains one of the most advanced, interesting cities in the whole world.
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The Opening Ceremony
The opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China was very interesting. The motto of the Olympics is called Together for a Shared Future. Many events will take place in the surrounding regions of the Yanqing District and Chongli District. The opening ceremony took place on February 4, 2022, and the Winter Olympics ended by February 20, 2022. There are 7 sports in competition including 15 disciplines. Beijing was selected as the host city of the 2022 Winter Olympics after beating Almaty by four votes on July 31, 2015, at the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The events will be run entirely on renewable energy. The torch relay to start the ceremony was on October 18, 2021, in Greece. Protesters opposed the Olympic torch lighting ceremony in Greece because of political reasons. The opening ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium. During these controversial times, IOC President Thomas Bach told athletes to "show how the world would like, if we all respect the same rules and each other. We pledged that, there will be no discrimination for any reason whatsoever." The final seven torchbearers reflected multiple decades of Chinese athletes in sports, beginning with the 1950's, and concluding with two skiers who will be competing in the Games—21 year-old skier Zhao Jiawen from Shanxi (the first Chinese athlete to compete in Nordic combined), and 20-year-old Dinigeer Yilamujiang from the Xinjiang autonomous region (cross-country, and the first Chinese cross-country skier to medal in an ISF event). Unlike past Olympics, the final torchbearers did not light a cauldron: instead, they fitted the torch into the center of a large, stylized snowflake, constructed from placards bearing the names of the delegations competing in the Games. Three similar snowflakes were also erected as public flames in Beijing outside of the stadium, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou; the latter two were lit by speed skater Yu Jongjun and skier Wang Wezhuo.
Political Controversies
There is no event of this magnitude without controversies. The controversies on the 2022 Winter Olympics are obvious. The truth is that the vast majority of Americans and Chinese people desire happiness, peace, and justice. The problem is that the political leadership of China and America historically have made mistakes involving human rights. So, this Olympics is in Beijing, so we have to show what true and real. Many nations have diplomatic boycotts of this year's Olympics due to the human rights situation in China, and the Uyghur genocide in Western China (where many mostly Muslim Uyghurs have been brainwashed, abused, and harmed). In China, there is massive Internet censorship too along with other human rights issues. Also, America is not clean from critique. Economic inequality, racism, sexism, xenophobia, and other evils are found in America. Likewise, it is hypocritical for some to legitimately criticize Western imperialism (along with the imperfections of America) and be silent on many human rights abuses done by the political leadership of China. That's hypocrisy and cowardice in my mind. Many people have cited environmental concerns about the Winter Games because of lax snowfall. Diplomatic boycotts of the games have been done by Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, India, India, Kosovo, Lithuania, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Many Tibetan protesters criticized the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for allowing China to host the games due to its policies against Tibetans. In November 2021 the disappearance of former Olympian Peng Shuai after she made allegations of sexual assault against Zhang Gaoli, former Vice Premier of China and a high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member, has put pressure on the International Olympic Committee.
The IOC refused to have a boycott of the Olympics in supporting the Uyghurs, because the IOC wants to get out of politics. In January 2022, it was reported that the United States is considering legislation to strip the IOC of its federal tax-exempt status in response to the IOC's "refusal to challenge China on human rights abuses." The Global Times (it is CCP owned) wants to criticize nations who go forward with a boycott. The IOC wants to be neutral by saying that they want staging for the Olympics while saying they don't approve of human rights violations of a person or people. This position has generated criticism, with Jules Boykoff accusing the IOC of hypocrisy by saying that it ignores its charter that promotes equality and anti-discrimination when it is convenient to do so and that the IOC has shown an "unfortunate propensity for turning away from human rights atrocities to make sure that the games go on." However, during the opening ceremony, IOC president, Thomas Bach had called for the end of various types of discrimination during his speech indirectly referring to the human rights abuses in China. The COVID-19 pandemic is still in China. Many games are changed because of the virus. The NHL won't send players to the Games citing health and safety concerns. Yet, the virus has declined in China. China has some of the strictest testing and building protocols on Earth in dealing with the pandemic.
In America, the infections of the virus have radically declined too. China is wrong to have mass censorship of the Internet. The government has banned for example Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and since 2019. Many athletes fear that their free speech rights would be violated. In January 2022, the Beijing Organizing Committee warned that "Any behavior or speech that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against Chinese laws and regulations, are also subject to certain punishment." Uyghur and Tibetan activists want athletes, sponsors, and other international participants in the games to speak out on human rights issues in the Games. In the run up to the Olympics, the Chinese government deployed dozens of fake Twitter accounts to push the Government's position in the Peng Shuai scandal and the IOC's involvement. Now, we know the truth.
The Early Events of the Winter Games
As early as February 2, 2022, there was the first matches in the round robin stage of the mixed doubles tournaments. There was the first day of competition in men's moguls and the women's moguls (of freestyle skiing on February 3, 2022). There were the first matches in the group stage of the women's tournament involving ice hockey in the same day. By Friday on February 4, 2022, there was the third day of the round robin stage of mixed doubles tournament (in curling). Figure staking starts in figure skating and the second day of ice hockey involving the group stage of the women's tournament. On February 5, there was the fourth day of the round robin stage of the mixed doubles tournament. Luge has its Heats 1 and 2 of the Men's singles. On that same day, there is the first day of competition in the women's slopestyle (in snowboarding). In the biathlon, mixed relay, Norway had gold, France had silver, and the ROC had bronze. In cross country skiing, Therese Johaug of Norway won gold, ROC's Natalya Nepryayeva won silver, and Austria's Teresa Stadlober won bronze. China won gold in the short track speed skating, Italy won silver, and Hungary won bronze. Americans Jaelin Kauf won silver in the women's moguls (of freestyle skiing) and Julia Marion won silver in snowboarding's women's slopestyle.
More Stages of the Winter Games
By February 7, 2022, a lab from the World Anti-Doping Agency found that there was a sample from Valieva that was found not being clean. She was suspended by the RUSADA. In early February of 2022, Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami won the women’s super-G event (of alpine skiing), Norway's Marte Olsbu Røiseland captured the gold in the women’s 7.5km sprint event (of the biathlon), and Finland's Livo Niskanen took the top spot at men's 15 Km classic event (in the cross country skiing event). For Short Track Speed Skating: Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands clinched a thrilling, photo-finish gold in the women’s 1,000m event. For Skeleton: Christopher Grotheer's gold gave Germany its first ever medal in the men's event. For Snowboard: Japan's Ayumu Hirano impressed on his way to the men’s snowboard halfpipe gold. For Speed Skating: Sweden's Nils van der Poel captured the gold in the men’s 10,000m event. On Day 8, there was the mixed team snowboard cross event with America winning gold with Nick Baumgartner and Lindsey Jacobellis. Speed skating with men's 500m had gold done by Gao Tingyu (from China). Erin Jackson won the women's 500m race in speed skating, Japan's Miho Takagi won silver, and Angelina Golikova from the ROC won bronze.
On Day 10 on February 14, 2022, Americans won much of the bobsleigh women's monobob with Kaillie Humphries winning gold, Elana Mayers Taylor winning silver, and Canada's Christine de Bruin winning bronze. Of ice dance in figure skating, France's Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron won gold, Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov won silver of ROC, and Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue won bronze from America. For women's aerials of freestyle skiing, Xu Mengtao won gold from China, Hanna Huskova of Belarus won silver, and Megan Nick of America won bronze. On Day 11, many people won from across the world. Corrine Suter of Switzerland won gold of women's downhill in Alpine skiing. Norway won gold in the individual large hill of Nordic combined with Jorgen Graabak. China won gold in the men's big air with Su Yiming of China. By Day 12 on Wednesday on February 16, 2022, we see many gold winners of men's slalom of Alphine skiing Clement Noel (of France), the Swedish team winning the biathlon women's relay (with Linn Persson, Mona Brorsson, Hanna Oberg, and Elvira Oberg), and Norway winning men's team sprint of cross-country skiing (with the German women's team sprint team winning gold for cross country skiing). On Day 13, February 17, 2022, American women won silver in the ice hockey women's team, Canada won gold, and Finland won silver.
By February 18 in Day 14 dealt with many events. Norway's Johannes Thringes Bo won gold in the men's mass start, France's Justine Braisaz-Bouchet won gold in the women's mass start (part of the biathlon). Later, America's David Wise won silver in the men's halfpipe, New Zealand's Nico Porteous celebrate gold, and Ale Ferreira won bronze. On Day 16, February 20, 2022, Austria won gold for the mixed team of alpine skiing, Germany won silver, and Norway won bronze. This event of the 2022 Winter Olympics had many black people and people of color playing and winning in the Winter Olympics too. It is important to show this information on Black History Month and to show the world that talent is diverse. Erin Jackson is the first black American woman to win a solo medal in speed skating during the 2022 Winter Olympics. Erin Jackson was the first black woman to be on the U.S. long track speed skating team. Erin Jackson is 29 years old. For years, Erin Jackson has been an expert athlete. Richardson Viano represented Haiti at the Beijing Olympics in 2022 as being involved in the sport of alpine skier. Mama Biney is involved in the short track being from America. Carlos Meader is from Ghana being 43 years old. Nigeria's Samuel Ikpefan is a 30-year-old man involved in cross country skiing. Sylvia Hoffman is a black Olympian from America being 32 years old. Kaysha Love is 24 years old from America too. She is involved in the bobsleigh. American Hakeem Abdul-Saboor is 35 years old and Afro-Canadian is 31 years old. More black competitors in the 2022 Winter Olympics are Jamaican Shanwayne Stephens (who is 31 years old), Afro-Jamaican Ashley Watson (being 28 years old), Afro- Jamaican Matthew Wekpe, and Afro-Jamaican Rolando Reid (being 29 years old).
There is the news of bobsleeder Elena Meyers Taylor making history as the most decorated black athlete in the Winter Olympics. She is 37 years old now. The title was previously held by Shani Davis who won 4 medals. Taylor won bronze at the Beijing 2022 Olympics on Saturday. USA's Elana Meyers Taylor and Sylvia Hoffman (who is a black woman too) celebrated on the podium with their bronze medals during the venue ceremony after the 2-woman bobsleigh event at the Yanqing National Sliding Centre. Elana Meyers Taylor was born in Oceanside, California, Meyers Taylor was raised in Douglasville, Georgia and is a graduate of The George Washington University, where she was a member of the softball team. Meyers Taylor is a Christian. She has said, "One of the big reasons I was put in bobsled is to help people not only reach their goals, but come to Christ. God put me here for a specific reason and I don't think it's just to win medals. At the end of the day, I'm in this sport to glorify God, so if that means I come in last place or I win the gold medal, that's what I’m going to do."
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The Closing Ceremony
The 2022 Winter Olympics closing ceremony took place on February 20, 2022. It was held at the Beijing National Stadium. As mandated by the Olympic Charter, the proceedings must combine the formal ceremonial closing of this international sporting event (including closing speeches, hoisting of the flags, the parade of athletes, and the handover the Olympic flag) with an artistic display to showcase the culture and history of the current and next host nation (Italy) for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. The closing ceremony was directed by film director and producer Zhang Yimou, who also directed the opening ceremonies of the 2022 Winter Olympics and previously directed and produced the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics. There was the entrance of the President of China and the President of the IOC. Dancers lightened the emblem as Frank Mortenson's brand-new record for the 2022 Olympics, "It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow" written originally in 1938 by Irving Berlin, was played. The National Anthem of China was played. Then, there was the entry of countries' and regions' flags and Parade of Nations. The flags of the 91 competing nations entered the stadium first, followed by all the athletes who were still in Beijing marching in together as one group accompanied by an arrangement of Beethoven's Ode to Joy. The 2022 and me video existed along with victory ceremonies from the winners of women's cross-country skiing and men's cross-country skiing. The IOC athlete's commission showed new members and the recognition of the volunteers. There were videos detailing the theme of "Powered by Belief." The Greek National anthem and handover of the Olympic flag existed.
As per tradition, Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, the host cities of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games presented an artistic performance at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics. But due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the belief that "less is more", only 6 performers were sent. Duality, Together was the song. IOC President Thomas Bach formally closed the games, praising them as excellent and unforgettable, and said they will ensemble a team in four years time in Milano & Cortina in French. Following the declaration of the closing of the Games, a video was shown of Beijing citizens and Winter Games volunteers bidding farewell to their international guests. It concluded with Olympic mascot Bing Dwen Dwen waving to a snowflake as it flies toward the sky.
The Olympic flame, burning in a torch placed in the middle of a giant snowflake-shaped cauldron, was gradually extinguished while "You and Me", the theme song of the 2008 Summer Olympics, then "Snowflakes", the theme song of the 2022 Winter Olympics, were sung by the Beijing Philharmonic Choir (北京愛樂合唱團). Both songs were sung in homage to the two Olympic Games hosted by China, to highlight the Chinese capital's historical achievement of being the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, and to mark the end of the 2022 Winter Olympics. President of China Xi Jinping and Italian political leaders were at the final ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Closing Thoughts
The Winter Olympics in 2022 was very successful in showing some of the greatest athletes in the world today. It was a generational Olympics where numerous legends retired, and a new generation of winter athletes expressed themselves. The Winter Olympics had many black athletes winning many awards making history on Black History Month. People from across the world promoted their own talents. Likewise, like many sporting events, controversies reign. In Beijing, many pandemic protocols were in existence in trying to stop the spread of disease. Also, we know that China has policies that are against democratic rights like the suppression of protests in Hong Kong, the oppression against the Uyghurs, racism found in Shanghai against black people, and other injustices. Also, we are clear that many apologists are trying to justify this evil by saying that Western imperialism is wrong, so China gets a pass on its sins. The reality is that no nation on Earth is perfect, and it's hypocritical to criticize America's imperfections while taking a blind eye to China's imperfections. The other lie that these hypocrites say that if you disagree with any policy from the government of China, then you endorse imperialism. The truth is that any nation should experience legitimate critique from time to time. That is why I'm consistent. It's wrong for American crooked police officers to do police brutality against people, and it's wrong for Chinese crooked authorities to suppress the freedom of speech in China in social media too. That's real talk. Therefore, we realize the truth. This doesn't mean that every American and every Chinese person wants chaos in the world. The vast majority of Americans and Chinese people want justice to realm on the Earth. The better people realize this, the better off we will be. The 2022 Winter Olympics was a very historic display of the power of human athleticism and human togetherness indeed.
By Timothy
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