Civil rights activist Al Sharpton told a Fayetteville audience Saturday that he believes November’s election will play out as one of the most important in the nation’s history.
“Whoever wins this election won’t just impact the next four years,” he said. “It will impact the next 100 years.”
The silver-haired MSNBC talk show host spoke to about 1,200 people at Fayetteville State University’s Seabrook Auditorium as part of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Speaker Series.
The United States, he told the crowd, is caught up in a voting battle that will determine the victor. Sharpton said people shouldn’t have to be convinced to get out and vote. And they don’t have to go back in history and see how blacks have been cheated and mistreated.
Racial bias, he said, continues today.
Sharpton, 57, opened his speech talking about the importance of the Emancipation Proclamation, the 150th anniversary of which was recognized two weeks ago. President Lincoln’s preliminary proclamation in 1862, which ultimately freed the slaves, played an integral role in the push for equal rights.
But after making strides during Reconstruction, he said, blacks saw setbacks that weren’t overcome until the 1960s.
In light of that, Sharpton questioned why photo identification at polls is now required in some states during an election with the nation’s first black president. While conservatives champion the voting measure as a way to prevent fraud, Sharpton said it discriminates against low-income blacks.
“Why do we need a new photo ID? Why would you risk not having the vote of 5 million voters?” he asked. “Why can’t we use the same ID we always used to vote? All of a sudden (President) Obama runs again, and we need a new photo ID. That’s a poll tax.
“The idea of a democracy should be to get as many people to vote as possible,” he said to applause. read more…
