You Need to Watch This Young Man: I think He Is Going Places
My mother was included in the activities
In the twenties and the thirties
Of the family of the wealthy ENT surgeon
Dr Harold Dickerson Cornell.
And when we came along we were included too
At the Julian Ranch where Mama Cornell was the best cook
Or at the 3000-acre Manse Ranch in Pahrump where
Dad branded cows and helped with the alfalfa harvest
His ice-cold artesian well swimming hole
Came from Mt. Charleston with an
Enormous uncappable pressure head causing water to
Run 20 miles into the desert before it died out
And mother and brother contracted typhoid from
Mamma Cornell and nearly died suffering
Fevers for weeks of a hundred and six
He was my role model through the years
He brought us produce from his farm and
In the summer of ’54 I managed his 80 acre farm
During his vacation.
As a medical student in the early sixties
He stopped by the house for a visit
His daughter Nan (one of mom’s best friends)
And one of our favorites too
Had married a man he said
I should keep an eye on
Because the good doctor thought
He was a man who was going to do a lot.
Indeed, it turns out his name was Rehnquist
And at the time he was assisting in Phoenix
To limit black voting in operation Eagle Eye.
(A fact at his supreme court confirmation he would strenuously deny)
And with negro voting rights he was unsympathetic
Believing in state’s rights
Shorthand for the continuance of voter
Limitation.
Later he had enormous influence on John Roberts
Who subsequently assumed the chief justice position on the court
And continued with perseverance this philosophy
Until his time was right to strike.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
Was an example of the law alive
Section 4 outlawed practices obscene
Limiting black voting in the extreme
Things like pole taxes, literacy tests
And voter manipulation
That was a black mark on the soul of the nation.
And was in truth an abomination.
Section 5 though was the teeth of the bill
Which republicans strove to kill
That forced the states to even the field
Ending the poll tax, literacy tests etc.:
By requiring 16 states with abysmal
Voting rights records to preapprove
Any changes, however minor
Based on proof of effects and not intent.
Where registrars would not comply
The feds stepped in and took over
The effect was nothing short of
Fantastic—a miracle with voter surge
And blacks finally able to run for office.
And through the years the republicans
Persisted in trying to limit black choices
But the VRA beat hundreds of the changes back
But in 2014 Shelby County Alabama v Holder
Argued that section 4 was no longer relevant
That conditions had changed blacks had achieved so much
That section 4 had to be considered unconstitutional.
Clearly though the heart of the bill was section 5
Preclearance had kept voting rights alive
Cleverly if section 4 no longer an issue
Roberts had no need to state that section 5 was no longer enforceable.
Of course, Roberts knew what he was doing
After 2012 and 2014 state after state passed
Voter ID laws
In the name of preventing non-existent voter fraud
Picture ids requiring a birth certificate
Requiring at least an expense
And since some blacks born at home
Never had birth certificate.
These requirements effectively
Disenfranchised hundreds of thousands
Ending extending voting also hurt
Ironically the Shelby decision was passed
Just as the 50th anniversary was being celebrated
And the cause of voting rights set back to 1965
Yes Dr. Cornell was right:
Rehnquist was going places
He and his acolyte Roberts
Effectively gutted the VRA of 65
And set back the cause of black rights
50s years….
Howard P. Charman, MD 9-21-2015