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)