Dr. MLK's legacy includes voting rights

In its editorial on the day commemorating the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the New York Times editors wrote of his emphasis on voting rights.

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"The moral clarity of that appeal is bracing, and so is the difficulty of achieving it -- a fact that is evident nowhere as much as in the fight for voting rights.  As Dr. King knew well, the history of voting in the United States was, and is, in large part the history of white people in power devising endless ways to keep black people from casting a ballot."

"It's been true all along, from the complete disenfranchisement of slavery to the effective silencing of the Jim Crow era up to now, when a welter of clever and at times subtle laws operates to make it harder for minorities to get to the polls, and to have equal voice -- or any voice at all -- in the choice of our representatives and policies. . . .

"Dr. King understood this half a century ago, which is why he considered the right to vote the centerpiece of the civil rights movement."

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Barack Obama and Eric Holder have taken it as their ongoing mission to work against the forces in our political life that attempt to limit the voting ability of minority citizens -- or, to be blunt -- those who tend to vote for Democrats.

I can think of no greater way to honor Dr. King than to support, in every way we can, both their efforts and that of others to counter the nefarious attempts by the likes of Kris Kobach and his enablers -- and that has to include President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence -- who supported that joke of a "voting integrity commission" that finally just fell apart out of ineptitude.

Ralph