No longer the party of Lincoln

No longer the party of Lincoln

When I was in college the great civil rights battles took place. Brave students and federal agents undertook to fight and ultimately eliminate the tactics used — then in the South — to cheat black and brown Americans out of their opportunity to participate in the American experience by voting in elections there. Some of these brave people gave their lives in the effort.

The mission was glorious. The results vindicated the promises made in our Constitution for all of our people. These were the years I was proudest to be an American.

Today’s Republican politicians in Texas, in North Carolina, and in other states as well, are now at war with the great civil rights achievements of that era. They are seeking, once again, to cheat black and brown people out of their opportunity to vote, by selectively making it as inconvenient as possible for them. This is shameful.

The principles that made the Republican Party great in the past have been abandoned. Party of Lincoln? Not any more.

Alfred Y. Kirkland Jr.

Elgin