Despite the Constitution promise of every person having the fundamental right to vote, that so-called inalienable right has been denied folk simply because of the color of our skin. Once you establish a criteria for who gets rights and who don't, where does it end. You cannot vote because you are black. And you, you cannot vote because you are not Protestant. You, you cannot vote because you are not Republican or Democrat.
Folk talk about the right to bear arms, about their constitutional right to buy a gun.
Yet these same folks won't raise a finger to help you when the authorities cut-down on your constituional right to vote or to assemble peacefully to redress your grievances. No, brothers and sisters, until we stand up with the same fervor about our rights as other folk do about their right to bear arms to hunt and kill rabbit and deer, we'll continue to be in a world of trouble. At the time, the electorate was mostly white, and Smitherman could get away with segregationist guffaws. But over the past decade or so, Smitherman has worked for racial accommodation. As Blacks gained a majority in Selma, he successfully brought voters into his camp, partly by helping Black allies.