‘When emancipation comes, it was a shock to a lot of white people in this country to see formerly enslaved people so eagerly embrace democracy—embrace the right to vote. Eighty percent of Black males registered to vote immediately after emancipation and began using the ballot to create real opportunities and power,” says Bryan Stevenson.

“Violence became the primary tool for pushing against that Black participation.”’

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smithsonianmag.com/history/the…

These Black Americans Were Killed for Exercising Their Political Right to Vote

In the Jim Crow South, activists became martyrs at the hands of white racists, all for the just cause of using the vote to fight for equality and freedom

^{Tracy Scott Forson (Smithsonian Magazine)}