Opinion: Five decades later, the same fights remain

What happened in Montgomery on Wednesday was important.

It's necessary to honor the accomplishments of the past, to remind ourselves where things were and consider how far we've come in the fight for equal rights. The 50th anniversary celebration of the completion of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March on Wednesday did that.

There is little doubt that this country, and particularly this state, has come quite a distance since Gov. George Wallace chose five decades ago to ignore the 25,000-plus marchers at his front door demanding voting rights.

Gov. Robert Bentley was there welcoming the marchers and proclaiming that Alabama is a new state, that he's a different governor and that times have changed.

And all of that is true. And all of it should be celebrated.

But …

Deep down, people know the score here. They know the truth. They see what's been going on.

Not many people in the crowd needed Southern Poverty Law Center founder Morris Dees to say it, but it sure was nice to see a white man stand on the Capitol steps, a few feet from Gov. Bentley, and — as the kids might say — drop a little truth.

"Here we are, 50 years later, and we're dealing with the same issues," Dees said. "George Wallace was on the wrong side of history. And I have to say that the political leaders in this state who control the Legislature and the governor's office are on the wrong side of history."

Basically, to sum up Dees: Who are we kidding here?

Wednesday's ceremony was at the foot of the Capitol, where Bentley, just a few years ago, signed a voter ID law designed only to discourage, and in some cases prevent, certain people from voting.

We've had thousands of instances of voter fraud in this state over the past 15 years, but in only one of those instances did someone attempt in-person voter fraud.

All the rest were either absentee ballot fraud or election rigging by officials. The ID law won't stop either of those.

It is a law that's lacking a crime, and that makes it only an impediment to decent, law-abiding people who simply want to be represented by their representative government.

Of course, the reason such a law is even possible is because our U.S. Supreme Court removed the teeth from that 1965 Voting Rights Act that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and so many worked so hard to bring about. The court essentially ruled that racism in the South, where the majority of states were subjected to preclearance laws that required the Department of Justice approve any election law changes, was mostly cured.

Most of those states responded as Alabama did, by implementing hateful voter ID laws — some of which had been previously blocked by the DOJ — that accomplished nothing more than discouraging minority voters from going to the polls. Alabama's law passed in 2011, but the state never submitted it for preclearance, choosing instead to wait on the Supreme Court's ruling.

Never was the idiocy of that Supreme Court decision more transparent than on Wednesday, when the same justices found Alabama's redrawing of voting districts was based too heavily on race.

U.S. Supreme Court reverses Ala. redistricting ruling

The Alabama Legislative Black Caucus had argued before the court that the redistricting plan, drawn in 2012 after Republicans took over the state Legislature, was drawn in an attempt to "stack and pack" minority voters into districts, thus limiting their effect on elections.

Because why woo minority voters when you can gerrymander the districts and ignore their concerns?

That's how you end up with a Legislature and governor who think it's best not to expand Medicaid or adopt Obamacare, who keep property taxes so low that schools in poor, rural areas are perpetually underfunded and who concoct shady laws that allow public dollars to be diverted to private schools or privately-owned schools. And they know they can do it all without concern over minority voters organizing and voting them out.

This is Alabama 50 years after King led the march from Selma to Montgomery — still fighting the same battles, still dealing with the same racism.

Actually, no, I take that back. It's not the same racism. In many ways, this modern day racism — this smile, pat you on the back, shake your hand and plunge the knife in racism — might be worse.

Because it doesn't stand on the corner in a white sheet and hood. It doesn't present itself as a recognizable evil.

Instead, it's just far enough under the surface to allow for a backpedal and a protest of innocence. It's obscured just enough to allow that it be deemed something else — a defense against fraud, a path out of failing schools, a hand up instead of a handout.

But it all works the same as a literacy test, segregation and separate but equal.

So, while it's nice to see the daughter of George Wallace and the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. embrace, it would be much nicer if the guy in that Capitol building and the men and women in the State House and so many others around the state stopped with the petty racism that's kept this state mired in sub-mediocrity, so they could embrace the equality and fairness that might change things for good.