John A. Farrell

African-American Voters Turn Out

November 4, 2008 RSS Feed Print

I'm sitting here watching the huge turnout numbers for black voters, and thinking of Lillie Mae Jackson, the great late civil rights leader from Baltimore, where I learned my craft as a political reporter.

Lillie Mae had a saying about African-Americans who didn't bother to register and vote. They were "beggars sitting on bags of gold," she liked to say. Somewhere, Lillie Mae is smiling tonight. Her beggars have found their gold.

Tags:
civil rights,
Baltimore,
race,
voting

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Voting for a candidate based upon racial prejudice is wrong regardless of context.

It is unwise to promote racism.

John Foo of NV 10:20PM November 04, 2008

John A. Farrell

John A. Farrell

John Aloysius Farrell is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report. An award-winning Washington reporter, he has written for The Boston Globe and The Denver Post and is the author of Tip O’Neill and the Democratic Century and an upcoming biography of the great American defense attorney, Clarence Darrow.

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