Tomorrow is Election Day. I hope that all of us who are registered will remember to vote. This is one of the most important ways we have to participate in our democracy. Yet just as importantly, I hope that we will also take time to remember the cost paid by those who suffered and died to extend this basic right to those who were denied the vote because of their race. One example of this cost happened 55 years ago during the Freedom Summer campaign of 1964 when three civil rights workers (James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner) were murdered for helping African Americans to register to vote. They were abducted and murdered by KKK members including a local deputy sheriff on June 21. Their bodies were buried in an earthen damn and not found until August 4. In the mean time, hundreds of civil rights workers continued the Freedom Summer campaign despite ongoing threats of violence. The short video clip below is a brief summary of this tragic episode in our history. Unfortunately it was not an isolated event. Both before and after the summer of 1964, violence was inflicted on many others who worked to provide voting rights to all citizens regardless of race. So when you go to the polls tomorrow, remember to vote your conscience and remember to give thanks for and learn about those known and unknown witnesses in our history who gave their lives so we can vote.
