VOTING

Voting is critical to participating in civic and political life in America.

My first experience with the concept of voting came when I was voted third runner up to Homecoming Queen in junior high school. The second was when my high school classmates voted me in as President, General Organization of our senior class. Each time I was honored that my classmates trusted me to represent them. The third time I engaged with the concept of voting was when I voted for the first time in a national election on November 3, 1964. This registered as my entry into adulthood.

At The Poll

I arrived at the polling location, excited to cast my first official vote as a resident of New York State.

Excitement quickly turned to confusion and horror seconds after I gave the poll worker my name.

Poll Worker: You’ve voted already. What are you trying to do?

Me: No, I haven't. This is my first time ever voting.

Poll Worker: You signed the book. See, here’s your signature.

I looked at the signature and immediately realized that it was my mother’s signature. We had the same name. She voted hours before me and continued on to work. Neither of us ever imagined there would be a problem for me when I went to vote.

I explained the situation to the poll worker. I told her my mother and I had the same name.

I was informed that the only way I could vote was to go to City Hall, appear before a magistrate there with documentation, and obtain clearance. I was also informed that I might not be able to vote in that election because it could take all day to get clearance.

Going To Court

Thankfully times were not as complicated then as they are now. If that happened today, I would most likely have to wait until the next election to vote.

I called my mother at work. She met me at the court. We presented our credentials, and I received clearance to vote. It did not require changing my name; but I did have to present the letter from the court acknowledging that I was also Mary M. Marshall.

While I didn’t change my name, my mother made changes to her registration. She added her maiden name to her voter registration so that we/I wouldn’t experience rejection at the ballot box again. This also convinced me to vote early in the future just in case my mother and I continued to share the same voting precinct.

It was traumatizing to have almost missed my first adult act.

I know that this was daunting enough to cause some to say forget it. After all, Blacks had been denied voting rights for reasons much simpler than having the same name.

I was not discouraged. If anything, it created an awareness about voting and who can vote that I might otherwise not have known. It was this experience that added to my desire to teach literacy so that everyone, Blacks in particular, would be equipped to vote.

A Literacy Volunteer teaching a woman to write in the 1960s

Family Voting History

This experience stands strong in my memory by itself. However, it’s significance deepens when I examine my family history and realize that I was among the first in my family to vote.

My mother and older sister voted before me. I think my grandmother, grand aunts, and other ancestors, especially female, voted for the first time when I did or at the earliest in 1960.

Males in my family voted as early as 1867, just before the 15th Amendment was passed in 1870. Research indicates they were free men of color and registered to vote between July and August 1867.

Eli Williams Voter Registration

The photo above depicts my 2nd great grandfather’s voter registration. See the essays below for an in-depth discussion about his voting history. These essays shed more light on that period of family history.

An Opinion: Everyone Should Vote

2025 Voting

Though I’ve known this history for some time now, I still need to further research voting records in Georgia to see when my grandmother and her siblings first voted.

Voting in America

Voting in America has not been easy for Black Americans and other under represented citizens. In fact, voting was prioritized for white males, then white females. Though Black men gained the right to vote before white women, Black men did not have an easy time. Neither did Black women. They weren’t welcomed into the voting world by either white men or white women.

The recent ruling by the U. S. Supreme Court has moved the goal post back such that it will seem like the same old fight for many in Black and other under represented communities.

A 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais has eviscerated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and opened the door for states to enact discriminatory voting maps and laws.

This decision — which contradicts the text of the Voting Rights Act, the will of Congress and the Constitution — is one of the most consequential setbacks for our multiracial democracy in a generation.

For six decades, the VRA has served as the backbone of federal protections against racial discrimination in our elections — an essential guardrail ensuring that every American, regardless of race, has a meaningful opportunity to participate in the political process.

With this ruling, the Court has struck down a congressional map that finally allowed Black voters in Louisiana to have the opportunity to elect candidates of their choice. More broadly, the justices have upended decades of precedent, ignored the will of Congress and left voters with little recourse to challenge racially discriminatory maps or voting laws.

What I experienced at the polling site doesn’t begin to register when viewed through the lens of this recent decision. It makes me think about my ancestors—male and female. I’m fortunate to have found records of early voting in my family.

These records tell me much about my ancestors civic and political participation during the early period of government in America. They are especially significant given my ancestors lived mostly in Georgia and Alabama between 1800 and 1925. Both states had some of the most horrific voting incidents in history.

How do we move forward? Will the recent Supreme Court decision cause people, Black people, to stay away? To not register to vote? To not vote even if they are registered? Is the danger in exercising one’ right to vote greater now?

Some would say that voting is no more dangerous today than it was in the 1960s. Others would argue that it is as dangerous now as it was in the past, perhaps even more so.

I can’t say its more or less. What I believe is that Black Americans and others from under represented communities must continue to register to vote. They/we must vote. We must encourage others to not be discouraged. We must remember those who came before us; remember those who lost their lives so that we could have the opportunity to vote today.

The Future

Will voting be easier? Again, access will be scrutinized, revoked, denied, legislated even further in some parts of the nation. We, Black Americans and those who believe every citizen has the right to vote, must not give in to those who are determined to remove our citizenship and our physical presence in this nation.

Voting is critical to governance. Critical to exercising one’s right as a citizen in America.

Make sure you’re registered. Encourage family, friends, and neighbors to check their registration. Remind them of the importance of casting their ballot for the individual(s) they believe will uphold democracy.

Sources

https://archives.libraries.emory.edu/repositories/7/resources/3057 https://campaignlegal.org/update/us-supreme-court-has-eviscerated-voting-rights-act-whats-ne

Dear Subscriber,

Thank you for subscribing to my newsletter. It is an honor to have you and share memories/family history. I welcome your comments and suggestions.

In an earlier email I indicated that I would be on break until June 19th. I changed my mind and am ending my break with this post.

I’m still regrouping and deciding how I will move forward. There is still much to explore in my family archive and much I want to share with you. I have learned so much from my deep dive into family history.

If you have topics you’d like me to explore, please put them in the comments. While I have focused on my ancestors, future posts will also cover other Blacks in the South from 1800 to 2000. My ancestors left material indicating their contact with Lucy C. Laney, W. E. B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Langston Hughes, Mary McLeod Bethune, and other notables in Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama. I will explore some of these in more depth in future posts.

I love history and research. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,

Dr. MMM