Fredrick Douglas Reeves was a Selma, Alabama resident who fought for the African Americans� right to vote. �When he was 21, he was not automatically allowed to vote.� To begin the registration process, African Americans would have go to the courthouse where they faced many obstacles.� They might be denied a registration form, or be forced to stand in a long line outside the courthouse, only to learn that fifteen or twenty people were ultimately let in after hours of waiting. In some counties you had to pay a poll tax and undergo a series of literacy tests to qualify. These tests included ridiculous questions, such as how many bubbles are in a bar of soap or how many pennies are in a jar; questions that the white people couldn�t even answer. In January 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr. was called by Fredrick Douglas Reeves and other civil rights leaders (including Joanne Bland who we also met today), to organize and help secure the right to vote.� There were several marches in Selma Alabama that resulted in police riots, the most infamous of which is known as �Bloody Sunday.� �Despite all the violence and intimidation, the organizers knew that they would eventually overcome these trials and tribulations if, if and only if, they never gave up. �Finally, in 1965, the Voting Rights Act was passed and 3,800,000 African-Americans nationwide registered to vote.
In conclusion, one key theme that was emphasized by every Civil Rights activist the group met today, it would be that young people need to vote. �Rev. Reese said, �Pay attention,�get your side (on whatever your are voting on), and cast your ballot in recognition that we now have the right to participate in the legal process which governs American life. � There are many people, foot soldiers, who marched and struggled for our ability to vote today. We should not let them down. Virtually everything that affects our lives is influenced in some way by the government; thus, it makes no sense to not vote.