"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Congress has the "power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." There is a basic connection among work, education, and citizenship [which] suggests that the screening process for employment and education has become the modern-day equivalent of eighteenth and nineteenth-century screening processes for voting. In the colonial period and the first decades of independence, the franchise was generally restricted by race and gender to landed white males .... In the last nineteenth century, voting was also conditioned on the capacity to pay and theability to read. Voting was not as easy as the "new citizen" thought it would be. For many years voter qualifications were tied to their ability to pay a poll tax, which was based on one's ability to find employment - a most difficult task for the ex-slave. African Americans struggled to pay because they realized, and believed, that voting was worth it.

In order to obtain finances to pay poll taxes, Blacks would often try to separate themselves from White society. Nonetheless, they were often met with serious racial violence. In 1921, one of the worst cases of racial violence was manifested when approximately 10,000 Whites invaded a prosperous Black neighborhood and killed 40 Blacks and destroyed 35 blocks of business and family homes. Unfortunately, Blacks were reminded that in spite of amassing financial wherewithal that would allow them to participation in the system, Whites could easily amass a myriad of roadblocks.

Finally, it was concluded that wealth was not germane to people's abilities to participate intelligently in the election process; thus, wealth-based credentials, especially ones with extreme race consequences, should not forge access to work and education but which they often do in American society.

Blacks continued to struggle for their civil liberties. By 1963, "the movement for racial equality was in full flower." African Americans'zeal and contributions to getting others to vote came under direct attack. Voter-fraud investigations were initiated against Black voter advocates in increased numbers. For instance, after African Americans began to win a number of offices in the Black Belt counties, local Whites complained of voter fraud and the federal government subsequently initiated a voter-fraud investigation against two local voting-rights activists.The two were convicted but the case was later overruled with the assistance of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. In 1985, the federal government also launched an investigation against Albert Turner, his wife, Evelyn, and Spencer Houge Jr., or the "The Marion Three," all of whom were civil rights activists. The Government accused them of fraud in the absentee ballots and forgery of signatures. This suit ended in an acquittal for all three. Similar cases have also been pursued in Alabama, and many Blacks believe that the cases have had a profound impact on the Black vote in Alabama, which has caused a major reduction in voter turnout, and which benefits White Alabamans.

Perhaps even more egregious and appalling was when Republican North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, trailing a black opponent in 1990, mailed out postcards to 125,000 black voters implicitly threatening them with jail if they went to the polls. Helms's campaign settled a complaint with the Justice Department in 1992, but not before he had won another term. Many activists believethat the U.S. government should put a stop to abusive prosecution in the voter area. They argue, "the rights that blacks have fought hard for may be in fundamental danger."

The U.S. government must protect the African American vote. "Voter-fraud investigations and other attempts to intimidate black voters [is] a stunning reversal of the goals of voting rights, aided by a willing Justice Department." Unfortunately, racial conflict, as a result of legal inroads and civil rights activity, continues to have a great impact in the South. Getting the vote was nice, but attitudinal vestiges continue not only in the ballot box but also in the White South's proud use of questionable symbols that remind Blacks, especially southern Blacks, of the old south - such as the display of the Confederate flag. Major discrimination in all areas continues to persist. The laws that were passed to protect African Americans were not vigorously enforced in the early years, and many people continue to circumvent these laws because punishment is often inconsequential. To date, "civil rights laws, even more than others, are radically flouted and underenforced."

Unfortunately, even after the passage of the Amendments, African Americans were deprived of life, liberty, education, and family ties, and vestiges of these deprivations are still pervasive. As a result of such demoralizing denials, a few Blacks tried to establish themselves in Americansociety by adopting the "whiteness as property" ideal. The so-called Black elite adopted the "white nice features" - i.e., sharp features - thin noses, thin lips, sharp jaws, and hazel, green, or blue eyes as standards for entry to Black "membership-by-invitation-only" social clubs. These Black elites only accepted "those who passed the 'brown paper bag and ruler test' - skin no darker than a paper bag, hair as straight as a ruler." In other words, like "whiteness," Black elite success was "a color thing and a class thing. And for generations of black people, color and class have been inexorably tied together" because the elite African Americans, like the White American majority, began to see what color could offer. As a result, America placed value on color, mostly "white"and in order to realize benefits, the African American elite bought into the "white" as property and set up its own system, which mirrored the White view.

In spite of the progress that a small Black elite may have accomplished, the masses of Blacks who have not been afforded opportunities are indicia that the basic principle of equality are still being denied to African Americans as a people.

Buying into "color," especially "white," was vividly displayed by Sally Hemings' heirs and other Blacks who unquestionably accepted the Sally Hemings-Thomas Jefferson story on its face, and Whites who unequivocally rejected it until DNA gave the final answer. Being part White translated intosomething tangible in the White world, and later in the Black elites' world. Who can really say why the Black side of the family so insisted that the story was true? The "whiteness as property" concept probably has major bearing on the why. "Perhaps a more historically responsible way to make a similar if slight different case is to suggest that advancing technology has at least allowed us to open a window into the covert and concealed [and often denied] interracial intimacies that have always been there but that many white Americans have preferred to deny."

Americans' denial of racial injustice persists for inexplicable reasons. The recent revelation about Strom Thurmond's Black daughter, which is similar to the Sally Heming's story, illustrates that Blacks as well as Whites had to know about the daughter, but for inexplicable reasons decided not to divulge credible evidence. Essie Mae Washington-Williams also acknowledged in her statement to the press that "there are many stories like Sally Hemings' and mine." Ms. Washington-Williams was born in South Carolina in 1925; her mother was a maid to the Thurmond family. She admitted that she wanted to end "all the speculation and questions," the same types of questions that were raised in the Hemings story. The truth about the Senator's daughter and the questions raised were kept secret for more than seven decades. This revelation has ignited many dormant feelings for many African Americans. Someremembered that if a Black man looked at a White woman in those days, the Black man would have been severely harassed or hanged. This story brings many of the hard issues to the surface. Americans, both Black and White, made hard decisions during a very tumultuous time in American history; some of the decisions were detrimental to the African American, but not all were. Some Blacks reaped benefits from their ability to use "whiteness."

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments did not bestow exactly what the "new citizen" had envisioned, but at least they were starts. These Amendments inspired and allowed them to work zealously to correct past injustices. African Americans are demanding and uniting to pressure the U.S. Government to give its African American citizens, who are obviously deeply affected by the vestiges of post-slavery atrocities, the opportunity to at least air their grievances and receive an apology, as well as ultimately receive Reparations that would allow closure and reconciliation. Representative John Conyers introduced bill H.R. 40 in 1989, which urged Congress to establish a Commission to study the issues. One germane argument is that the judges allowed Holocaust victims to pursue restitution in a U.S. court. Even though the case was settled prior to litigation, opportunity was afforded to the litigants to have their day in court. The Reparations Assessment Group has launched an aggressive effort, though most lawsuits and legislation dating back to the mid-1800s have not beensuccessful, to get American Blacks compensated for more than 244 years of slavery. Most would agree that the Holocaust victims should have had access to the legal systems. Nonetheless, the U.S. should evaluate its approach to its other citizens, the African Americans, and concerns about Reparations. In recent years, victims of atrocities, many of whom are not American, have filed more than 100 lawsuits in U.S. courts in an attempt to obtain accountability for offenses against human dignity and rights. These suits are indicia that the world has started to recognize such atrocities as legitimate legal issues and also that victims should have recourse, yet some U.S. judges have refused to adopt this position. For example, the United Nations World Conference Against Racism recently "declared slavery a crime against humanity." The U.S. needs to embrace this position as well.

No nation can enslave a race of people for hundreds of years, set them free bedraggled and penniless, put them, without assistance in a hostile environment, against privileged victimizers, and then reasonably expect the gap between the heirs of the two groups to narrow. Lines, begun parallel and left alone, can never touch.

Reparations suits are being filed in U.S. courts, but the Supreme Court has not allowed them to proceed to trial.

Reparations supporters are not looking to place a check in the hands of everyAfrican American, but they "envision reparations being used to fund education, improve health care, create cultural facilities and buy and expand businesses in the [B]lack community. At the very least they hope the government will issue a formal apology for the institution of slavery."