
05-03-2006, 07:27 AM
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GreekChat Member
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Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 22,590
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The Voting Rights Act in Reverse
I heard about this on the news this morning
Link to article: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm..._voting03.html
EXCERPT:
MACON, Miss. — Ike Brown is a legend in Mississippi politics, both loved and hated for his ability to turn out black voters and get his candidates into office.
That success has also landed him at the heart of a federal lawsuit that's about to turn the Voting Rights Act on its end. For the first time, the Justice Department is using the 1965 law to allege racial discrimination against whites.
Brown, head of the Democratic Party in Mississippi's rural Noxubee County, is accused of waging a campaign to defeat white voters and candidates with tactics including intimidation and coercion. Also named in the lawsuit is Circuit Clerk Carl Mickens, who has agreed to refrain from rejecting white voters' absentee ballots considered defective while accepting similar ballots from black voters.
Brown shakes off the allegations.
"They've been trying to target me for years, the attorney general and all them, because we're so successful," he said. "Hey, if you're a failure, nobody will mess with you. But we're successful in east Mississippi."
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I am a woman, I make mistakes. I make them often. God has given me a talent and that's it. ~ Jill Scott
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