Georgia Republicans Set to Replace Old Set of Jim Crow Laws with New Set: Voter ID bill could be disenfranchising
/- Originally published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution March 13, 2005
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By NANCY BADERTSCHER, CARLOS CAMPOS
Lingering anger over a vote to require picture IDs at the polls spilled over into a special Saturday session of the Georgia General Assembly centered on the symbolic repeal of the state's Jim Crow laws.
African-American lawmakers, and some white ones, staged walkouts in the House and Senate on Friday night to protest proposed photo ID requirements that they likened to the poll taxes, literacy tests and other obstacles used to suppress black votes during segregation.
House leaders threatened to formally chastise or censure lawmakers who walked out Friday night, as well as a single black legislator who continued the protests Saturday during "Family Day at the Capitol."
State Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan (D-Austell), an outspoken opponent of mandatory picture IDs for voters, used a procedure known as "morning orders" to make a speech against critics of her stand on the proposal.
She took the podium before House members voted to repeal five Jim Crow laws, including one to give tuition grants so students who did not want to attend integrated schools could go to private segregated schools.
But Morgan refused to leave the podium when her time for her remarks had expired, despite repeated requests and slams of the gavel by House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram).
Richardson later apologized to the crowd of spectators for his display of temper and Morgan's failure "to respect the rules of the House."
House Majority Leader Jerry Keen later said Morgan's actions were viewed as more egregious than the Friday night walkout because they were "a challenge to the office of the speaker."
"That cannot go without consequence," he said.
Some Democrats in both chambers rose Friday night to denounce the photo ID requirement as hurting minorities, the poor and elderly who may not have driver's licenses or be close to places that issue official identification.
On Saturday, state Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) reiterated that contention.
"We passed a bill that will, in effect, disenfranchise people of color --- it will disenfranchise people of modest means, it will disenfranchise people who have struggled long and hard to get the right to vote," Fort said. "That is a family value I hope no one can abide by."
In the House, Richardson told reporters, "I still, for the life of me, do not understand what the [photo ID] debate was about."
He said he didn't see race as a factor with IDs or with the repeal of the Jim Crow laws.
"Today, we repealed laws that were wrong," Richardson said. "Last night, we adopted rules that apply to everyone."
Several lawmakers used "points of personal privilege" Saturday to blast Republicans for voting in favor of requiring a picture ID of voters.
Fort and others also claimed that there was irony in the removal of Jim Crow laws from the books in the House.
"Over on the House side, we are going forward with the symbol of doing away with Jim Crow laws. . . . Last night, we are replacing some Jim Crow laws with other Jim Crow laws," Fort said.
Some Republican legislators, knowing they were being watched on live television broadcasts and by onlookers, explained that dissent is a normal part of the political process.
"I think of this Gold Dome as kind of a giant pressure valve --- it's where we let the pressure out," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Stephens (R-Canton).
"Democracy, by its very nature, is very noisy, is very slow. . . . But it is how we govern ourselves."
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