By Chris Pandolfo | The Blaze
The
lieutenant governor of North Carolina, the first black man to hold that office,
excoriated arguments from Democrats that compare voter integrity measures such
as the new law passed in Georgia to racist voter suppression laws of the Jim
Crow south. A requirement to show ID to vote is not voter suppression.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THIS DEVASTATING AND POWERFUL VIDEO.
On Thursday, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) testified at a
hearing in the House of Representatives titled, "Oversight of the Voting
Rights Act: The Evolving Landscape of Voting Discrimination." In his
opening remarks, he said it was "insane" and "insulting"
for anyone to compare the voter ID laws passed in Georgia and other states to
Jim Crow laws that were used to tyrannize black Americans and keep them from
voting.
"My people were put in the belly of ships, bound by
chains, and endured the middle passage. My people were whipped, beaten, and
sold as property. In Reconstruction and throughout Jim Crow, black people were
intimidated, harassed, and even killed to keep them from having a voice in
government," Robinson told House lawmakers. "Symbols like chains,
nooses, and burnt crosses are not just symbols of death, they are symbols of
forced and coerced silence.
"The sacrifices of our ancestors so I could have the
opportunity to become the first black lieutenant governor of my state, to see a
black man sit in the White House, and for millions of us to be leaders in
business, athletics, and culture is incredible," he continued.
Turning to the Georgia law, which Democrats have accused of implementing "Jim Crow
in 2021" by suppressing the minority vote, Robinson demanded to know how
black voices were being silenced or kept out of the political process.
"How? By fear of a noose or chains? To be fired from
work? To be ostracized by their communities? No. A free ID to vote. Let me say
that again, a free ID to vote," he said.
He continued:
How absolutely preposterous. Am I to believe
that black Americans who have overcome the atrocities of slavery, who were
victorious in the civil rights movement, and who now sit in the highest levels
of government cannot figure out how to get a free ID to vote?
That we need to be coddled by politicians because they don't think we can
figure out how to make our voices heard? Are you kidding me!?
The notion that black people must be protected from a Free ID to vote is not
just insane, it's insulting.
Later in the hearing, Robinson made it clear that
historically it was the Republican Party that supported voting rights for black
Americans and the Democratic Party that supported voter suppression and Jim
Crow.
"That history is clear who stood on which side at
every turn in history. It is clear, it's not even in dispute," Robinson
said. "What we want is integrity, we don't want power. We want
integrity."
He also defended Republican-supported voter ID laws as
"simple American responsibility" and reminded the Congress that Jim
Crow laws "wasn't just a poll tax."
"You stepped outside the line during Jim Crow, you'd
find yourself swinging from a tree," he said.
Robinson called voter ID "common sense legislation
for the common good."
"To say that somehow poor people, black people can't
be involved in that responsibility, again, is insulting," he said.
