The Right to Read. The Right to Vote.
They made it illegal for enslaved Black people to learn to read in many parts of this country. After slavery, they used poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, and violence to keep Black Americans from exercising their right to vote.
Think about that. There were people who understood that an educated mind and an independent voice were powerful things, and they went to extraordinary lengths to suppress both.
And this fight isn’t just history. In 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking major changes to how Americans register and vote. Among other things, it sought to require documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration, restrict when mail ballots could be counted, and condition federal election funding on compliance. His administration also moved to end federal agency efforts designed to expand voter registration and access. Several provisions were subsequently blocked by federal courts.
Different circumstances, different battles, but the question of who gets access to the ballot and who gets access to opportunity remains important.
People risked their freedom, their livelihoods, and their lives fighting for these fundamental rights. Some never lived to see the progress they helped make possible.
So get up off the damn couch. Exercise your right to vote. Then pick up a book this week and read something. Anything. Expand your mind. Question what you hear. Learn something you didn’t know.
The right to read and the right to vote were fought for. Don’t take either one for granted.
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