Remembering Rosanell - a tough foe of Jim Crow

[G_j]

https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article223104640.html



Civil rights hero Rosanell Eaton was buried Thursday in her Louisburg hometown where she spent her entire life. Rosanell’s story may not be well known, but her impact on the Nation will be felt for generations.

Born into the Jim Crow South, Rosanell’s upbringing was marked by segregated schools and cross burnings on her front lawn. Upon reaching voting age, Rosanell traveled hours by mule-pulled wagon to register to vote. When she finally arrived at the courthouse, the three white-male clerks bemusedly asked her to stand still and recite the Preamble to the Constitution, assuming she couldn’t possibly do so. Yet Rosanell didn’t miss a word, becoming one of the first African Americans to register in Franklin County.

Notwithstanding her own registration challenge, Rosanell made civic participation her life’s focus, registering over 4,000 voters — Republicans, Democrats, African-Americans, Caucasians, old-timers, and high-schoolers — before she “just stopped counting because I thought it was silly.”

I first met Rosanell when my law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, had the privilege of representing her in the lawsuit challenging House Bill 589, the 2013 law that imposed a range of voting restrictions. I prepared Rosanell for her deposition in the living room she shared with her daughter, Armenta (herself a plaintiff in the case). They fixed me lunch and I got to hear Rosanell’s stories. Like how she was a chief advocate for early voting in North Carolina, and was first on line to vote early in 2000. Or how she made ten trips to the DMV and other offices in 2015 to obtain a photo ID to comply with the State’s new law. That day — and the next day when she went toe-to-toe with the State’s lawyer — were among my proudest as an attorney.

Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article223104640.html#storylink=cpy

[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. wow

I'd heard the story of her recitation, but very little of the rest.

[bobbieinok]

2. Great civil rights fighter!! Thank you for posting her story,

[G_j]

3. Yes she was !

thank you for reading