by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
On August 22nd, the Associated Press reported that Ellie Dahmer had received justice from a Mississippi jury. After 32 years, the widow of slain voting rights activist, Vernon Dahmer, finally heard Samuel H. Bowers pronounced guilty of ordering the 1966 Klu Klux Klan fire bombing which killed her husband.
People often say, "Justice delayed is justice denied." Despite the truth of this aphorism, we Americans feel a sense of moral validation when a criminal is brought to justice after many years.
Our American sense of justice is deepened when the crime is heinous, and the criminal has evaded justice in four prior "deadlocked" trials. For African Americans, our satisfaction is heightened when the villain is a former imperial wizard of the Klu Klux Klan - a man previously found culpable in the 1964 deaths of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.
I share the moral reaction to this delayed triumph of justice. Since I learned of the Bowers conviction, however, I also have been reflecting upon the implications for us of the decisions which culminated in that Mississippi court room.
Although Vernon Dahmer has always been one of my heroes, his role in securing the right to vote for African Americans has not been as well known as that of more prominent alumni of "Mississippi Freedom Summer," people such as my good friend, Congressman John Lewis (GA-5), and his SNCC colleague, Robert Parris Moses.
I recommend Congressman Lewis' excellent memoir of the civil rights movement, Walking with the Wind. To fully appreciate the contributions and psychology of people like Vernon Dahmer, however, it is the second volume in Taylor Branch's trilogy, Pillar of Fire, which is essential.
Pillar of Fire helps us understand why Vernon Dahmer - a practical, hard-headed, naturally cautious and relatively prosperous Mississippi farmer - would come to value the right to vote with such intensity that he would risk everything to support the movement determined to secure that right - that power - for African Americans.
Mr. Dahmer understood that it would be the power to vote which would allow African Americans to take their rightful place in America. He realized that the interests of Americans who do not vote are not fully protected.
It was our collective self-interest, as well as personal morality, which motivated Vernon Dahmer to assist his neighbors in paying the poll tax he abhorred - the very action which occasioned his death.
Mr. Dahmer lived in a world in which the juries who decided justice and determined freedom were selected from voters' lists. All white juries were unable to convict his killer in 1966. In 1998, Vernon Dahmer and his family received justice from a jury consisting of six European Americans, five African Americans and one Asian American.
It was a similar understanding which, years after Vernon Dahmer's murder, caused Robert Moses to warn:
Use Mississippi not as a moral lightening rod,...but if you use it at all, use it as your looking glass.
Vernon Dahmer's life and death in Mississippi and Robert Moses' warning speak to us from the past about something which is very important to our protection and self-interest in 1998.
On November 3, 1998, the people of Maryland will choose their next Governor, General Assembly and other officials who will make the decisions which will change our lives. Those who have not registered to vote by Monday, October 5th, will be excluded from that choice.
The simple voter registration form is available in public buildings such as the MVA and libraries. Voters may also call election officials at (410) 396-5550 (city) or 887-5700 (county).
I will have more to say about the importance of this year's elections in future commentaries. For now, I will add only this:
If Baltimore registers and votes, and if we encourage our families, friends and associates to do the same, we win. If we fail to do so, we lose.
This is the reality, and the morality, clearly visible through Vernon Dahmer's Mississippi looking glass.
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.