By E.R. Shipp, NABJ Black News & Views

I had not yet been born in 1948, a year fraught with challenges to the voting potential of Black Americans. Just three years after the United States and its allies had declared victory over fascism and ended World War II, Black Americans were ready to wage a domestic war against racism.

That year was one of martyrdom and heroism. And I did not know until five years ago that my hometown, Conyers, Georgia, was among the many places in the old Confederacy where Black people took stands that have largely been forgotten.

The impending 60th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act is an appropriate time to begin to remember.

The incumbent Democratic president, Harry S. Truman, imbued many Black people with hope when he announced a civil right

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