从法律上讲，非洲裔美国人自1870年《美国宪法第十五条修正案》（15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution）通过以来就享有投票权。但是一些州曾以各种方式——如人口税和文字考试等——设置障碍，使黑人无法参加投票。在有些地方，以骚扰和恫吓手段阻止黑人前往投票是惯常现象。
今年8月6日，美国将庆祝《投票权法》（Voting Rights Act）诞生50周年，正是由于这项来之不易的法律，黑人选民才终于能够行使自己的民主权利。
马丁·路德·金（Martin Luther King Jr.）是为落实黑人投票权所展开的基层斗争的领袖之一。1965年他率领在阿拉巴马州（Alabama）进行从塞尔玛（Selma）向蒙哥马利（Montgomery）的大游行，以和平然而大无畏的方式展现了黑人不顾种族隔离和种族歧视的州法律争取投票权利的决心，并因此引起全国对黑人民权斗争的关注。
今年3月7日，在向塞尔玛游行人士致敬的活动上奥巴马总统说：“50年前，在塞尔玛或大部分南方地区登记投票简直如猜糖罐中有多少糖豆或肥皂上有多少气泡那样不可能，登记投票意味着要冒失去尊严甚至有时是失去生命的危险。”
奥巴马总统（左）2014年10月20日在芝加哥的马丁•路德•金博士社区服务中心（Dr. Martin Luther King Community Service Center）参加中期选举预先投票。(© AP Images)
奥巴马总统称《投票权法》是“我国民主最辉煌的成就之一”。他说，美国的种族关系史“仍然会给我们带来长长的阴影”，但是近50年来，为少数族裔以及妇女和男女同性恋、双性恋、变性者和跨性别者争取平等权利的努力取得了长足进展。
奥巴马说：“否定这一进步，这一来之不易的进步——我们的进步——等于是否定我们自身的能动性、我们自身的能力、我们能够为让美国更美好而作出努力的责任。
Allowing black America to vote made the country better
African Americans have had the right to vote, on paper at least, since the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1870. But several U.S. states found ways to disenfranchise black voters through obstacles such as poll taxes and literacy tests. Harassment and threats to keep voters away from the polling places were common in some places.
But on August 6, Americans will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act — a hard-won victory that allowed black voters to finally exercise their democratic rights.
Martin Luther King Jr. helped to lead the grass-roots struggle to enforce black voting rights. He brought the struggle to national attention with the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama, which peacefully but defiantly showed blacks’ determination to vote despite segregation and racist state laws.
Honoring the Selma marchers, President Obama said March 7, “Fifty years ago, registering to vote here in Selma and much of the South meant guessing the number of jellybeans in a jar, the number of bubbles on a bar of soap. It meant risking your dignity and, sometimes, your life.”
President Obama, left, votes early for the midterm election at the Dr. Martin Luther King Community Service Center on October 20, 2014, in Chicago. (© AP Images)
Obama called the Voting Rights Act “one of the crowning achievements of our democracy.” He said the history of racial relations in the United States “still casts its long shadow upon us,” but equal rights for minorities, as well as for women and LGBTI individuals, have greatly advanced over the past 50 years.
“To deny this progress, this hard-won progress — our progress — would be to rob us of our own agency, our own capacity, our responsibility to do what we can to make America better,” Obama said.
