Article: A.G. Holder, Remember Ike Brown

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Dear Attorney General Eric Holder:

Do you remember Ike Brown? Black man from Mississippi convicted in the first instance of voter intimidation by a minority against the majority? Since the Feb. 27th judgment against him in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, he's all over the news again here in Mississippi.

Some might call this idea "conspiratorial," but presuming those federal attorneys were fired because they would not prosecute cases of minority voter fraud, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that Brown's case was part of a larger agenda, specifically to bring about the voter i.d. law.

As columnist Sid Salter, the self-proclaimed "moderate of Mississippi," wrote recently: "Brown's loss of his appeal to the 5th Circuit gives brief new life to the man-bites-dog story that made national headlines about African-American Mississippians being accused by the federal government – then found guilty – of discriminating against white voters."

And, "For state officials supporting voter identification legislation, the federal appeals court's affirmation of Brown's guilt on racially based voter discrimination is the political gift that keeps on giving. Republicans have long made Brown the poster child for voter identification . . ."

Folks down here in the majority do not believe that massive voter disenfranchisement was perpetrated in the 2000 or 2004 elections. Investigations into both were rejected by the states of Florida and Ohio as well as the Department of Justice.

Fortunately, the investigative journalism of Mark Crispin Miller, Robert Kennedy, Jr., Greg Palast, Harvey Wasserman and Bob Fitrakis, amongst others, peeled back the curtain from these conspiracies, should you need a good place to start. Likewise, it should not be too difficult to get the facts from representatives in those states.

I appreciate that in the history of our nation, there has never been so much tasked of an entering Attorney General and, too, our new President. But until these other, greater crimes of voter disenfranchisement have been prosecuted, the Southern majority will not believe that it's true and maintain their prejudice that blacks are morally inferior and that they are morally superior. Which, in my opinion, is the true purpose behind voter i.d. legislation.

Sincerely,

Scott Tyner

Hattiesburg, MS