Alabama Woman Recalls Difficulties At The Polls Fifty Years Ago
Tanisha Williams
Issue date: 11/5/07 Section: News
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Impact Staff
Mary Williams was uncertain if she was going to be allowed to cast her vote in the presidential election. After all, she was African-American. And she lived in Alabama. And because of the restrictions limiting minorities to vote, there was a good chance that she was going to be turned away at the voting booth.
The year was 1960. Williams, 18 at the time, was driving with her older siblings to the Lee County Courthouse in Marvin, Alabama, to speak her mind. Little did they know it would start a legacy of black voting rights in the country.
She had heard about blacks being turned away from polls and the potential of riots, yet she was not intimidated. She knew the problems at the polls in Birmingham and Montgomery were much worse.
"It was absolutely ridiculous," said Williams, who still resides near Marvin and whose voice still emits sadness and anger. "People were being harassed, arrested and treated horribly; we could not believe it was happening."
After hearing about the stories of others that allegedly occurred at the courthouse, Williams and her siblings decided to take a trip to witness the event. "We just knew that something bad was going to happen to us," she continued. "We wanted to see if the same tragedy that happened to other people would happen to us."
They arrived at the register's office, anticipating some kind of action; however, they noticed that not one person was handcuffed, nor were any police officers preventing people from voting.
As they approached the door, a white man named Lue Ingram, who was a well known farm owner and tax preparer, recognized who they were and kindly asked if their father was a man name Roosevelt Richmond, also a well known farm owner and pastor in Marvin. "Mr. Ingram asked if our parents knew we were there, and because he knew our parents, he allowed us to go inside to cast our vote," she said.
The fact that the family was highly respected and accepted as equal had probably been the reason why they were not rejected. They all understood that voting was a right, and they were lucky to have the ability to do so.
"Our parents did not know we left school to go up town, but we told Mr. Ingram that they did know, because we were so eager to vote," she uttered.
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