Florida: Making Up for Lost Time; Still Some Work to Do
When he served as attorney general, Governor Charlie Crist investigated the murder of a Florida civil rights activist and his wife whose home was bombed as a result of their work in registering black voters in the 1950s. Though Crist was unable to bring justice to the case, according to the Florida Times-Union he has followed in the late activist's footsteps in reforming a 138-year-old policy that banned voting rights for ex-offenders. "That law, which was passed in 1868 and re-enacted 100 years later, had racist origins. Enacted after the Civil War, it bolstered the 'black codes,' which called for harsh punishments for vagrancy and other minor transgressions that newly freed slaves were likely to get caught up in," writes columnist Tonyaa Weathersbee.