VOA标准英语2015--50年后非洲裔美国人看到新的投票权斗争

50 Years Later African-Americans See New Voting Rights Battles Ahead 50年后非洲裔美国人看到新的投票权斗争

SELMA, ALABAMA—

Thousands of people will gather to mark the 50th anniversary of a historic civil rights march on March 7th in the small southern U.S. city of Selma, Alabama.   In 1965, dozens of people were seriously injured during the event known as “Bloody Sunday,” after police attacked African-American demonstrators demanding voting rights.

"The vote is definitely more vulnerable than it had been since 1965 there's no doubt about that in my mind,” said Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders.

Without the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Hank Sanders believes he would not be sitting in his chair. “It is getting worse every time they try to find some new way to make it harder to vote, rather than easier to vote,” he stated. 

The longtime Alabama state senator credits the voting power of blacks in the South for his string of successes at the ballot¹ box. But 50 years later he is worried about new efforts to restrict who can vote.

"It's more than troubling to me, it is deeply painful to anybody who was a part of the voting rights act 50 years ago,” Sanders said. “We could not imagine that 50 years later we would still be fighting for the right to vote.”

Sanders remembers the spotlight² shined on Selma after police beat back hundreds of blacks who were peacefully protesting for voting rights in 1965.

Fifty years ago history was made on this (Edmund Pettus) bridge. Now people in this community do not want the world to forget what happened here and never let it happen again.

"We have to fight in every way we can to beat back these many and varied³ attacks on the right to vote," Sanders said.

He said the violence of the 1960s is gone. He said the fight now is against new voter identification laws and a proposal to make residents prove their citizenship⁴ before they can register to vote.  "Photo identification requirements in order to vote is nothing more than a poll tax,” he explained.  “The citizenship required ... in order to be registered, is just another kind of literacy test.  There are always different things that are being put in.”

"I said I wanted to go to law school come back to Alabama and pass the bar examination and destroy everything segregated⁵ I could find," said Fred Gray.

Gray, a legendary⁶ civil rights attorney, has been fighting for voting rights for decades in Alabama.  He said a 2013 U.S. Supreme⁷ Court ruling eliminated parts of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.  The 5 to 4 decision allowed nine states, mostly in the South, to change their election laws without advance federal approval.

The divided court disagreed on whether racial minorities still face barriers to voting in states with a history of discrimination. Gray said the battle for expanding freedoms at the ballot box can be won. “I think we need not get discouraged about what the Supreme Court did.  We are sorry that it did it and hope that we can get around it with additional legislation, and the struggle continues,” he noted⁸.

These long time civil rights activists⁹ say they will do everything they can to overturn restrictive voting rights laws, restore the full Voting Rights Act and battle against or beat back further efforts on the right to vote. 

1 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

2 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

3 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

4 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

5 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

6 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

7 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

8 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

9 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》