Back to the capital

Flomaton resident Ted Dean said he was watching TV last week about the March On For Voting Rights being held in Washington, D.C., Saturday and he told his wife Lillian "I'm going to Washington this weekend".

Dean was among those who marched on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963 with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with blacks demanding equal voting rights. During the 1963 march, Dr. King delivered his famous 'I have a Dream' speech to the large crowd at the Lincoln Memorial.

Saturday's march was exactly 58 years later. Many credit the 1963 march that led to the Voting Rights Act, approved in 1965.

A photograph of Dean and his son, Dewayne, were pictured in the Guardian newspaper with the 84-year old Dean saying "I'm here because I've got grandchildren and children".

Dean said he left last Thursday and drove all night to Baltimore where he met up with Dewayne, 51. The two headed to our nation's capital the next day.

Dean said there are people today trying to stop black residents from voting the same as they were in 1963.

"More than 50 years ago we stood up and said we want our rights," Dean said. "Today there are some who still want to suppress the black vote."

Dean said when he was a child his mother told him to go register to vote as soon as he was able and insisted that he voted in all elections.

"This is close to me," Dean said. "Some people don't want me to vote because I'm black. That irritates me. I was born and raised in America."

Born is Midway, Ala., Dean said he started working when he was 13-years old and was always looking for a job – but said he couldn't pick cotton.

He recalled Pee Wee Manry gave him a job and he'll never forget it.

"I've worked all my adult life," Dean said.

He pointed to multiple states passing voting laws that he feels make it more difficult for blacks to cast their ballots.

"People standing in line for eight or nine hours to vote and you can't give them water?" Dean said. "That's insane."

"We're right back where we started," Dean said. "The most important thing in the United States is to vote."

Dean said he had no problem with people having to show an identification to vote, but feels this country needs to make it easier for people to vote, not harder.

Dean joined thousands of others during Saturday's march that included speakers the Rev. Al Sharpton and Cori Bush, a Democratic congresswoman from Missouri.

The U.S. Senate will soon vote on the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, a measure passed by the House which would restore protections from the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

"Too much progress has been made to start taking steps backwards," Dean said.