“Register – Vote” is the uncannily timely message from today’s #stampoftheday, a 5-cent stamp issued on August 1, 1964.
I have mixed reactions to this stamp.

Obviously, I agree with its basic message – register and vote. And, of course, I’m among the money who are stunned – and mobilized – by the many ways that our country have prevented and continues to prevent people from exercising this basis right. Nevertheless, I also draw some hope from the stamp as well.

As I reflected on these conflicting reactions, I was particularly struck by the fact that the stamp was issued, without irony, only a few weeks after passage of the Civil Right Act of 1964. Although that law is a milestone in many respects, it fell short when it came to voting. True, its first section banned the unequal treatment of voters, which, at first glance, seems like a major step forward.

But, for several reasons, the law had little effect of voting rights. It did not eliminate address the pernicious notion of voter “qualification” – the idea that citizenship does not confer an automatic right to vote, but rather that voters must meet some arbitrary standard beyond citizenship, such as passing a literacy test (which was likely to be particularly hard for Blacks who were still being educated in second- or third-class schools). In addition, the Act left determination of who did, or did not, meet state-imposed voter qualifications in the hands of local Voter Registrars throughout the South, all of whom were white. And it didn’t address economic retaliation, police repression, or physical violence against nonwhite voters.

The obvious need for such protections visions was underscored just three days after the stamp’s release, when investigators found the bodies of three men – James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner – who had been working to register Black voters in Mississippi. (This, in turn, helped create the momentum that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which, at least until a key clause was eviscerated by the Supreme Court, in 2013, had been a potent tool in the fight for voting rights.)

Despite—or perhaps because of—this history, perhaps it’s better to think of the stamp as aspirational. And, since I’m posting it two days after John Lewis’ funeral, perhaps it also can be inspirational as well. As Lewis said in his final op-ed, published the day of his funeral: “Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.”

Securing and maintaining such rights is an ongoing fight. As Lewis wrote near the end of his powerful essay: “Though I may not be here with you, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life I have done all I can to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring.”

Be well, stay safe, get into good and necessary trouble, work for justice, fight for peace and let freedom ring.