When I taught the Civil Rights Movement I used James Allen's amazing book of lynching photographs, Without Sanctuary. My students had typical reactions to the photos: regardless of race they universally responded that the photos were awful, the lynchings horrible, the whole period of American history a national tragedy. That was fine and certainly admirable but not enough. I asked them to look past the images of the dead and see the crowds - most importantly, see the faces in the crowds.

See them all proudly posing with victims of racial hatred.

Mobs committed the murders in Allen's book but the people in the pictures (which were often turned into postcards and mailed to friends and family all over the country) did not all necessarily take part in the crimes. (In many of the pictures women and children are present.) They came afterwards - they watched and they cheered and they made sure to take home a souvenir. They were the nameless faces in the crowd who would blithely claim later not to have done anything wrong and yet their cheers were ever present and their approval captured forever on film.

They were proud to pose with murdered innocents.

In teaching about the Civil Rights Movement I always started with Allen's book because it demanded my students not look away - it would not let them look away. But the point of the lesson was much more than collective revulsion. I wanted my crew (all of them college students) to understand the impact of doing nothing. The most powerful aspect of the Civil Rights Movement to me has always been that it was common people, thousands and thousands and thousands of ordinary middle class working people who changed history. They did it by speaking out, by sitting down, by walking to work and by marching on Washington. They did it in the simplest, most basic, most universally human ways.

They insisted on the right to vote, and then they used those votes to effect positive change.

I have been following the current election closer than any other national election in my lifetime. And I am beyond disturbed by the video of McCain/Palin supporters that has come out of Ohio and I agree with Congressman John Lewis that if you incite crowds to hatred then you own the results of that hatred - you own the conduct of those you have influenced. Lewis did not compare Senator McCain to George Wallace, he compared the rhetoric of the recent McCain/Palin rallies to those of Wallace and he is right. Lewis remembered that hate and he recognizes it now. Watch the videos from the rallies and you will find yourself forced to agree.

Obama is a terrorist says one woman - it is in his "bloodlines".

Shake your head all you want, say they are stupid or foolish or dumb. Call them names. But in the end, every American has the right to vote and the only way this country has ever been able to positively change was through exercising that right. How many people just didn't bother standing in line back in 2000 and now have regrets? How would the world be different if only 500 people had made an effort in Florida to vote for Al Gore?

500 people - think of how small that number is. Then look at the crowds in Allen's book again and see how small they are and how easily they could have been stopped sooner if only bigger crowds had mobilized against them; bigger crowds had stepped in and said "Enough".

Voting is one of the most powerful things that people can do and one of the first things that those in power will try to take away. I am hosting Blog the Vote on Monday, November 3rd so the Lit Blogosphere with all of its authors, illustrators, reviewers, recommenders and book lovers can speak out in a nonpartisan way to celebrate the key thing that makes us all Americans. We will celebrate voting and once and for all, we will stand up against all those nameless faces.

Submit your post to me here at Chasing Ray, or to Lee Wind (leewindATroadrunnerDOTcom) or to Gregory K (blogthevoteATgmailDOTcom). Be sure to link to the Master List of Blog the Vote sites which will be up at Chasing Ray on Sunday, November 2nd and constantly updated through election day. And be nonpartisan and positive - it's not about the hate but the history and the future.

[Post pic of the lynching of nineteen-year-old Elias Clayton, nineteen-year-old Elmer Jackson, and twenty-year-old Isaac McGhie, June 15, 1920, Duluth, Minnesota; the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, August 7, 1930, Marion, Indiana; the lynching of Rubin Stacy, onlookers, including four young girls, July 19, 1935, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; the lynching of Lige Daniels, onlookers, including young boys, August 3, 1920, Center, Texas. All from Without Sanctuary.]