Why Presidential Scholars Have a Special Obligation to Vote in November 2020: A Message from Justice Cornelia Clark

I consider voting to be the most important right I am accorded as a citizen. The reason for that arises in part out of my experience as a Presidential Scholar.

I graduated from high school in 1968, a year more tumultuous than any the United States had experienced previously, sometimes today being called “the year that shattered America.”  In January the Tet Offensive escalated the Vietnam War, and North Korea captured the U.S. Navy intelligence vessel USS Pueblo. It was a presidential election year, and by the end of March President Lyndon B. Johnson had several credible Democratic primary opponents as well as Republican challengers, resulting in his announcement on March 31 that he would not seek another term in office.  Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in April. Student protests erupted at Columbia University and spread across the world. Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in June.  The Poor People’s Campaign brought several thousand protesters to Washington to establish a tent city, Resurrection City, on the National Mall. The purpose was to combat the racism and poverty that denied many persons equal opportunities to succeed.

I arrived In Washington, DC, two months ahead of the clash between police and anti-war protesters at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and four months before the Olympic protests of Tommie Smith and John Carlos against racial discrimination.   A bitter presidential political campaign highlighting all these issues resulted in the election of a new president in November. The 1968 crises were lightened only by the December 24 first orbit of the moon by three American astronauts.

My cohort of Scholars was both angered and frightened by the crushing uncertainties we faced, including whether we could ever return to “normal” from the multiple challenges to our “old” way of life. President Johnson addressed that uncertainty in the remarks he made to us in the East Room on June 10, 1968. The things he said that day are words that have guided my life as a citizen ever since. Among them:

…[T]his time in America has required us to endure events which seem unbelievable--and almost, at times, unbearable--tragedies of violence and unreason….

No one ever promised that this democracy of ours would be easy; No one ever promised that this Nation's great experiment could be carried without great pain….

The critical question that we face is whether we can, as one people, hold fast to our faith--in each other and in this Nation's purpose.

If we answer that question in the affirmative,
--we will overcome injustice;

--we will erase the stain of violence;

--we will heal and help this country….

The honor that your Nation pays you today is not just a reward for past achievement. It is a way of recognizing your special talents and expressing the confidence of the country in you.

We want, in return, for you to…return your great gifts to the country that has given you so much.

I left Washington understanding that I had been given a life-long responsibility to hold fast to my faith in my country’s people and purpose. The most immediate way to do that seemed to be by exercising my right to vote in November. Because the 26th Amendment would not pass and be ratified until 1971, many 18-year-olds did not have the right to vote in the presidential election of 1968. But as a resident of Georgia, I did have that privilege. I cast my first presidential vote by absentee ballot after I left for college in another state. I have never stopped voting because I still believe in the power of each person’s obligation to make a difference.

President Johnson’s 1968 words are just as compelling today as they were when I heard them. 2020 will now be remembered as the year unlike any other we have ever experienced. Some of our challenges are very different; many, sadly, are the same problems we struggled against in 1968. But voting remains the primary way we can hold fast to our faith in our country’s purpose. Blood, sweat, tears, and lives have been sacrificed to guarantee that all of us have the right to vote.  We who have been honored by our country at a young age can, and must, honor in return those who fought for that right; and we must reaffirm our faith in the country that has expressed so much confidence in us.

Please vote in November. Now, more than ever, our country needs this gift from each of us.

Cornelia A. Clark

1968 Presidential Scholar

Georgia