The internet is a wonderful source of information and has revolutionized the way many of us do our work, our studies and even our shopping. But everything that one reads on the internet is not gospel, and for the past year or so there has been one troubling piece of misinformation going around about voting rights for African Americans. That story says that the Voting Rights Act will expire in 2007 and that therefore blacks will lose our right to vote that year. That story is just not true.

After receiving that internet warning several times myself, and hearing it in my church, I decided to find out from the Justice Department's Civil Rights unit what the reality was. I found out that tihs rumor is false, and was reassured that first the voting rights of African Americans are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Rights Act and that those guarantees are permanent and do not expire.

The Justice Department pointed to the 15th amendment to the Constitution, under which no one may be denied the right to vote. In addition, the Voting Rights Act itself does not expire in any year. What will expire in 2007 are certain provisions of the Voting Rights Act which contain extraordinary remedies that applied to certain areas of the South because the right to vote illegally ad been denied for so long. The provisions, for example, authorize the Attorney General to send federal registrars to register voters in those areas, as well as federal observers to monitor elections. In addition, these special provisions require certain counties to gain the approval of the U.S. Attorney General before implementing new voting practices. These special provisions of the Voting Rights Act were originally set to expire in 1970, but were extended that year and again in 1975 and 1982. they are now set to expire in 2007, if they are not further extended. Even if these provisions expire, however, they can be reinstated by court order if there is evidence of discriminatory practices in these counties.

Over the past few years I have watched carefully to see what the percentage of African Americans voting across this nation has been. I tried to get the percentage of blacks who voted in the recent presidential primaries, but so far have been unsuccessful. But in 1998, according to Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the black share of the vote was 10 percent, the same as in 1994.

I know that African Americans are more than 10 percent of the U.S. population and I remember the 1984 and 1988 campaigns of Rev. Jesse Jackson, who helped us see the potential power of the black vote in determining not only who is president, but who represents us in the U.S. Congress and its state houses. If every person who sent that false internet warning about the Voting Rights Act was registered to vote and voted, if every African American who is eligible to vote in this nation would do so, we would not have to worry about anyone taking anything away from us. Most African Americans are more likely to lose our right to vote by our own apathy than by anything else.

Make no mistake about it, 35 years after the Voting Rights Act, there are still counties in this nation where African Americans are still fighting for their right to cast their ballots. But the vast majority of us are stopped only by our own laziness, our own apathy.

In April one of our greatest black unsung heroes dies. Albert Turner was an advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in fact he was the one chosen to lead the mule wagon that carried Dr. King's body at his funeral. Albert Turner lived in Alabama all his life, helping to lead the Selma march where civil rights marchers were badly beaten, as well as many other demonstrations in Alabama. Said J. L. Chestnut, the Selma civil rights attorney, "Whenever there was something of unusual danger and nobody wanted to, you could count on the fact that Albert...would lead it." Mr. Turner was one of the 40 first African Americans registered to vote in Marion, AL in 1963 and the lawsuits surrounding their effort culminated in the Voting Rights Act itself. Albert Turner's determination to vote meant that he was threatened, he was beaten, he was imprisoned.

Mr. Turner's civil rights work did not end in the 1960's however. I met Albert Turner in the 1980's when a bus load of us did a 25 year anniversary of the Freedom Rides and went to Alabama because Mr. Turner and other black leaders were under indictment by the Reagen Justice Department for so-called vote fraud. He, his wife and several others were charged with altering the absentee ballots collected from elderly black in the rural area. During that time these elderly voters were visited by FBI agents and there was much intimidation in that country.

But Albert Turner and his wife held their heads high because they knew they were innocent and they were eventually found innocent of the charges. But harrassment of the Turners and other black leaders really never ended.

Want to know why you should vote this fall and in every election? Because people like Albert and Evelyn Turner have been beaten and harassed and imprisoned so that you could. Your voting rights will expire if you don't use them, not because the law will die.