COLUMBIA, S.C. — Tuesday, June 9, is primary election day in South Carolina where registered voters head to the polls in order to set the ballot for November. Because of some changes in polling locations due to COVID-19 concerns, voters are urged to check their registration information and precinct locations online at scvotes.org. You can also view sample ballots at that site before casting your vote.
It is worth remembering that in the spring of 1966, South Carolina was holding local primaries to decide who would fill a United States Senate seat, vacant as a result of the death of Sen. Olin Johnston in 1965. On May 9, 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech in Kingstree, SC, about the importance of voting. Outtakes from that speech have been archived at the University of South Carolina’s Moving Image Research Collections (MIRC), a digital video repository of historical events occurring in the state.
The words spoken that day by Dr. King still resonate in 2020:
“Let us on that glad day in June march on ballot boxes, for this is the way we’re going to straighten up the South and the nation.
Let us march on ballot boxes until somehow we will be able to develop that day men will have food and material necessities for their bodies, freedom and dignity for their spirits, and education and culture for their mind.
Let us march on ballot boxes so that men and women will no longer walk the streets in search of jobs that do not exist.
Let us march on ballot boxes until the empty stomachs of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and South Carolina are filled.
Let us march on ballot boxes until the idle industries of Appalachia are revitalized.
Let us march on ballot boxes until 'brotherhood' is more than a meaningless word and at the end of a prayer but the first order of business on every Legislature’s slate or agenda. Let us march on ballot boxes.
Let us march on ballot boxes until every valley shall be exalted, until every mountain and hill shall be made low, until the rough places are made plain and the crooked places straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all of bloods shall sing together.
Let us march on ballot boxes until we are able to send to the State Houses of the South, men who would do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God. Let us march on ballot boxes.
One day, Mississippi, which has an affinity for the bottom will be Mississippi which has an affinity for the top.
One day, Alabama, the heart of Dixie, will be Alabama the heart of democracy.
One day, South Carolina will be a better state. One day, Georgia will be a better state.
And why is this true? Because mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. Glory.
And all over the South and the nation we can sing ‘Glory, hallelujah. Glory, hallelujah, our God is marching on.’
And so I say, walk together children, don’t you get weary. There’s a great camp meeting in the Promised Land.”
In the general election in November 1966, former SC Gov. Fritz Hollings, a Democrat, won over Republican nominee SC Sen. Marshall Parker, of Oconee, for the US Senate seat.
You can see the clip from UofSC's MIRC library here. Note that the first half is video only, sound comes in when Dr. King begins his speech, around the 3 minute mark.