This snapshot was gathered in conjunction with the Museum on Main Street program at the Smithsonian Institution and its "Stories from Main Street" initiative. The project is intended to capture Americans' impressions and stories about their small-town and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, and thoughts about American democracy. This story is from a group of narratives inspired by the Smithsonian traveling exhibition, "Voices and Votes: Democracy in America."
Betty Riddle: Okay, well, I was adjudicated as an adult at 17. My first experience, in '89, in prison, I was told I would never vote again in life. It was a life sentence that they imposed on us. And I went through life just accepting it, that I'd never vote. And then, I got involved in, while I was in prison, into a legal class, where I was helping people while in prison. So when I got through with prison, I came home. I became a chef. And then, after a couple of years, I went to college and got my social degree as a paralegal. So I started working for Larry Eger at the Public Defender office. And one particular day, I was sitting in the break room having lunch, and a lady by Susan Nala works with the ACLU, came in. And she was talking to me about voter registration and told me that she had been fighting for 10 years to get it passed.
(00:59) And I shared my story with her, and she wanted to know could I speak. I start speaking. And then, after they passed it, it was like a joy that I can't explain, after 44 years, never voted. And then, we celebrated, my job celebrated, we had so much fun. Then six months later, they came back with, we can vote, but we had to pay court costs and fines. So at this particular time, I was speaking through the ACLU, and I got a phone call from a lady attorney from New York. And she understood that my struggle and what I was fighting for. I was on ABC, NBC News, and she asked could she represent me on the voter's right. And I said "yes." So I continued speaking, because I'm the voice for every former felon, that has the right. So I start speaking for all former felons and then, we got involved in it. And I start traveling in different places speaking, the Capital, South Carolina, everywhere.
(02:09) Then upon that, we decided we was still fighting back to get it. So finally, we got in court. We made it all the way to federal court, and I pretty much addressed my issues with him. Because one of the problems that a lot of us felons was running into is that they wanted us to pay court costs that has fell off, didn't exist no more. My case go all the way back to 1975, when I was adjudicated as an adult. They went back to 1990. So I couldn't pay, because it didn't exist. So the whole issue was that a lot of us couldn't afford to pay. We just can't afford to pay court costs and fines. I had to go back like 44 years.
Asset ID: 2022.36.01.b
Find a complete transcript at www.museumonmainstreet.org
