In the Sept. 1 editorial, you discussed the South Carolina voter ID law and its sponsor, state Rep. Alan Clemmons, who is white.

During the legislative debate over this law, a constituent emailed Clemmons a racist diatribe, including the remark that if you dangled a $100 bill in front of black people, "you would see how fast they got voter ID cards with their picture. It would be like a swarm of bees going after a watermelon." Clemmons replied to the email: "Amen."

Your editorial noted that Clemmons "would have served his cause better" if instead he had challenged the racist remark, especially considering that the interaction was in writing.

That is your response to Clemmons' revealing himself to be a racist?

The point of this evidence is that the intent of the voter ID law is to suppress black citizens from exercising their most important civil right. Clemmons' ugliness is important not because he shouldn't have put it in writing. It's important because it vividly demonstrates that Republicans' concerted, organized efforts to pass voter ID laws across the nation have nothing to do with any false concern about nonexistent voter fraud.

Requiring voters to have a photo ID is simply today's Jim Crow, unapologetically designed to try and make the White House white once again.

If individual Republicans are not hanging their heads in shame for perpetuating and permitting this sinful scheme, there is something wrong inside their souls.

Paige Fiedler

Hilton Head Island