NAACP’s Post

In 2022, I watched on the Senate floor as the Freedom to Vote Act and John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act were defeated by the filibuster. Today, I published a new report looking at the racist and oppressive history of the filibuster as an institutional tool that's been wielded to prevent civil and voting rights advances since the 1890s - including to block anti-lynching legislation. Even today, the filibuster is being used by an overpowered minority of Senators to block voting rights protections that millions of Black and brown Americans need in order to ensure they can easily access the ballot box. At another critical moment in voting rights history, when dozens of states are targeting the voting rights of historically disenfranchised communities - the filibuster once again stands in the way of progress. Read more 👇

Five. The number of times the filibuster was used to block passage of the Freedom to Vote Act. By blocking the passage of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the filibuster continues its long history as an institutional tool used to oppress Black and brown Americans. Learn more in this new piece by Gréta Bedekovics.

Turnout is often the major factor in elections. Firing up your base can be a challenge, but engaging them and fighting for their causes is important. Never see an election as a sure thing, either a win or a loss. Sometimes events and other factors may bring about upsets or a change in voting patterns. #voting #votingmatters #voterturnout #elections #elections2024 #votingrights #governance #localgovernment #stategovernment #federalgovernment

Today marks the 58th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), one of the most expansive pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history. The VRA removed the legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. By ending these discriminatory policies, the VRA reshaped the South's electoral landscape. In the decades after the law's passage, Black voter registration in the South jumped from 31% to 73%. In Mississippi, for instance, voter turnout among Blacks increased from 6% in 1964 to 59% by 1969 — an 883% increase in just four years. And with this newfound Black political influence came an increase in Black political representation. Advocates continue to press for the law's full restoration after the 2013, Supreme Court decision in the Shelby County v. Holder case out of Alabama struck down the VRA's Section 4 coverage formula — effectively nullifying Section 5 preclearance requirements. https://lnkd.in/eRW2KEcC

As the #UnitedStates has grown and evolved, so has its #votingrights. 🇺🇸 Today nearly all adult U.S. citizens have a legal right to #vote. Learn more about the expansion of voting rights throughout US history 👇 https://hubs.li/Q02z1r-00

#votingrights #scotus https://lnkd.in/deT3Y2xh WASHINGTON, D.C., May 23, 2024 – Today the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Alexander v. South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, granting South Carolina permission to proceed with its racially gerrymandered congressional map. The Court’s conservatives concluded that if a map is gerrymandered along partisan lines, it cannot intervene, even if that causes the map to also be racially gerrymandered. Given Black voters overwhelmingly vote for Democratic nominees, this ruling grants a free ride for drawing maps that disadvantage Black voters, making it much more difficult for Black voters to prove racial gerrymandering. Once again, Justice Alito has dealt a massive blow to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Today’s opinion holds that, “If either politics or race could explain a district’s contours, the plaintiff has not cleared its bar.” But, as the Justice himself admits, partisan and racial gerrymandering “can look very similar.” The Court effectively grants carte blanche to legislators engaged in racial gerrymandering; because not only has the Court established a strong presumption of good faith, but also all the legislators really need to do to defend against racial gerrymandering is say that they were engaged in partisan gerrymandering.

Sumter County, Alabama and the Origins of the Voting Rights Act - PDF: https://lnkd.in/gJzr3vqh Civil disobedience can be categorized by the group engaging in it, the type of action taken, the policy to which the protestors object, or the type of relief sought. Is the group well defined or amorphous? Are the actors engaged in violence, non-violent but unlawful behavior, or behavior that is lawful but at odds with custom? Do the protestors object to an unlawful policy or one that is lawful but perceived as unjust? Are the protestors ' aims well defined or amorphous? Are they narrow or broad? Are they clearly linked with the policy that the protestors challenge? Civil disobedience is an inherently blunt instrument. It can communicate broad messages, but not details. The confrontation at the Edmund Pettus Bridge is a perfect example. It originated with voter registration drives in Selma and Marion, Alabama.509 Jimmie Lee Jackson, a black demonstrator in Marion, was killed by an Alabama State Trooper.510 From the initial suggestion of a funeral cortege going from Marion to Montgomery came the idea of a Selma-Montgomery march for voting rights.511 The marchers thus knew they wanted black voting rights; the Alabama State Troopers and the Dallas County Sheriff's deputies knew they opposed black voting rights.512 Widespread television and newspaper coverage of what came to be called "Bloody Sunday" energized the nation, the President, and Congress to "do something" to ensure black voting rights.513 However, neither the marchers, nor the mounted wielders of billy clubs, nor the media reporters were communicating the details of what that "something" should be.514 Many acts of civil disobedience have resulted in remedial actions that proved to be ineffective because the unfocused nature of the actors' grievances led to unfocused or poorly implemented solutions that lacked popular support.515

How about a lawsuit alleging a racial gerry mander from a racial group called "Non-African Amercians' ... sounds ludicrous? No this is real - on Wednesday, 12 “non-African American'' voters filed a lawsuit challenging Louisiana’s newly-enacted congressional map that created two majority-Black districts. Two weeks ago, the state enacted a new congressional map after multiple courts found that the previous map likely violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The new map drastically increases the Black makeup of the 6th Congressional District, giving Black voters the ability to elect a candidate of their choice to the seat currently held by a white Republican. Yet the group of voters involved in Wednesday’s suit — who describe themselves as “non-African American” — took exception to the newly adequate Black representation in the state, claiming that the new map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander that involves “the intentional discrimination against voters based on race.” The plaintiffs allege that the map, which was implemented expressly in order to remedy a Voting Rights Act violation, violates the 14th and 15th Amendments and should be blocked from use in all future elections.... Source: Democracy Docket, on the docket 2/2/2024 #democracy #fascism

The right to vote is the very heart of our democracy. But over the past few years, Americans have seen a coordinated and pervasive effort by lawmakers and elected officials to restrict their fundamental right to vote. Not only are these efforts anti-democratic, they are also anti-American. More than ever, the country needs Congress to act to strengthen and protect the right to vote. The John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act—aptly named for one of our nation’s greatest civil rights champions—would restore critical voting rights protections that courts have gutted. It would also reinstate updated pre-clearance protections that are critical to turn back the tide on efforts in states to roll back the right to vote.