Voting rights threatened again, but we will prevail
As we commemorate the 58th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” today, we must never forget the courage marchers displayed on that fateful day.
More than 600 marchers, some bloodied and bruised, were shaken but undeterred by Alabama state troopers’ brutality.
They attempted the journey again two weeks later and ultimately marched from Selma to Montgomery on March 21, 1965 — this time swelling to 2,000 people — making their voices heard at the steps of the Alabama Capitol.
We must enlist the same tenacity as those activists whose persistence and love for democracy led to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). But history has repeatedly shown that backlash is inevitable when Black people participate in the democracy our government touts on paper.
American history has always been cyclical; in between waves of progress, we’ve seen tension between the powerful and the people who dare to reimagine an inclusive society.
Voting rights advocacy ensures that we all get to participate in civic duties. Black people’s demand for the vote has inspired other movements and subsequent laws related to immigration, women’s and disability rights. We must uplift this vital history, especially during a time when lawmakers, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, seek to erase and devalue it. We need to consider how the long battle for voting rights connects us today. History isn’t in the past. It moves with us.
At my organization, Faith in Florida, we firmly believe that voting is one of the many tools we can use to create a beloved community — one filled with love and care but without poverty and violence. We have to protect it.
Voting allows us to select representatives who enact policies that uplift and strengthen communities and then hold their feet to the fire when they do not.
Our vote matters, and it changes things. That’s why those in power try so hard to restrict access to the ballot box.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, state legislators across the country have so far this year introduced “150 restrictive voting bills, 27 election interference bills, and 274 expansive voting bills.”
There is urgency in confronting the current attacks on our democracy. But this fight didn’t just begin.
Voting rights were once enshrined by people who withstood white supremacist brutality in the 1960s, but now the degradation of our voting rights has gained momentum for at least the past decade. Jim Crow-era poll taxes and literacy tests have morphed into voter ID laws and limited access to polling places.
First, the U.S. Supreme Court gutted vital parts of the VRA, leaving it open for state legislators to dismantle protections and block people in marginalized communities from voting.
In 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that states no longer needed to meet a preclearance requirement. That provision had been in place since 1965 to prevent the passage of discriminatory laws and redrawing districts, which dilute the voting power of Black and brown communities.
Almost immediately after that ruling, states responded by passing restrictive voter ID laws.
In 2021, the Supreme Court again dealt a blow to a section of the VRA, making it difficult to challenge discriminatory voting laws in court.
State legislators are continuing such efforts the same way lawmakers did nearly six decades ago. DeSantis is leading the way with new legislation intended to intimidate, exclude and even prosecute voters. He signed the latest iteration of voter suppression efforts into law in 2021. SB90 limits the number of ballot boxes, adds more hurdles to voting by mail and criminalizes people who aid voters by dropping off their ballots.
In addition to an assault on voting rights, lawmakers — then and now — also aim to quash protests. Making grievances known and speaking truth to power is as American as it gets. Yet, protesters, particularly Black demonstrators, are censored or met with violence. We know what’s at stake, so we press on anyway.
Our ancestors were resilient. Resilience is necessary to secure a better world for future generations. Black Americans have always fought to make true for everyone what the signers of the Constitution intended to apply to a select few. Black people have sustained the ideals of democracy. We are often reminded that there is much work to do, but we can’t ever give up. The marchers in Selma prevailed, and the activists fighting today against draconian laws will also prevail.
Most importantly, we must remain united in this fight. Now is the time to organize and support community organizations mobilizing citizens and inspiring youth to continue this advocacy. Black political power has saved our democracy before and can do it again.