The link between racism and voting in Broward’s history
People in Broward — those who bother to vote, that is — keep electing the same politicians over and over. Then they’re shocked that nothing changes.
That contradiction is woven into the county’s history and was on display at a virtual town hall in Fort Lauderdale Thursday. The discussion, a direct and positive but longoverdue consequence of the videotaped killing of George Floyd on a Minneapolis street corner, was hosted by the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority’s Zeta Rho Omega chapter. It was billed as “a discussion of racism and the importance of voting.”
Racism and voting. Racism and voting. Broward has too much of one because it doesn’t have enough of the other.
Howard Finkelstein, the county’s retiring public defender, made the connection between the two. The 66-year-old lawyer and a consistent crusader for racial justice said he has seen far too many young black men die. He blames a corrupt Broward political system as the root cause of much of what’s wrong.
“That horrific death has brought us here, to begin this conversation, that many in my field as a public defender have been screaming about for decades,” Finkelstein said. “Writing letters. Screaming into the newspapers … Why do we keep electing the same people who allow these people to do what we saw happen? We keep electing the same people judges, the same people state attorney, the same people state reps.
“Those people are not going to be the change because they are the institution which has made racism the center pillar in everything that goes on in that Broward County Courthouse,” he said.
Strong words, and some will find them unwarranted. But systemic racism endures in Broward because ending it has never been at the top of the agenda of the ruling class.
That is Finkelstein’s point. Far too little has changed, even though Democrats have had a nearly-complete control of power since the 1970s, an unbroken dominance that spans nearly half of the life of the 105-year-old county.
Finkelstein will soon leave office after 16 years. A prolific writer of letters, he has sent a letter to Broward police chiefs urging them to immediately adopt eight specific policy changes, including a ban on chokeholds by police, better training in de-escalation techniques, a ban on officers shooting at moving vehicles and a transparent and publicly accessible useof-force database.
To honor the memory of George Floyd and all other victims of racial violence, people in Broward must seize the moment and demand more changes that are long overdue. Researching this column, I came across a long 1966 Sunday article in the by Anne Kolb headlined “The Broward Racial Climate: There’s a Notable Lack of Communication.” What was striking was that the quotes in this 54-year-old story are relevant today.
“I hate to think rioting is the only way to get a reaction,” said Catherine King of Fort Lauderdale’s Bi-Racial Advisory Board, as a photo caption described board members on a walk of “the northwest section” — that tired euphemism for the city’s predominantly black community that’s still in use today.
Alcee Hastings, who was the local NAACP’s legal counsel in 1966, cited “a lack of communication” between the races for a lack of racial progress. Hastings, of course, has represented Broward in Congress since 1992.
Racism and voting. Now, about the voting part.
In two months, Broward voters face a primary election to pick candidates for state attorney, sheriff, public defender, legislature and other offices. It’s the first time since 1976 that the county will get a new chief prosecutor. Because Broward is controlled by one party, these primary races are de facto general elections, so the stakes are a lot higher.
But voter turnout projections are hovering between 20 and 25 percent. That would actually be higher than recent Broward primaries and is based on an aggressive promotion of voting by mail among election supervisors, candidates and political parties in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We do not imagine increased Broward County turnout,” Supervisor of Elections Pete Antonacci recently told the state in assessing his need for money to cover election costs. That’s his realistic assessment. Voters should prove him wrong.
“We’re going to breathe with our vote,” said school board member Rosalind Osgood, who moderated the virtual town hall.
About four of every 10 Democratic voters in Broward are black. The notion that 75 or 80 percent of voters would stay home in any election is cause for embarrassment.
This year, in this moment, voting is more important than ever.
The county sent out about 1 million postcards for voters to request mail ballots. Thursday was the best response yet, as about 1,500 postcards were returned. Another 900 came back Friday.
Fort Lauderdale News