Some effective voting advice from great leaders
It shouldn’t be surprising to anyone familiar with American history that politicians in the former Confederate States of America are in the forefront of the campaign to suppress the votes of African-Americans.
After all, residents of the Confederate States used various methods – poll taxes, literacy tests, threats of job loss, home bombings and even killings – to block blacks from voting in local and national elections.
It also shouldn’t surprise anyone that a majority of advocates of voter suppression are members of the Republican Party. Their grandfathers and greatgrandfathers – often referred to as Dixiecrats – left the Democratic Party after the 1965 Voting Rights Act passed and joined the Republicans.
Today, they carry out this present-day suppression out using tactics such as gerrymandering state and congressional districts, reducing the number of polling locations, and refusing to extend voter registration deadlines, even when harsh weather disrupted people’s ability to meet them.
But a nightmare for voter suppressors occurred when a huge black turnout was instrumental in Democrat Doug Jones defeating Republican nominee and modern-day Dixiecrat Roy Moore in the 2017 Alabama senatorial campaign (inset).
As African-Americans gear up for election battle after battle, it is prudent and important to pay attention to quotes about voting and politics attributed to very perceptive African-American ancestors:
W.E.B. Du Bois stated, “May God write us down as asses if ever again we are found putting trust in either the Republican or Democratic parties.” The legendary intellectual warrior had a point. Neither party has ever put the interests of AfricanAmericans at the top – or even near the top – of their policy agendas.
The increased political activity of women, especially AfricanAmerican women, brings to mind a theory of Coretta Scott King: “If American women would increase their voting turnout by 10%, I think we would see an end to all the budget cuts in programs benefiting women and children.” Civil rights warrior the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. also had advice about voting. In his last book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community,” King stated, “Up to now, that (voting) power has been inconsequential because, paradoxically, although Negroes vote with great discernment and traditionally as a bloc, essentially, we are unorganized, disunited, and subordinated in the decision-making process.”
Brother Malcolm X shared some powerful lessons on voting strategies: “Register means being in a position to take political action any time, any place, and in any manner that would be beneficial to you and me. …But as soon as you get registered as a Democrat or a Republican, you are aligning. And once you are aligned, you have no bargaining power – none whatsoever. … By being registered as an independent, it means we can do whatever is necessary, wherever it’s necessary and whenever the time comes.”
It’s important to remember that African-Americans will never have serious political power unless we more effectively use our collective economic resources to promote and protect our interests.