[ In state after state, Republicans want to suppress voting
because they know they are a minority party. It took decades to
overcome the Jim Crow laws imposed at the end of Reconstruction. We
can’t wait decades this time.] [[link removed]]

OUR FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO VOTE IS UNDER ATTACK  
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Jesse Jackson
February 23, 2021
Chicago Sun-Times
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_ In state after state, Republicans want to suppress voting because
they know they are a minority party. It took decades to overcome the
Jim Crow laws imposed at the end of Reconstruction. We can’t wait
decades this time. _

It took decades to overcome the Jim Crow laws imposed at the end of
Reconstruction., Photo: Michael Fleshman/Flickr/cc // Common Dreams

 

The fundamental right in a democracy—the right to vote—is once
more under siege. In state after state, Republican legislators have
introduced literally hundreds of bills designed to suppress voting.

Their passion is fueled by Donald Trump’s big lie that the
presidential election was "stolen" from him. Their targets are
minorities—African Americans, Latinos and Asian Americans, and the
young. They call themselves Republicans, but their lineage comes not
from Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, but from
Jefferson Davis, the southern Democrat who led the Confederacy in its
battle to keep Blacks enslaved.

The current debates have a haunting history. After the South was
defeated in the Civil War, Congress passed the 13th, 14th and 15th
amendments. Often termed the “second founding,” these amendments
ended slavery (13th), guaranteed equal protection under the laws
(14th) and prohibited discrimination in the right to vote (15th).

The defeated south then began what was called Reconstruction. To be
readmitted to the Union, they had to create new constitutions that
rendered equal rights to all. In some states, newly freed Blacks
constituted the majority. In many states, a new fusion politics began,
often bringing the newly freed Black citizens together with small
farmers and merchants against the old plantation aristocracy. In
states like North Carolina, the new majorities passed remarkable
progressive reforms in public education, public works, progressive
taxation, land redistribution and more.

The white plantation aristocracy could not abide the new order. They
organized a systematic effort to suppress the new coalitions.
America’s first domestic terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan,
unleashed a wave of violence against newly freed Blacks and the whites
who joined them. An estimated 5,000 Blacks were lynched. The violence
that included setting fire to Black stores and neighborhoods was
designed to drive Blacks and their allies out of polling booths and
the South.

The plantation aristocracy successfully took back power, then imposed
Jim Crow laws that made it virtually impossible for Blacks to vote.
The federal government failed to check the violence, and in 1876, in a
corrupt deal, Republicans agreed to end Reconstruction and remove the
remaining federal troops. In 1896, to its lasting shame, the Supreme
Court in Plessy v. Ferguson ratified the surrender, declaring
separate but equal laws constitutional. It took more than 50 years
before the civil rights movement and the Voting Rights Act restored
the right to vote to African Americans.

Today’s Republican Party is founded on the reaction to the civil
rights movement. From the 1964 Goldwater presidential campaign on,
Republicans traded hats with southern Democrats to become the party of
state’s rights, white sanctuary and opposition to racial equality.

Today’s Jefferson Davis Republicans know that they are increasingly
a minority party. In Georgia, Arizona, Texas, North Carolina and other
states, Republicans fear they will lose control. Once more,
intimidation, mass incarceration and violence are used to intimidate.

After the last election, Trump rallied his supporters with the big lie
that the election was stolen, inciting them to sack the Capitol and to
march on state legislatures. Worse, even after the riot, 147
Republicans in the House and Senate voted to overturn the election.

In Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas, Republicans control all
branches of government, giving them power to gerrymander districts in
the redistricting after the 2020 census.

The violence, just as in Reconstruction, is combined with a systemic
campaign to suppress the right to vote. In 33 states, legislators have
introduced 165 bills to restrict voting, the Brennan Center on Justice
reports. In nine states, Republicans have introduced legislation to
limit mail-in voting (nearly half of votes in the 2020 election were
cast by mail due to the pandemic). In 10 states, Republicans are
pushing more stringent voter ID requirements, knowing that these
discriminate against minorities (25% of African Americans but only 8%
of whites have no government-issued photo IDs). Other states are
pushing to prohibit the use of student IDs to make it harder for the
young to vote, roll back automatic voter registration laws, end
Election Day registration or reduce the number of days for early
voting.

In Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas, Republicans control all
branches of government, giving them power to gerrymander districts in
the redistricting after the 2020 census.

Once more the Supreme Court has aided and abetted these
anti-democratic actions. The right-wing majority gutted the Voting
Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder. For the first time, there will
be no prior review by the Justice Department to limit racially
discriminatory gerrymandering. Then in Rucho v. Common Cause, the
"gang of five" ruled that the courts would no longer review challenges
to partisan gerrymandering. No federal court will stand in the way of
discriminatory outrages.

It took decades to overcome the Jim Crow laws imposed at the end of
Reconstruction. It required mass demonstrations, immense courage on
the part of ordinary heroes, and finally the leadership of Lyndon
Johnson and Martin Luther King Jr., among others, to begin to correct
the injustice.

We can’t wait decades this time. Jefferson Davis Republicans are
once more intent on imposing minority rule, and using the law and a
partisan majority on the Supreme Court to enforce it. They’re using
both terrorist threat and legal measures to intimidate and impede
voters. Once more it will take popular opposition—demonstrations,
voter registration and mobilization drives, popular education and
engagement—to protect the right to vote. The House of
Representatives has passed a law, HR 1, to expand and protect the
right to vote. The bill is likely to face universal opposition from
Republican senators, unless popular mobilization forces some to stand
up. 

It is time for ordinary heroes once more.

_[JESSE JACKSON
[[link removed]] is an
African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a
candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988
and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to
1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to
form Rainbow/PUSH [[link removed]].]_

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