“The dismantling of voting rights directed at the African American community can only be described as re-traumatizing, and opening old painful wounds in this long-suffering community. Yet this community is rising and resisting because that’s what has to be done. If, however, the resistance takes the form of African Americans fighting alone and without the support of the larger movement for democracy, can the assault be overcome?”
Communities are rising up in Republican states across the South in response to the Supreme Court ruling that guts the Voting Rights Act, not accidentally, right before the November election. In Nashville, TN, hundreds stormed the state legislative chambers and streets as the legislature prepared to wipe out the only Black district in the state.
This Supreme Court decision gives a green light to Republican-led gerrymandering and voter suppression. It makes it more difficult for African Americans, who represent 14 percent of the vote in the South, and also Latinos and other people of color, to challenge electoral maps as racially discriminatory under the Voting Rights Act.
The ruling is another attempt to turn back the clock to the days of Jim Crow that is echoed in the hate speech and actions coming from the highest level of government.
“This is gravely serious. People fought, died and were tortured for the right to vote. The world needs to be watching because what is happening today will happen in the rest of the country,” said a young African American voter rights activist.
“What it means is that the country’s most important civil rights law no longer effectively exists. And that’s going to have ramifications on American democracy for a very long time,” said journalist Ari Berman on Democracy Now!
Once again, when the rich and powerful need to undermine democracy to consolidate their authoritarian hold, they start by attacking the rights of African Americans. And, as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones told MSNow, “The Black rights struggle has been a struggle to democratize America for everyone and the loss of this impacts democracy for everyone.”
The failure of the Democratic Party to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act was a setback for the movement for voting rights. According to the Legal Defense Fund, the John Lewis Act would “protect voters from race-based discrimination and set minimum standards to enable all voters to experience free and fair elections,” strengthening existing inadequate protections. People are fighting for a new voting rights act that truly represents our interests.
The dismantling of voting rights directed at the African American community can only be described as re-traumatizing, and opening old painful wounds in this long-suffering community. Yet this community is rising and resisting because that’s what has to be done. If, however, the resistance takes the form of African Americans fighting alone and without the support of the larger movement for democracy, can the assault be overcome?
