By Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald — Rep. Frederica Wilson is calling on U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to clarify recent comments by a top State Department official on elections in Haiti that have been widely criticized as an attack on the country’s opposition and civic groups, and a dismissal of widespread concerns about the legitimacy of the process. Last month a senior State Department official warned political opponents of…
It’s not just Donald Trump and Joe Biden on the ballot, it’s a decision about the country we want. Honor John Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg by voting. By Derrick Johnson, USA Today — Instead of focusing on the many crises devastating the Black community right now, and although voters are already casting ballots, Republicans are rushing to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Once again, President Donald Trump and his enablers…
While too many Black were disenfranchised even after the 19th Amendment’s ratification a century ago, they never waited for permission before promoting their vision of fundamental rights. By Martha Jones, The Inquirer — When it comes to 21st-century politics, Black women are our founders. The double scourge of racism and sexism no longer defines American politics. The nomination of Sen. Kamala Harris to the Democrat’s VP slot, the more than…
By N’dea Yancey-Bragg, USA Today — In March of 1965, Amelia Boynton Robinson walked with hundreds of other protesters across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Boynton Robinson, who planned the march from Selma to the Alabama capital of Montgomery along with Rev. C.T. Vivian and others, was struck with a baton by Alabama state troopers that day. “They came from the right, the left, the front and started beating people,” she told The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, in…
“Why would $300 keep me from voting?” asks Robert Peoples of Mobile, Alabama. By Dana Sweeney, Facing South — Robert Peoples remembers when African Americans won the right to vote in Alabama back in 1965. Though he was only 13 years old at the time, he had grown up in Mobile with a front-row seat to history as it was forged by a generation of ordinary Alabamians who won extraordinary…
The safest way to cast a ballot will very likely be by mail. But with opposition from the president, limited funding and time running out, will that option be available? By Emily Bazelon, NYT — In March, as a wave of states began delaying their spring primaries because of the coronavirus, Wisconsin’s election, scheduled for April 7, loomed. The ballot for that day included the presidential primary, thousands of local…
By Benjamin Barber, Facing South — Earlier this month, after Wisconsin’s Republican-led legislature refused to allow an expansion of mail-in voting, GOP officials and judges forced the state’s voters to choose between casting their ballot and risking their health during the coronavirus lockdown. Milwaukee health officials have already identified seven people who have contracted the coronavirus because of in-person voting during the April 7 state primary. Voters were also forced to endure difficult…
By Max Elbaum, Organizing Upgrade — I have never been prouder of the people of my home state than over the last twelve days. I went to John Marshall High School in Milwaukee, class of 1964. It was after coming home from school one day that I watched on television as non-violent Civil Rights protesters were attacked with dogs and fire hoses in Birmingham, Alabama. A few weeks after I…
By K. Sabeel Rahman, Demos — The escalating COVID-19 pandemic impacts all of us, but for Black and brown people in particular, the combined health and economic devastation is truly terrifying. Communities of color have higher rates of asthma, less access to health care centers, are more likely to live in food deserts, and are among the most vulnerable in the face of this virus. The workers most on edge…
Voting can secure incremental change, but liberation requires taking on racial capitalism and white supremacy. By William C. Anderson, Truthout — Black citizenship has always been up for debate in the United States. The conditions in which Black people live — or survive — are a testament to this. Whether rich or poor, Black people live under the constant threat of state violence. There is no escape from it, and…
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