Skip to main content
Tag

Voting

Voting

Pay Attention: They Are Trying to Keep You From Voting

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Monique Judge, The Root — Are you registered to vote? Have you confirmed that your voter registration is valid and ready to go for Election Day? Even if you think you are positively sure everything is OK with your registration, double-check it again—it’s imperative that you do. According to a report by Salon, voters in Georgia stand a 1 in 10 chance of having been purged from the voting rolls.…

Read More
This 1867 drawing by Alfred Waud, "The First Vote," depicts Black men waiting in line to cast ballots. In Southern states, Black men first gained the right to vote in state constitutions drafted during the post-Civil War Reconstruction era.,

Honoring Reconstruction’s Legacy: The Freedom to Vote

By Editors' Choice

During the 1870s, more than a half a million Black men voted for the first time in their lives. But this wave of progressive change did not last long. By Rebekah Barber and Billy Corriher, Facing South — One hundred and fifty years ago, a Congress dominated by “Radical Republicans” — mostly former abolitionists who represented Northern states — mandated that Southern states rewrite their constitutions, ratify the 14th amendment, and grant…

Read More
Michelle Obama, seen in New Orleans in June.

‘I am frustrated too’: Michelle Obama urges voters to register ahead of midterms

By News & Current Affairs

When We All Vote kicks off in Las Vegas with a nonpartisan aim – registration and participation – in highly partisan times. By Dan Hernandez, The Guardian — A star-studded voter registration drive launched by Michelle Obama kicked off its national week of action this weekend with events across the country, including a rally by the former first lady on Sunday at Chaparral high school in Las Vegas. The drive, When We All…

Read More
The purse of an attendee at a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee rally addressed by President Barack Obama, Anaheim, California, September 8, 2018.

Resistance Means More Than Voting

By Editors' Choice

By Garry Wills, NYR Daily — When former president Barack Obama called on the nation to oppose Donald Trump at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign last week, he said there was only one way to do it, by voting. This was a criticism of the internal resistance supported by the anonymous op-ed writer in The New York Times. Obama said that people who “secretly aren’t following the president’s orders” are not defending democracy: “These…

Read More
‘There’s another important public space where blackness has been policed: the voting booth.’ Photograph: Shawn Thew/EPA

Voting while black: the racial injustice that harms our democracy

By Commentaries/Opinions

The routine suppression of black voters is far-reaching and has devastating consequences. We cannot be silent about it. By Carol Anderson, The Guardian — The recent spate of whites calling 911 on African Americans for barbecuing while black, waiting in Starbucks while black, sleeping at Yale while black ad nauseum has led to a much-needed discussion about the policing of public spaces. Yet, there’s another important public space where blackness has been policed and we have…

Read More
Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, by Howard Chandler Christy. (Image: Wikipedia)

Slavery, Democracy and the Racialized Roots of the Electoral College

By Reparations

By Christopher F. Petrella — At 11:45 p.m. on November 6, 2012, Donald Trump tweeted that “the electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.” Four years later, at 2:31 a.m. on November 9, 2016, the Associated Press projected that Donald Trump would win the state of Wisconsin and therefore surpass the required 270 Electoral College votes to become President-elect. The AP tweeted: “Donald Trump is elected President of the United States.” Though…

Read More
At the recent Power Rising Summit in Atlanta, U.S. Reps. Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands, Terri Sewell of Alabama, Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, Robin Kelly of Illinois and Yvette Clarke of New York were among the nearly 1,000 Black women who gathered to strategize on how to build their political power.

A Watershed Year for Black Women’s Political Power in the South

By News & Current Affairs

The recent Power Rising Summit in Atlanta brought together nearly a thousand Black women from across the country to strategize on how to build political power and harness the momentum behind the surge of Black women running for office. By Rebekah Barber, Facing South — From the onset of the women’s suffrage movement, Black women were among the strongest advocates for universal suffrage. Years before Black feminist scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw coined…

Read More