Attacks on Voting Rights Disproportionately Impact People of Color

 By Kathleen McQuillen, reprinted with permission; first printed in February 2022 newsletter of  First United Methodist Church in Des Moines, The Light

The attacks on voting are not new. Restrictions on voting go back to the post-civil war days, the reconstruction period. Though the 14^th and 15^th amendments granting citizenship to African-Americans and the right to vote to African American males were ratified during the reconstruction period, the backlash began almost immediately.

Southern whites pushed back against the new rights and freedoms granted the emancipated slaves. They retaliated with threats, intimidations, and killings of Blacks to keep them from voting and more broadly to “keep them in their place.”

Other tools to keep Black people from voting were the poll tax, literacy tests, the “grandfather” rule (voting allowed only to those whose grandfather had voted), and a myriad of other tactics.

The reality of intimidation, voter oppression, and murder continued into the 20^th century. Smithsonian magazine reports between 1877 and 1950, 4,400 lynchings took place in the US.

African-American resistance was a constant as they continued their efforts to vote, It was through that resistance even in the face of the beatings, the jails, the bombings that voting rights for all Americans became the law of the land.

In 1964 the poll tax was outlawed with the ratification of the 24^th amendment to the US Constitution. And literacy tests were outlawed in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Fast Forward to 2022

Between 2010 and 2019, 25 states passed voter restriction laws according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Note: Barack Obama was elected US President in 2008.

Voting restrictions have historically been aimed at limiting the political power of African-Americans. The election of Barack Obama may have touched a deep fear in white supremacists, who have since witnessed the growing political power of Blacks, Latinos, Asians, as well as other new immigrants coming to this country. Many of us will recall the ugly chant during the 2017 “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville. You will not replace us was the mantra heard throughout Charlottesville and beyond.

The voting restriction laws throughout the country present the charade of respectability with the same goal in mind. Keep whites in power and people of color at the proverbial “back of the bus.”

 

In the past year Jan.1-Dec. 7, 19 states passed 34 laws restricting access to voting. *Iowa is among them. Restrictions vary among the states but may include: fewer voting days, shorter hours, fewer voting locations, more limits on voter IDs, tighter time lines and processes for mail-in ballots… All of these restrictions lead to longer lines at the polls. Some states have even passed legislation prohibiting community volunteers or neighbors from providing food and water to those in long lines. Studies show most of the changes are taking place in communities of color and low income areas.

The impacts are wide ranging, impeding accessibility for people of color, factory workers - not able to get off work to vote, people with disabilities, and the elderly.

It took federal laws to protect voting rights in the past and it is clear federal legislation is essential to assure the same today. Two pieces of legislation to support voting enhancement are stalled in Congress today:

1.       The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4

       https://www.npr.org/2021/08/24/1030746011/house-passes-john-lewis-voting-rights-act

2.       Freedom to Vote Act: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2747

 

If you would like to share your thoughts with your congressional representatives the US Capitol Switchboard is 202-224-3121

* As noted above Iowa has its own voting restriction laws passed in 2021. The League of Women Voters is leading a campaign to rescind some of the most restrictive elements of those laws. For more information see https://www.lwvia.org/

To sign their petition: https://www.lwvia.org/anti-voter-laws

 

Kathleen McQuillen is currently director of Catholic Peace Ministry in Des Moines, IA.  She has served in many capacities in leadership for the peace community in Des Moines.  She formerly worked with AFSC as Middle East Peace Director, and recently founded Middle East Peace and Education Coalition (MEPEC), based in Des Moines.  She is also a member of the Antiracism Task Force at First United Methodist Church in downtown Des Moines.