Our Selma: Attacks on the Voting Rights Act Effective Community Organizing 2016
by Contributing Writer(s) 08/04/2015Recently the New York Times did a definitive expose’ on the Voting Rights Acts of 1965 entitled A Dream Undone. (See link below). The article covered the 50 year history of the Voting Rights Act and the current threat to Black voting rights resulting from the relentless campaign of the Republican Party to overturn it. The story put a strategic focus on the efforts of Blacks and progressives in North Carolina to reverse the North Carolina voter suppression laws enacted in 2013. North Carolina NAACP President, Reverend William Barber referred to the current fight for voting rights in North Carolina as “Our Selma”.
Last week I had the privilege of attending and presenting at the voting rights session of the NC Black Elected Municipal Officials (NC BEMO) conference. The other two presenters were Rep. Rodney Moore of Charlotte and Ms. Linda Sutton of Democracy NC. From a defeating voting suppression perspective, it proved to be one of the most productive forums I’ve been a part of over the past two-years that I’ve chronicled voter suppression. Several important observations should be made about the forum.
The audience displayed a strong desire to commit themselves and NC BEMO to a leadership role in fighting to restore the Voting Rights Act to the prominence it had prior to the Supreme Court’s Decision gutting one of its most effective parts, pre-clearance. Spring Lake Mayor Chris Rey, President of (NC BEMO) echoed their sentiment and noted that restoring the Act and protecting voting rights will remain a high priority of NC BEMO from now through the November 2016 General Election and beyond. He supported a proclamation or resolution outlining their commitments and calling for other organizations to make similar commitments. I will share their pronouncement upon receipt.
My most important observation is that the large audience of mostly elected city officials was very eager to become more knowledgeable and engaged in opposing voter suppression. Core to the opposition was the notion that Black elected officials were in power because of the success of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and that if they don’t effectively use that power for the benefit of their constituents and communities, they’re certainly going to lose it.
The sentiment was that the use of their political power must be demonstrated by accountability to their constituents as shown by commitment efforts to promote jobs and economic opportunities in their communities. There was a general consensus that to succeed in November 2016 Black elected officials, candidates, and Super PACs must fund voter education, organization and mobilization initiatives far beyond what they have historically done.
There was lots of very valuable information and ideas shared during our voter rights session. The information and ideas were very important and informative, but in my opinion too much to be digested and used effectively in our one and one-half (1 ½) hour session. It would have been far more advantageous to discuss organizing strategies with the objective of providing the educational information to larger audiences over longer, ongoing periods of time.
Another consensus topic was the outreach strategy of asking our religious community, fraternities, sororities and other organizations to hold voting rights forums at all of their upcoming events and to design voter rights engagement strategies that are customized to their specific organizational character.
The presentation by Linda Sutton covered voter ID issues created by the voter suppression law of 2013 and the recent changes to it last month. Democracy NC is the best resource I know of for information relating to the nuts and bolts of voting rights. When engaging in the education aspect of voting rights I recommend their Internet site as the best resource I’m familiar with. (See link below).
Rep. Rodney Moore presented on various topics of great interest regarding the NC Legislative Black Caucus (NCLBC). He spoke to the strong relationship that has developed between the NCBLC and the “Divine Nine”. The Divine Nine collectively is the nine historical Black Greek letter organizations that make up the National Pan Hellenic Council. The NCLBC has a long history of commitment to supporting Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and working with the Divine Nine in doing so. Rep. Moore stressed the importance of the Divine Nine in supporting voting rights and further empowering Black elected officials enabling them to offer more support.
Additionally, Representative Moore made comments on the upcoming August 6, 2015 50th year commemoration of the passage of the Voting Rights Act that he is coordinating. The commemoration will be held at 12:00 noon, August 6th at the NC General Assembly. The public is invited and urged to attend. As I wrote last week, Rep. Moore, Mayor Rey, and I are making identical observations. It is a community imperative that Black elected officials, the clergy, the press and other community leaders immediately develop a voter mobilization strategy to protect and promote our voting rights through 2016 and beyond.
As I’ve previously alerted our readers, the need for Blacks and progressives to educate, organize, and mobilize to defeat voter suppression and to protect hard won voting rights has to be an ongoing effort. However, rest assured, with the leadership of Rep. Moore, Mayor Rey and others, although the struggle will be long and hard, we will succeed in our efforts.
Please follow the evolution of our efforts going forward and join us as individuals and organizations.
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Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/29/magazine/voting-rights-act-dream-undone.html?_r=0
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