Resolution To Defeat Voter Suppression
by Kathy Grear 09/19/2013WHEREAS, the right to vote is a fundamental right of American citizenship guaranteed by the constitution;
WHEREAS, in 1787 black people were slaves and declared and counted as 3/5 of a person for representation in the United States House of Representatives and not allowed to vote at the founding of this country;
WHEREAS, in 1835 the voting rights of free black property owners were eliminated by the North Carolina Constitution;
WHEREAS, on August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising all women and declaring for the first time that they, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship;
WHEREAS, after the Civil War male black voting rights were forced on North Carolina by the 14th & 15th amendments to the United States Constitution but, in 1900 North Carolina responded with new laws that effectively eliminated black voting participation until the Voting Rights Act of 1965;
WHEREAS, since the Supreme Court’s decision invalidating Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, voters are experiencing one of the worst attacks on their privilege and right to vote;
WHEREAS, we find that the so-called Voter Information Verification Act of 2013 is a sinister, intentional, malicious and immoral attempt by the North Carolina Republican Party to suppress the vote of seniors, students, low-income people, Latinos and African Americans; and
WHEREAS, we find these laws were intentionally designed to create “barriers” to certain voters and effectively deny them their constitutionally guaranteed right to vote;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the undersigned opposes the efforts of the North Carolina Republicans to suppress voter participation, and will assist in all possible ways to empower the voters of North Carolina and further enfranchise these voters through public information, registration drives, supporting legal challenges to such laws and by supporting all other lawful means, not to exclude non-violent civil disobedience, to guarantee North Carolina citizens their un-encumbered right to vote.
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