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Posts tagged as “Voting Rights”

Donella Wilson, 107-Year-Old Daughter of a Slave, Ready to Cast Her Vote Once More

By goodblacknews on November 8, 2016
Donella Wilson
Donella Wilson WISTV SCREENSHOT (photo via theroot.com)

article by via theroot.com

Donella Wilson, at 107 years old, has never missed a local or national election since she cast her first vote in the 1940s.  And Wilson, who was born in South Carolina to parents who were former slaves, says she is ready to cast her vote one more time and perhaps make history once again.

“I never thought I would live to see a day like this,” Wilson told WISTV.com. “I’m over 100 years old!”
Wilson has had to struggle some recently to retain her right to vote. She had to secure a new ID and registration card, but now she is ready and prepared for her opportunity to say something, and is heading to the polls, not just to back up her beliefs, but to remember those who came before who fought for the right she currently has.
“We couldn’t spell ‘vote,’” Wilson told the news station. “We didn’t know what the word meant other than we had an opportunity to say something and cast a vote, praying as we go along, that the vote could count to help us as a Negro race.”
Wilson said she remembers President Barack Obama’s historic election, expressing how “proud and thankful” she was to witness it.
And she hopes to witness history once again on Tuesday, saying that she planned to cast her vote for Hillary Clinton.  “I’m looking for her to be our first female president,” she said. “I think it’s an honor, a precious gift from God.”
To read more, go to: http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/11/107-year-old-daughter-of-a-slave-ready-to-cast-her-vote-once-more/

Duke University Debuts Website Documenting SNCC & the Voting Rights Struggle

By goodblacknews on March 12, 2015

Vq1ywrurDuke University in Durham, North Carolina, has just debuted a new website documenting the struggle of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to secure voting rights for African Americans. The site, entitled “One Person, One Vote: The Legacy of the SNCC and the Fight for Voting Rights,” went live one week before the 50th anniversary of the “Bloody Sunday” voting rights march in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965.
Students and faculty at Duke University worked with veterans of SNCC and other civil rights leaders to develop the website. The site includes a timeline, profiles of the key figures in the struggle to secure voting rights, and stories relating to the struggle.
5193ppoofzL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_Wesley Hogan, the director of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and the author of Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC’s Dream for a New America (University of North Carolina Press, 2007), stated that “this is an enormous achievement, to find ways to bring these experts who were so central to the voting rights struggle, into the formal historical record through their own words and on their own terms. The project comes at a moment when our nation is both commemorating key victories of the civil rights movement and seeing those victories challenged by new restrictive voting laws in many states.”
 
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article via jbhe.com

Election Day: Have You Voted? #AllVotesMatter #BlackVotesMatter

By goodblacknews on November 4, 2014

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Just a quick reminder if you haven’t found a moment to make it to the polls yet today, there’s still time!  GBN Lifestyle/Sports Editor Lesa Lakin and I have taken the #blackwomenvote initiative seriously and hit the polls already – fortunately we had good weather – we hope you can find time to do the same if you haven’t already.  Voting is important… as our history and the poster below remind us:

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If you don’t like your local, state or federal laws or officials, get out there and help foster change by making your voice heard.  If you’re not sure where your polling place is, click here to enter your address and find out!

Onward and upward, together!
Lori Lakin Hutcherson (follow @lakinhutcherson)

Join the #BlackWomenVote Campaign – Midterms in November Really Matter

By goodblacknews on October 13, 2014

Voters Head To Polls For DC's Primary (Photo: Getty)
Voters Head To Polls For DC’s Primary (Photo: Getty)

The Higher Heights Leadership Fund is on a mission to get more black women to vote in the upcoming midterm elections. The 2012 presidential elections had the biggest turnout for black women, with black women consisting of nearly 60% of black voters who participated. They actually had the highest turnout of any group.
And yet the number isn’t nearly the same for midterm elections. Just 46.5% of black women voted in the 2010 midterms. It’s not easy to get people excited or interested in midterm elections, but these elections do matter.
It’s incredibly important to create a more representative democracy in our country. That goes for those who vote as well as those we elect. And black women are underrepresented in our government.
So the Higher Heights Leadership Fund started the #BlackWomenVote campaign in order to get more black women to the polls during these upcoming midterm elections.
#BlackWomenVote provides information about voting and the election, like “Pledge to be a Higher Heights Voter,” “Personal Voting Plan,” “Knowing your Voter Status,” “Sister-to-Sister Calling List,” and “Activate your Online Network.”
“Black women have the potential to take this country by storm. We have the collective power to elect representatives who will champion our interests and support legislative actions that will that will improve education, health care and economic opportunities for our communities,” the Black Women Vote website states.
It’s so important to get out and vote and make our government a more representative one.
This is the only way to ensure that every voice is heard. Voters have the opportunity to make sure that their interests are being taken into account and that they have someone speaking up for those interests. The midterm elections might not seem as important as a Presidential election, but they really could have a big affect on people’s lives. Will you join #BlackWomenVote?
article by Robin Lempel via act.mtv.com
 

Attorney General Eric Holder Calls for Ex-Felons to Get Their Voting Rights Back

By goodblacknews on February 12, 2014

eric holder

Attorney General Eric Holder called on a group of states Tuesday to restore voting rights to ex-felons, part of a push to fix what he sees as flaws in the criminal justice system that have a disparate impact on racial minorities.

“By perpetuating the stigma and isolation imposed on formerly incarcerated individuals, these laws increase the likelihood they will commit future crimes,” Holder said during a speech at a criminal justice reform event hosted by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights at Georgetown University Law Center on Tuesday. “They undermine the reentry process and defy the principles of accountability and rehabilitation that guide our criminal justice policies. And however well-intentioned current advocates of felony disenfranchisement may be, the reality is that these measures are, at best, profoundly outdated.”

From the Washington Post:

Holder said that current laws forbidding felons from voting make it harder for them to reintegrate into society. He pointed to a recent study, which showed that felons in Florida who were granted the right to vote again had a lower recidivism rate. …

Holder does not have the authority to force states to change their laws, but his request could influence the debate to restore voting rights. His appeal is part of a broader effort currently underway by the Justice Department to reform the criminal justice system, which U.S. officials say often treats minority groups unfairly.

Eleven states currently restrict voting rights after a person has been released from prison and is no longer on probation and parole. These laws affect about 5.8 million Americans. It’s estimated that 2.2 million are black citizens—or nearly one in 13 African-American adults. 

“It is unwise, it is unjust, and it is not in keeping with our democratic values,” Holder said. “These laws deserve to be not only reconsidered, but repealed.”

article via clutchmagonline.com

 

Eric Holder Wants Voting Rights Act Provision Upheld by Supreme Court

By goodblacknews on April 6, 2013

Eric Holder

WASHINGTON (AP) — On April 4th, the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death, Attorney General Eric Holder challenged the Supreme Court to uphold a key section of the Voting Rights Act that requires all or part of 15 states with a history of discrimination to get federal clearance before carrying out changes in elections.
Holder made the comments Thursday in a speech to a civil rights group whose founder and president is the Rev. Al Sharpton. Focusing on issues he regards as important during President Barack Obama’s second term in office, Holder vowed to protect the voting rights of all Americans, safeguard young people from gun violence and improve the criminal justice system.
Opponents of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 say the pre-clearance requirement has outlived its usefulness. Starting in 2009, the Supreme Court made clear its skepticism about the present-day need for the provision. The court is considering a challenge on the issue from Shelby County, Ala., near Birmingham.

Obama's Second Term: Twelve Issues and What He'll Try Do About Them

By goodblacknews on January 25, 2013
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In his second Inaugural Address, Barack Obama outlined several issues that he plans to focus on during his final term. Some other policy areas went largely unmentioned, but were first-term priorities that might receive more attention over the next four years. Here’s a look at the President’s record on twelve key issues: what he’s said, what he’s accomplished so far, and what he might be planning. For further details, read Ryan Lizza’s 2012 inside account of the debates over the President’s second-term agenda.

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What he’s said:
“I believe the United States has a unique responsibility to act—indeed, we have a moral obligation. I say this as President of the only nation ever to use nuclear weapons.”
March 26, 2012; Seoul, South Korea.
What he’s accomplished:
The Administration oversaw the ratification of a new Strategic Arms-Reduction Treaty with Russia in April, 2010, which will significantly reduce the number of deployed strategic weapons. It coöperated with Israel in the development of Stuxnet, a computer virus aimed at sabotaging Iran’s nuclear program. The U.S. also led a coalition to initiate harsh sanctions against Iran in order to pressure the country to abandon its program. The President hosted the Nuclear Security Summit in April, 2010.
Possible second-term goal:
Ratify the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty. Contain Iran’s nuclear program. Pressure China and Russia to more aggressively oppose Iran and North Korea’s nuclear programs.

108-Year-Old Woman to Vote for the First Time

By goodblacknews on October 26, 2012
Joanna Jenkins: 108-Year-Old Woman to Vote for the First Time
Joanna Jenkins, a 108-year-old woman from Beaufort, South Carolina, is about to vote for the first time in her life.  After passing up her right for decades, she was finally compelled to cast her ballot after following this year’s presidential election and debates. Not only does she suddenly want to vote, but Jenkins’ cousin Shirley Lee says she’s excited about doing so and sharing the good news with everyone who visits.

GBN Quote Of The Day

By goodblacknews on October 24, 2012

“The act of registering to vote… gives one a sense of being.  The black man who goes to register is saying to the white man, ‘No.'”

–Stokely Carmichael aka Kwame Ture, former leader of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and honorary prime minister of the Black Panther Party

Viviette Applewhite, 93-year-old Plaintiff In Pa. Voter ID Case, Gets Card Amid Appeal

By goodblacknews on August 18, 2012

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to overturn Pennsylvania’s tough new voter identification law has received the state-issued photo ID card necessary to vote, despite saying she’d been rejected for years because she lacked appropriate documentation to receive the card.

Viviette Applewhite, who recalled marching for voting rights in 1960 with Martin Luther King Jr., was issued the temporary card on Thursday, the same day lawyers for her and others opposing the law appealed a judge’s refusal to halt the law from taking effect in the Nov. 6 presidential election.