A review of the new film 'American Coup: Wilmington 1898,' which premieres November 12 on PBS.
People are hurting, and millions of them didn’t vote either way. They just didn’t vote. I want people to hear that. The vote totals went down. They didn’t go up. They went down. And we have to take this very seriously.
Since the end of the Civil War, the United States has found ways to disenfranchise Black voters. It started with literacy tests and poll taxes and threats of racist violence. Now, it’s through voter suppression laws and mass incarceration.
The right to participate in the conduct of public affairs, which includes the right to vote and to be elected, is at the very heart of democratic governments based on the will of the people, according to the United Nations.
This Report documents how voters of color, young voters and those with disabilities have been targeted with repressive laws and policies that undermine the hard-fought progress secured during the Civil Rights era.
The ruling this week that narrows the scope of the Voting Rights Act applies directly only in the three states covered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, but it has national implications.
The little-known charity is backed by famous conservative donors, including the families behind Hobby Lobby and Uline. It’s spending millions to make a big political push for this election — but it may be violating the law.
“[T]he court rightly held that the Mississippi Legislature used the redistricting process to dilute the power of Black voters. Those legislative districts denied Black Mississippians an equal voice in state government.”
In a topsy-turvy ruling, the conservatives on the Supreme Court ordered Louisiana to use a VRA-compliant congressional map while the liberals dissented.
With control of the House of Representatives hanging in the balance, the time-consuming appeals process means elections in multiple districts will take place using maps that have been challenged as discriminatory to voters of color.
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