Today, February 28, on this last day of Black History Month, we end of the #VRABlackHistory Series with a special two-part extended edition as we honor The Transformative Justice Coalition and educate about what you can do to advance voting rights.
Read MoreToday, February 24, 2017, we honorthe Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr. marched in Selma with Martin Luther King, Jr.; was a major-party presidential candidate twice; and, still advocates for many of the original causes on which he campaigned.
Read MoreToday we honor Congressman Marc Veasey, first African-American congressman elected in Tarrant County, Texas, and founder of the first ever Congressional Voting Rights Caucus in 2016.
Read MoreToday, February 23, 2017, we honor Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm, who was the first African-American woman in Congress in 1968; and, was the first African-American and African-American woman to make a serious presidential bid for a major party in 1972.
Read MoreToday we are educating about the rise of modern voter suppression. Our focus will be on the United State's Supreme Court's 2013 decision of Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 2 (2013), which ruled Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) unconstitutional.
Read MoreToday we honor Paul Cuffe Sr, who, by way of petitions, civil disobedience, and working within the system, helped pave the way for Black (and Native American) men in Massachusetts to be able to vote.
Read MoreToday we honor the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the landmark legislation that outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting. This 'act to enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution' was signed into law 95 years after the amendment was ratified.
Read MoreToday we honor Amelia Platts Boynton Robinson, a voting rights activist in the 1930s and a friend of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and other civil rights leaders in the 1950s and 1960s.
Read MoreToday we honor Martin Luther King Jr. and his fight for Black suffrage.
Read MoreToday we honor Fannie Lou Hamer, who was a seminal figure in the fight for African American voting rights and political power in the 1960's.
Read MoreToday we honor the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer project, an organized a voter registration drive aimed at dramatically increasing voter registration in Mississippi.
Read MoreHappy President’s Day! Today we honor the Children’s Crusade, which was the successful effort to desegregate Birmingham, Alabama.
Read MoreThe Early Fight for Black Suffrage (1724-1735). Today we honor an early fight for Black suffrage. In 1723-1724, Richard West, who was Legal Counsel for the Board of Trade, questioned the Virginia General Assembly as to why they took away voting rights from freed Black men.
Read MoreToday, we honor Ella Baker, one of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.
Read MoreToday we honor George H. White, who was a lawyer and a Republican African American Congressman from North Carolina’s Second Congressional District (1899-1901).
Read MoreToday, we honor the Federal Elections Bill (also known as “The Lodge Bill, or to its opponents “The Force Bill"). Following the 1877 Hayes-Tilden compromise, this bill represented the last attempt by the U.S. Congression the 19th Century to protect African-American suffrage.
Read MoreToday, we honor Mary McLeod Bethune, who was one of the 20th century’s most powerful and celebrated advocates for civil rights and suffrage.
Read MoreToday, we honor the First National Conference of the Colored Women of America held in August 1895 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Read MoreToday we honor the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which outlaws discrimination in voting rights on the basis of race, color, and previous condition of servitude; thereby advancing suffrage for African Americans (although only men could vote at that time).
Read MoreToday we honor Frederick Douglass. What would a series dedicated to those who advanced Black suffrage be without mention of Frederick Douglass, the man who advocated for suffrage for ALL African Americans, regardless of gender?
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