The Transformative Justice Coalition and the Voting Rights Alliance, in honor of Black History Month, are reviving the daily special series devoted to sharing the legacies and stories of the sheroes, heroes, and events in the fight for Black suffrage. This series was created in 2017 and added 4 NEW articles this year, and several newly revised, updated, or corrected ones. In addition to these daily newsletters all February long, this series also incorporates daily social media posts; an interactive calendar; and, website blog posts to spread the word broadly.

We encourage everyone to share this series to your networks and on social media under the hashtag #VRABlackHistory. You can also tweet us @TJC_DC to share your own facts.

Barbara Arnwine insisted that we could not have another year without publishing our Black History series! All month long, we have honored, recognized, and educated about a person, organization, or event, spanning over 5 centuries and told in chronological order, about those moments that forever changed the movement for African-American suffrage. The Transformative Justice Coalition thanks those who have been republishing our articles, on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, your websites, and even in the Tennessee Tribune. Over the 28 days of February 2022, these Black History emails were opened over 65,000 times, with over 600 individual clicks. You have responded to these emails with corrections, more information, asks to republish the series, and by expressing your thanks. We want to also extend our gratitude for your appreciation of the history this series shares.

This article is written by Caitlyn Cobb. All the sources are linked throughout the article with a full reference list at the end of the full article which can be read by clicking the button at the bottom of the page). This is an introductory summary page.

Today, February 24th, 2022, 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. As is outlined below, the Court ruling Section 4(b) of the VRA, which set the coverage formula for Section 5 of the VRA (the preclearance section), unconstitutional effectively gutted Section 5 of the VRA.

Although our focus today will be on Shelby County v. Holder, it would be remiss of us not to make of utmost clarity that voter suppression did NOT begin in 2013 after the Shelby County v. Holder decision. Voter suppression comes in many forms. Some would characterize felon disenfranchisement (the disenfranchisement of those with past felony convictions), which played a role in the 2000 presidential elections, as voter suppression. Voter suppression is also the more subtle realities that occur around election time, such as flyers that tell one party to vote on a day other than election day or flyers that tell people they can "vote-by-phone" or "vote-by-email". These voter suppression tactics are known as "deceptive practices", and were even present in the 2008 elections. There are many more forms and types of voter suppression tactics as well, and this article does not list all of them.

Please note that this article was updated on March 1st, 2022 to include the historic case Patino v. City of Pasadena, 230 F. Supp. 3d 667 (S.D. Tex. 2017). Because this landmark case, which put Pasadena, Texas under federal oversight until 2023, occurred post-Shelby (which adds to its significance), this updated section is at the end of this article in the "Commentary and a Post-Shelby County Era" section after the "Concerning the oral arguments in Shelby County v. Holder". Thank you.