Today, February 27, 2017, we honor Congressman John Lewis, who has put his heart, soul, skin, blood, and tears into the fight for African-American suffrage. Congressman John Lewis was “a leading participant in nearly all of the pivotal events of the civil rights movement”.

Today we are educating about the rise of modern voter suppression, especially after the 2013 Supreme Court decision of Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. __ (2013).

Today 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.

Today, February 20, 2017. we honorAmelia Platts Boynton Robinson, who " was a civil rights pioneer who championed voting rights for African Americans." What better way to honor President's Day then to honor Amelia Boynton? Boynton was at the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the honored guest of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Boynton was also the honored guest of President Obama in his January 2015 State of the Union address and she marched with him hand-in-hand on the Edmund Pettus Bridge commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Selma-To-Montgomery March.

Today, February 19, 1017, 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. "During the course of her activist career, Hamer was threatened, arrested, beaten, and shot at. But none of these things ever deterred her from her work."  Although Fannie Lou Hamer came from a poor background and wasn't highly educated, she was a fierce advocate who was able to galvanize, mobilize, and inspire a movement.

Today, February 18, 2017, we honor the Children’s Crusade. The Children’s Crusade was the successful effort by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and its leaders, Martin Luther King Jr, Rev. James Bevel, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, and Dorothy Cotton to desegregate Birmingham, Alabama.

Today we honor Mary Eliza Church Terrell. Mary was a strong advocate for Black woman suffrage, often highlighting the struggles that Black women had to go through that White women didn’t. Mary did a lot in her life, but her main focus was voting rights, as she recognized and said that she “belonged ‘to the only group in this country that has two obstacles to surmount, both sex and race.’”

Today, February 15, 2017, we honor Ida B. Wells-Barnett, who was a journalist, civil rights activist, and suffragist who endlessly fought against racial and sexual discrimination.

Today, February 14, 2017, we honor George H. White, who was a lawyer and the last of the Black Reconstruction Congressmen, departing in 1901.What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than to honor a man who passionately loved the law, his country, and his race?

Today, February 12, 2017, 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).

. Today we honor The Reconstruction Congress of 1867, which passed several measures to promote the Black franchise:

1.      The District of Columbia Suffrage Bill;

2.      The Territorial Suffrage Act; and,

3.      The Reconstruction Acts of 1867.

Today, February 10, 2017, we honor Anna Julia Cooper, who was an American educator, writer, and scholar remembered for her pioneering crusade for the upliftment of African-American women.

Today, February 9, 2017, we honor Mary Ann Shadd Cary, who was an African-American teacher, journalist, lawyer, and suffragist.

Toda, Febraury 7, 2017, 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?

Today, February 6, 2017, we honor Robert Purvis, a Black man who lost his voting rights in the early 1800’s in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On March 14, 1838, Purvis submitted a petition to fight for his and 40,000 other Black Philadelphians' voting rights in response to a new state constitutional amendment that restricted suffrage to only White men.

Today we honor Prince Hall of Boston, who was not only a registered voter of his day, but a staunch abolitionist and civil rights activist who used the power of petitions to effectively petition the government to gain rights for Blacks.