For the last day of Black History Month 2023, we are honoring the Transformative Justice Coalition's 2022 Voting Rights Agenda & Educating on what YOU can do to advance voting rights.

TJC and the Voting Rights Alliance have sounded the alarm this Black History Month. These organizations have rung the bell to alert you- the reader- about your ancestors’ struggles for African-American suffrage and about the present struggles in the fight for African-American suffrage. Education of Black History is essential in the fight. In fact, Black history and their fight for the vote provides a modern-day playbook for how you can be involved.

Check back this weekend for a #VRABlackHistory original article honoring the youth vote of the 2020’s. In the meantime, the deadline to register for the in-person Houston Gen Z and Millennial Votes Matter Training is March 6th, 2023. Be sure to apply!

We educated 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.

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.

Today, we are honoring the Movement for Black Lives and how Black Lives Matter highlights the necessity to vote downballot. The purpose of this article is to make the critical connection between these continued police abuses and the power of the ballot to elect officials who exercise power over various jobs that deeply impact policing. The issue of racial misconduct and deadly racialized police killings of Black men and women has once again been dominating our news cycle following the horrible video of Tyre Nichols. Policies of opposing broken windows policing have become more popular as people have called for the ending of policing in routine traffic enforcement.

Today, we honor Martin Luther King Jr., who "was a Baptist minister and social activist who played a key role in the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. Inspired by advocates of nonviolence such as Mahatma Gandhi, King sought equality for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and victims of injustice through peaceful protest." Arrested for his involvement in the Birmingham campaign of 1963 (in which activists used a boycott, sit-ins, and marches to protest segregation, unfair hiring practices, and other injustices), on April 12th, King penned the civil rights manifesto known as the "Letter from Birmingham Jail", an eloquent defense of civil disobedience addressed to a group of white clergymen who had criticized his tactics. King was the driving force behind watershed events such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the March on Washington, and the Selma-to-Montgomery marches which helped bring about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. "King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and is remembered each year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a U.S. federal holiday since 1986.” 

Today, we honor Ahmaud Arbery and remember how his tragic passing led to the Brunswick, Georgia community, whom we also honor in this article, coming together to vote out their Judicial Circuit District Attorney (DA), Jackie Johnson, who had been shamefully failing to provide equal justice for years.

Today, we are highlighting the founding of the Congressional Black Caucus and its work and honoring its founding and current members. There are already great written accounts about the founding and work of the Congressional Black Caucus. Therefore, I am curating all of those wonderful accounts together so you can explore in-depth all the rich history, importance, and work of the Congressional Black Caucus: who founded it? Why was it founded? How has it helped? What actions have they taken? 

Today, we highlight the current state of felon disenfranchisement and honoring those fighting for the right to restore the vote to returning citizens (those with past felony convictions). This is part 2 of the 2-part article reviewing felon disenfranchisement and the individuals affected. This #VRABlack History article will update Part One of the 2016 article focused on 2016 felon re-enfranchisement efforts on the state (Maryland and Florida) and federal levels, as well as provides information on the often confusing process of how those with past felony convictions may restore their right to vote. Today's article hopes to clarify some of these misconceptions by exploring and explaining: individual stories of those affected by America's felon disenfranchisement laws; voting rights for individuals who are incarcerated; voting rights for the formerly incarcerated (individuals with past felony convictions); and, the fight to restore the vote by the states.

Today, we remember the history of felon disenfranchisement as part of a 2-part article reviewing felon disenfranchisement and the individuals affected. Today's article is meant to be an informative overview of the history of felon disenfranchisement in America, and around the globe. This article delves into the origins of felon disenfranchisement laws that stem from Greece; how felon disenfranchisement laws made their way to the United States in the 1600’s and evolved through the Revolutionary War; and, the exceptions and difficulties created by the 13th Amendment, the first and second sections of the 14th Amendment, and the 15th Amendment. The racist past of felon disenfranchisement is also be looked at, including: why felonies became a broad-brush political tool to disenfranchise Black voters; the origins of the American policing, and how it disproportionately affects African Americans; how Jim Crow laws came to be discriminatory disenfranchisement laws; and, how felon disenfranchisement is the lasting effect of the Jim Crow Laws.

Today, we honor the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr. “The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr., founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, is one of America’s foremost civil rights, religious and political figures. Over the past forty years, he has played a pivotal role in virtually every movement for empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice.” 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. 

Today, we honor Congressman John Lewis, who fought for equality and voting rights his entire life. Congressman John Lewis 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”.

Note from the author: This article was originally written in 2017, updated in 2020, and updated again this year. The new 2022 update is at the beginning of this article and focuses on Lewis' Lasting Legacy.

Today, we honor Amelia Platts Boynton Robinson, who "was a civil rights pioneer who championed voting rights for African Americans." “Born when slavery and the Civil War were still in living memory, Mrs. Boynton Robinson became a voting rights activist in the 1930s and was a friend of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and other civil rights leaders in the 1950s and 1960s. She lived long enough to attend President Obama’s State of the Union address in January [2015] and to accompany the president across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in March, [2015] commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Selma march that almost claimed her life.”

Today, we honor the Children’s Crusade. which was the successful effort to desegregate Birmingham, Alabama. Led by thousands of children, underneath the leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and its leaders, Martin Luther King Jr, Rev. James Bevel, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, and Dorothy Cotton, this movement to protest racial violence and segregation galvanized the Civil Rights Movement.

Today, we honor Fannie Lou Hamer, a seminal figure in the fight for African American voting rights and political power in the 1960's. Hamer "was a civil rights activist whose passionate depiction of her own suffering in a racist society helped focus attention on the plight of African-Americans throughout the South."

Today, we honor Ella Baker, one of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.

Today, we honor Maggie Lena Walker. Maggie organized pre-registration meetings in in 1920 in Richmond, Virginia after the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Those meetings led to a huge voter registration drive for African American women and resulted in the highest rate of African American women registered to vote in Richmond that year. Not only did Maggie lead this voter registration movement, fighting against discrimination and racism in the voter registration process for Black women. In 1921, Maggie became the first and only African American woman to run on a gubernatorial ticket in Richmond. While Maggie is best remembered for founding the Saint Luke Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia, she also founded or was an active member of organizations which supported women’s suffrage.

Today, we remember the 1918 flu, and the struggles and triumphs of suffragists as well as the massacres of Black voters during that time.

Today, we remember past American insurrections that occurred in 1867 and 1875. In a post-January 6th world, this article is especially pertinent. Deadly violence has plagued the African-American quest for racial justice since the end of the civil war. Sadly these insurrections oftentimes resulted in the destruction of Black voting power. We must recognize this true line of violent history of the past to the violent history of the present.

Today, we honor the First National Conference of the Colored Women of America. Yesterday, we focused on George H, White, the unsung hero who was the last of the Reconstruction Era Black Congressmen. He detailed brutal racial voter suppression that destroyed the Black vote. It would be another 91 years before another Black North Carolina Congressperson. As I teased yesterday, one of the new articles, set to premiere this weekend, will take a look at the Black massacres that occurred after the 1860's, many of which were over voting. While many more massacres occurred after 1880's, the extreme concentration of Black massacres during this time period were specifically targeted against Black men exerting their right to vote under 15th amendment. Despite the horror that article will show, I purposefully have inserted this article. just as yesterday's, to honor the wins of Black men and women during this time.

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

Today, we honor George H. White, who was a lawyer and a Republican African-American Congressman from North Carolina’s Second Congressional District (1899-1901). As we travel through history, I have been purposefully laying the groundwork all week for one of our nine new articles: the Black massacres of the 1860's- 1880's, many of which were over voting. While many more massacres occurred after 1880's, the extreme concentration of Black massacres during this time period were specifically targeted against Black men exerting their right to vote under 15th amendment. Despite the horror that article will show, I purposefully have inserted this article before it to provide a contrast: that even when everything seems hopeless, progress still finds a way to rise as a phoenix.

Today, we remember the Black massacres that occurred between the 1860's and early 1900's. While many more massacres occurred after and before this, the extreme concentration of Black massacres during this time period were specifically targeted against Black men exerting their right to vote under 15th amendment. In this article, I revisit the time periods already covered all month long, and reveal this brutal hidden history.

When you think of the time period after the American Civil War known as "Reconstruction", what comes to mind? Is it a rampant massacres to uphold White Supremacy by suppressing the Black vote?

Today 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).

This was the last and most hard fought for of all the Reconstruction Congress' Constitutional Amendments to confer full citizenship upon the formerly enslaved. The intention of this amendment was to codify, permanently, the right to vote for all freed men. Immediately, the impact of this amendment proved transformative as freed men exercised the right to vote, and in coalition, elected several hundred African-Americans to office throughout the nation.

Today we honor the Black soldiers who fought in the American Civil War, the outcome of which lead to the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.

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

"Following the end of the Civil War, the United States Congress forged a plan to reconstruct the war-torn country. Three dynamic measures were passed in 1867."

Today, we honor both Robert Purvis, and his wife, Harriet Forten-Purvis. See their individual sections below to find out why!

Today 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.

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. This article exemplified the complexities of the fight for Black suffrage during a colonial era built on the immoral institution of slavery.