Supreme Court Poised to Roll Back Even More of the Progress Blacks Have Made in the U.S. in the Last Half Century [View all]

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"Daily the (Black man) is coming more and more to look upon law and justice, not as protecting safeguards, but as sources of humiliation and oppression. The laws are made by men who have little interest in him; they are executed by men who have absolutely no motive for treating the black people with courtesy or consideration; and, finally, the accused law-breaker is tried, not by his peers, but too often by men who would rather punish ten innocent Black men than let one guilty one escape."

__W.E.B Dubois:

___The federal advancement of group rights was an important element in securing individual rights for blacks, before and after the abolition of slavery. Government's role has been expanded, mostly in response to needs which had gone unfulfilled by the states; either by lack of will or limited resources. After the passage of the 14th and 15th amendments, the federal government had to assert itself to defend these rights -- albeit with much reluctance and not without much prodding and instigation -- by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That effort, and others by the federal government was a direct acknowledgment of the burdens and obstacles facing an emerging class of blacks.

However, Americans have yet to support and establish blacks in our political institutions with a regularity we could celebrate as 'colorblindness.' And, to be fair, not even many non-black folks would likely agree that we've moved past a point where race should be highlighted (if not overtly emphasized), in our political deliberations and considerations.

I still recall the mere handful of black legislators I found in Congress when I first explored the Capitol in my neatly-pressed white shirt and tie. I remember seeing the tall head of Rep. Ron Dellums, ever present and pacing on the House floor, and imagining that there were many more like him in the wings.

It wasn't until 1990, though, that we actually saw a significant influx of minorities elected to Congress, enabled by the 1990 census Democrats fought to reform and manage (along with their fight for an extension of the Voting Rights Act which Bush I vetoed five times before trading his signature for votes in a deal brokered by then-republican senator John Danforth to advance Clarence Thomas to the SC) which allowed court-ordered redistricting to double the number of districts with black majorities.

Consider how the VRA transformed American democracy (from The Nation):

-In 1965, only 31 percent of eligible black voters were registered to vote the in the seven Southern states originally covered by the VRA, compared to 72 percent of white voters. The number of black registered voters was as low as 6.7 percent in Mississippi. In Selma, only 393 of 15,000 eligible black voters were registered when LBJ introduced the VRA in March 1965.

Today, 73 percent of black voters are registered to vote according to the US Census and black voter turnout exceeded white turnout in 2012 for the first time in recorded history.

-In 1965, there were fewer than 500 black elected officials nationwide. Today, there are more than 10,500.

-In 1965, there were only five black members of Congress. Today there are forty-four. The 113th Congress is the most diverse in history, with 97 minority elected representatives.

-Since 1965, the Justice Department blocked at least 1,150 discriminatory voting changes from going into effect under Section 5 of the VRA.

Yet the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision invalidating Section 4 of the VRA threatens to roll back much of the progress made over the past fifty or so years. Since the ruling, six Southern states previously covered under Section 4 have passed or implemented new voting restrictions, with North Carolina recently passing the country’s worst voter suppression law. The latest assault on the franchise comes on the heels of a presidential election in which voter suppression attempts played a starring role, with 180 bills introduced in 41 states to restrict access to the ballot in 2011-2012, which NAACP President Ben Jealous called “the greatest attacks on voting rights since segregation.” The broad scope of contemporary voting discrimination is why John Lewis testified before Congress last month that “the Voting Rights Act is needed now like never before.”

Today, the Supreme Court’s maga majority members appeared likely to strip Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of all power to protect against racially discriminatory redistricting during arguments in the case of Louisiana v. Callais.

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has long been a guardrail against states "packing" Black voters into districts and "cracking" communities of color into other districts with an aim of diluting their electoral influence.

Courts that have found a violation of Section 2 then order states to redraw their maps, with an eye on race, to ensure minority voters are given fair chance at political participation.

The law does not require proof of intent to discriminate -- prohibiting any discrimination in effect -- but several conservative justices suggested that plaintiffs should have to show at least some possibility of intent, a tougher standard to meet.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/supreme-court-appears-ready-limit-key-part-voting/story?id=126556613

Removing yet another key plank of the VRA which helped advance more Blacks to the national legislature would be yet another victory for those politicians and others who've fostered and encouraged a resurgence of racial animosity toward people of color in the U.S.; something which, for the most part, blacks have never had much control over. It remains for the white community to lead the way in setting the standard for discourse and relations in this nation.

There's a political cottage industry of racism, driven in great part by petty legislative politics of divisiveness and racial hatred which has spilled out into the public consciousness and legitimized and encouraged the pitting of groups of Americans against others.

The republican political class, in particular, benefits directly from racial and ethnic hatred and resentment that they fuel with their rhetoric at every opportunity. It's an old game, adopted from our tragic beginnings as a nation, practiced by people who should know better but don't give a damn about our humanity, as long as it provides red meat to throw to their rabid constituency.

Who are we; we the people of color? We the African Americans? We Minorities, we Negroes, we Blacks? Our history in this country is rooted in slavery and oppression, but in the search for the roots we sometimes find that the more we draw closer to our black identity, the more we seem to pull away from the broader America.

These political figures' insistence that our community must necessarily be at odds with white America because of our tragic beginnings threaten to render our successes impotent.

But, what becomes of our quest for a national identity when many of blacks' contributions in developing and reforming this nation have not been acknowledged or reciprocated? Can we really put aside our identification with our unique heritage and regard ourselves as homogenized as the Supreme Court supposes, even as our particular needs are regularly ignored; even as the advancement of a person of color to the highest office in the land has been openly disparaged by racism and political revisionism and denigration befitting the Klan's successful campaigns to dilute and or eliminate Black political influence in the South?

I'm fortunate to have a long line of outstanding family members and friends of the family to recall with great pride in the recounting of their lives and the review of their accomplishments; many in the face of intense and personal racial adversity.

In countless ways, their stories are as heroic and inspiring as the ones we've heard of their more notable counterparts. Their life struggles and triumphs provide valuable insights into how a people so oppressed and under siege from institutionalized and personalized racism and bigotry were, nonetheless, able to persevere and excel.

Upon close examination of their lives we find a class of Americans who strove and struggled to stake a meaningful claim to their citizenship; not to merely prosper, but to make a determined and selfless contribution to the welfare and progress of their neighbors.

That's the beauty and the tragedy of the entire fight for equal rights, equal access, and for the acceptance among us which can't be legislated into being. It can make you cry to realize that the heart of what most black folks really wanted for themselves in the midst of the oppression they were subject to was to be an integral part of America; to stand, work, worship, fight, bleed, heal, build, repair, grow right alongside their non-black counterparts.

It can also floor you to see just how confident, capable, and determined many black folks were in that dark period in our history as they kept their heads well above the water; making leaps and bounds in their personal and professional lives, then, turning right around and giving it all back to their communities in the gift of their expertise and labor.

As we work to defend against the latest republican assaults on the continuation of these important voting protections - and work for the enactment of expanded rights and protections for every American - we need to keep the Voting Rights Act at the forefront of our political activity to ensure that the promises made in the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were more than just lip service.

We must continue to make certain that those important rights and privileges are backed up by the unfaltering and immediate actions of the federal government to defend and enhance these vital protections of our participation in our democratic process of government and law.

LBJ made clear in his remarks at the signing of the Act that the defense and protection of voting rights for black Americans was, ultimately, a powerful advance for ALL Americans:

"It is difficult to fight for freedom. But I also know how difficult it can be to bend long years of habit and custom to grant it. There is no room for injustice anywhere in the American mansion. But there is always room for understanding toward those who see the old ways crumbling. And to them today I say simply this: It must come. It is right that it should come. And when it has, you will find that a burden has been lifted from your shoulders, too.

It is not just a question of guilt, although there is that. It is that men cannot live with a lie and not be stained by it.