YSWNPY-Zine 20, final - Flipbook - Page 17
WOMAN’S
SUFFRAGE
MARCH
World Digital Library
After the end of the Civil War in
1865 and at the start of the
Reconstruction Era, many states
created “Black Codes.” These
restrictions extended to owning
property and getting a job,
hindering newly freed Black
folks’ economic mobility and
virtually preserving slavery. The
14th Amendment passed later
in 1868 weakened the power of
Black Codes by granting Black
people citizenship, but did not
grant us the right to vote. This
left ample room for systemic
attacks against our attempts to
be civically engaged.
MALCOLM X
‘THE BALLOT OR
THE BULLET”
SPEECH
1962
1865
BLACK
CODES
Only Black men received the
right to vote after the 15th
Amendment was passed.
Additionally, the women’s
suffrage movement often
excluded and erased Black
women. At the Women’s
Suffrage March held in Washington, D.C. in 1913, Black women
were again disregarded and
pushed to the back. Nonetheless,
Black women activists including Mary Church Terrell, Ida B.
Wells, and young women from
Howard University participated
in the march and continued
to make their voices heard for
Black women’s right to vote.
VOTER
EDUCATION
PROJECT
Courtesy of Voter Education Project Organizational
Records. Courtesy of Atlanta University Center, Robert
W. Woodruff Library Archives
The Voter Education Project
(VEP) was created through a
grant awarded to the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC) and other
organizations in 1962. The goal
was to register Black folks in the
South to vote and generally
promote civic participation.
Despite having to endure the
difficulties of actively opposing
voter suppression in the Deep
South, the initiative was able to
register around 688,000 Black
southerners to vote and increase
enthusiasm around Black civic
engagement.
June 1963 photo from Corbis Images
Malcolm X gave a speech in
Ohio criticizing the sincerity of
politicians and white liberals. He
implored Black folks to
recognize our political
power instead of giving our
power away to elected officials
who are meant to represent us
and our interests, but instead
focus on attaining power and
wealth.
2013
1964
1913
1857
Dred Scott and his wife Harriet
initially sued for wrongful
enslavement in April 1846.
After being granted and denied
his freedom in numerous
cases and appeals, he appealed
his case to the Supreme Court of
the United States. While
SCOTUS ultimately ruled
against Scott - saying that Black
people were not U.S. citizens and
that we could not sue in federal
court - this decision directly
influenced the Civil War and was
later overturned by the 13th and
14th Amendments.
Library of Congress
SHELBY COUNTY
V.
HOLDER
Photo provided by: demos.org
This Supreme Court ruling
overturned a key part of the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 that
mandated states and jurisdictions with a history of discrimination to have their voting
processes approved by the federal government. This provision
covered a majority of Southern
states, and once the decision was
overturned it created leeway for
many of the systemic voter
disenfranchisement and
suppression tactics we’re seeing
today.
17
YOUR SILENCE WILL NOT PROTECT YOU 16
DRED SCOTT V.
SANFORD
U.S. Library of Congress
1965
2018
KEMP
SURPRESSES
VOTERS
VOTING
RIGHTS ACT
Photographer unknown, source: paaflcio.org
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
prohibited discriminatory voting
practices, granting Black people
the right to vote - particularly
important for Black women
who were erased from the 19th
Amendment. This law, on paper,
would prevent the poll taxes,
literacy tests, and Grandfather
clauses that previously kept
Black folks from making their
voices heard at the ballot box.
Photograph by Flo Ngala for Rolling Stone
Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial
race was wrought with
voter suppression - from voters
purged from registration rolls,
exact match laws that denied
voter registration, uncounted
absentee ballots, polling place
closures, disinformation and
intimidation - which prevented
Stacey Abrams from becoming
the country’s first Black woman
governor. Since then, Abrams’
organization Fair Fight (created
immediately after the 2018
midterms) has worked to end
voter suppression in Georgia
and across the United States.
