蜜桃传媒

It鈥檚 a right enshrined in our Constitution, which forbids restricting voting rights based on immutable characteristics, such as race. Our nation鈥檚 history, however, is a story of the ongoing battle to ensure this precious right for every American citizen.

After the Civil War, Southern states like Florida expanded criminal codes to include offenses lawmakers believed black people could be most easily convicted and then heightened the penalties for those laws. The result is what we face today 鈥� mass incarceration, with more people in U.S. prisons than the entire population of some nations. Florida alone has over .听

And when formerly incarcerated individuals attempt to reintegrate into society, they are blocked at every turn with limited educational, employment and housing opportunities. These policies persist in large part because the very people affected by them are simultaneously denied the right to vote and don鈥檛 have a say in their own future.

Barriers to the ballot box are not new for people of color in this country, especially African Americans. It took the Voting Rights Act of 1965 鈥� one of the nation鈥檚 largest enfranchisement of voters 鈥� to counter the disenfranchisement effort.

Unfortunately, the battle isn鈥檛 over to protect this law.

In 2013, the gutted pre-clearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act, opening the door for states to pass laws that , particularly in states with sizeable African-American populations. And just last month, the high court decided that federal courts have no role in regulating state legislatures鈥� gross abuses of power when drawing political lines 鈥� a decision that former Attorney General Eric Holder said tears听 鈥渁t the fabric of our democracy and .鈥�

And in Mississippi, the 蜜桃传媒 is to lift a lifetime voting ban for people convicted of certain crimes 鈥� a relic of the state鈥檚 1890 constitution, which is still having its intended effect: One in six black adults in the state can鈥檛 cast a ballot.

Even recent victories ensuring the right to vote have met with backlash.

In 2018, Florida, a state with the saw voters overwhelmingly pass Amendment 4, a measure that promised to be since the Voting Rights Act. The amendment would restore the right to vote to about 1.4 million Floridians who had served their sentences for .

The Southern Poverty Law Center invested heavily in advertising, mail, and canvassing to educate voters and turn out the vote. The amendment was approved by more than 64 percent of the voters. It was an historic moment in a state that鈥檚 considered critical in presidential elections but where Republicans narrowly won statewide races for governor and U.S. senate.

But as quickly as the amendment was passed, lawmakers got to work undermining the will of the voters. State legislators passed that will force ex-felons to pay all fines, fees, and restitution associated with their sentences before they can regain their right to vote. Cumulatively, that鈥檚 . The bill was signed into law by the governor, creating a hurdle to the ballot box that may prevent 听蹿谤辞尘 voting.

Last week, the filed a over the new law.

It describes how the law is a modern-day poll tax outlawed by the 24^th Amendment. The named plaintiffs are African-American women, the group most likely to be adversely affected by the new law. In Florida, of those disenfranchised for felony convictions are black, despite comprising only 16 percent of the general population. What鈥檚 more, black Floridians are almost听 to live in poverty as whites.

Underscoring the obstacle lawmakers have created is the reality that women of color are 听than their male and white female counterparts. Nearly a quarter of all black women in Florida live below the poverty line and the unemployment rate for black women with a felony conviction is more than 43 percent.

Jim Crow鈥檚 fingerprints are all over this law and its effect will be painfully clear come Election Day. People of color, particularly black women, will be silenced at the ballot box.听

This is not what democracy looks like.

The Editors

P.S. Here are some other pieces we think are valuable this week:

• 听蹿谤辞尘 Pro Publica

• 听蹿谤辞尘 The New York Times听

• from CNN

• 听蹿谤辞尘 The Washington Post

• 听蹿谤辞尘 Pro Publica

蜜桃传媒's Weekend Reads are a weekly summary of the most important reporting and commentary from around the country on civil rights, economic and racial inequity, and hate and extremism.听Sign up to receive Weekend Reads every Saturday morning.

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