Anderson@Large

Voting Rights and One Wrong

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires jurisdictions with a history of voting discrimination to have their election rules “precleared” by the Department of Justice.

Opponents had argued that President Barack Obama’s election shows the preclearance provisions are relics of a bygone era. They pointed to the record registration and turnout of African American voters as further proof that the mission of the Voting Rights has been accomplished.

Writing for an eight-member majority, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. acknowledged:

The historic accomplishments of the Voting Rights Act are undeniable. When it was first passed, unconstitutional discrimination was rampant and the “registration of voting-age whites ran roughly 50 percentage points or more ahead” of black registration in many covered States.

Hinting that Section 5’s days may be numbered, Roberts noted:

Today, the registration gap between white and black voters is in single digits in the covered States; in some of those States, blacks now register and vote at higher rates than whites…Voter turnout and registration rates now approach parity. Blatantly discriminatory evasions of federal decrees are rare. And minority candidates hold office at unprecedented levels.

Rep. Barbara Lee, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in a statement:

By an overwhelming 8 to 1 majority the Supreme Court has rejected an attempt to turn the clock back on civil rights and acknowledged Congress’s authority to protect the right to vote.

With the exception of Justice Clarence Thomas, the Justices of the Supreme Court understand the importance of the Voting Rights Act and the progress this country has made since 1964.

As a result of today’s ruling, the VRA and its “preclearance” provision remain effective tools in this nation’s ongoing struggle to guarantee an equal vote to all, regardless of race.

In Thomas’ worldview, black folks have overcome:

Congress passed §5 of the VRA in 1965 because that promise had remained unfulfilled for far too long. But now—more than 40 years later––the violence, intimidation, and subterfuge that led Congress to pass §5 and this Court to uphold it no longer remains. An acknowledgment of §5’s unconstitutionality represents a fulfillment of the Fifteenth Amendment’s promise of full enfranchisement and honors the success achieved by the VRA.

Thomas conveniently ignores the racial disparities in voters’ experiences on Election Day 2008. And don’t get me started on the voting rights violations in the 2000 election.

Perhaps Judge Sonia Sotomayor will be able to talk some sense into her fellow Yale Law grad when she joins him on the bench.

The case is Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District v. Holder. Background info is available here.

Gov. Barbour’s Kamikaze Mission

Rumor has it that Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is testing the waters for a presidential run. If true, Barbour and the Republican Party will go down in flames.

The Associated Press reports:

If the Republican Party is in danger of being marginalized as a conservative, white male Southern enclave, is Haley Barbour — the longtime Washington power broker and current Mississippi governor — the best person to turn things around?

Many rank-and-file Republicans and party leaders say yes, as the 61-year-old Barbour prepares to ramp up his national profile this month with back-to-back trips to the early presidential voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

If Barbour is the answer, it's one helluva question.

I don’t want to think about 2012 until, well, 2012, but I want everybody to know about Barbour.

Frankly, all you need to know is that as chairman of the Republican National Committee, Barbour did nothing to reach out to black voters. He admitted as much in a Jan. 16, 1997, Washington Post op-ed:

We are failing to communicate effectively to many women and minorities why our proposals are the right policies to solve the problems that concern them most. Too often we Republicans are satisfied to say what we’re for, but not why we’re for it.

Whatever.

As a gubernatorial candidate in 2003, Barbour exploited the fight over the Mississippi state flag, with its Confederate emblem, to oust the Democratic governor.

Barbour also spoke at a rally hosted by the Council of Conservative Citizens, an organization of white supremacists.

If the GOP's strategy is to win a presidential election with zero black support, then Haley Barbour is the one.

Voting Rights before Supreme Court

Today marks President Barack Obama’s 100th day in office. While Obama celebrates this once unimagined milestone, voting rights advocates will gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Supremes will hear a challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Opponents argue that Obama’s election shows the preclearance provisions are relics of a bygone era. They point to the record turnout of African American voters as further proof that the mission of the Voting Rights has been accomplished.

Tellingly, opponents fail to mention the racial disparities in voters’ experiences on Election Day 2008.

The New York Times editorializes:

The election of the first African-American president last year was an undeniable sign of racial progress. But even that breakthrough cannot ensure that legislative districts will not be gerrymandered, voting rolls purged or election procedures modified at the state and local levels in ways that diminish the rights of minorities. For that, as Congress wisely recognized, we still need the Voting Rights Act.

John Payton, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, observed:

The Voting Rights Act has literally transformed our democracy and our country. Section 5 cut right through the determined resistance to black political participation by requiring that certain states with entrenched histories of discrimination obtain preapproval before implementing new voting laws.

You can join the NAACP for a “virtual rally” in support of voting rights.

Background info on Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District One v. Holder is available here.

What’s Going On

Today would have been Marvin Gaye’s 70th birthday.

For those who remember…

MLK Day 2009: Keep on Pushing

This Martin Luther King Jr. Day falls on the eve of the inauguration of the nation’s first African American president. The swearing-in ceremony will be held in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial, where Dr. King shared his dream for America.

President-elect Barack Obama’s run for the White House does not mean the race for economic justice is over. In his “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. King said:

One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

Forty-five years later, a black man will assume the mantle of “leader of the free world.” But far from a “vast ocean of material prosperity,” millions of Americans are drowning in a sea of debt.

While there has been undeniable racial progress, racial inequality persists.

Last week, United for a Fair Economy, a nonpartisan research and economic justice advocacy group, released a report, “State of the Dream 2009: The Silent Depression,” which quantifies growing economic inequality. The findings include:

Many American Blacks today are already experiencing a silent economic depression that, in terms of unemployment, equals or exceeds the Great Depression of 1929. Almost 12% of Blacks are unemployed; this is expected to increase to nearly 20% by 2010. Among young Black males aged 16-19, the unemployment rate is 32.8%, while their white counterparts are at 18.3%.

Overall, 24% of Blacks and 21% of Latinos are in poverty, versus 8% of whites.

Extreme economic inequality (which the U.S. experienced in the 1920s and is again experiencing now) is often a key indicator of recession and/or depression. The Black depression of today may well foreshadow the depth and length of the recession the whole country entered in December 2007.

A deep recession would see median family income decline by 4%. Thirty-three per cent of Blacks and 41% of Latinos would drop out of the middle class. The overall national rate would be 25%.

Yes, take a day on to celebrate the Drum Major for Justice. But Dr. King’s dream of economic justice is not yet realized.