#votingrightsact — Public Fediverse posts

Voter Intimidation at the Polls: What Every American Should Know Before November

https://thedemocracyadvocate.com/current-events/voter-intimidation-at-the-polls/

Important American History Moments That Happened in August

African American history is American history, and August includes several major turning points in the nation’s political, cultural, labor and civil-rights story.

From the arrival of Africans at Point Comfort in 1619 to the March on Washington in 1963, the month includes moments of achievement, resistance, tragedy and transformation. August also marks the anniversaries of the Voting Rights Act, Thurgood Marshall’s Supreme Court confirmation and the birth of the nation’s first African American president.

Here are some of the most important African American history dates to remember in August.

August 4, 1961: Barack Obama Was Born

Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961. He became the 44th president of the United States and the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office when he was inaugurated in January 2009.

Obama served two terms as president, from 2009 to 2017. His election represented a historic milestone nearly 150 years after the abolition of slavery and more than four decades after the Voting Rights Act became law.

Learn more from the Obama White House Archives⁠.

August 6, 1965: The Voting Rights Act Was Signed

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6, 1965.

The landmark legislation prohibited racially discriminatory voting practices, including literacy tests used to prevent Black citizens from registering to vote. It also authorized federal intervention in jurisdictions with documented histories of discrimination.

The law followed years of organizing and sacrifice by civil-rights activists, including the voting-rights campaign and marches in Selma, Alabama.

Read the Voting Rights Act at the National Archives⁠.

August 9, 1936: Jesse Owens Won His Fourth Olympic Gold Medal

Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin as a member of the United States 4-by-100-meter relay team.

Owens also earned gold medals in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash and long jump. His achievements challenged Nazi Germany’s claims of Aryan racial superiority and established him as one of the most accomplished athletes in Olympic history.

Owens returned to a segregated United States, where he continued to face racial discrimination despite his international success.

August 17, 1887: Marcus Garvey Was Born

Marcus Mosiah Garvey was born in Jamaica on August 17, 1887.

Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and became one of the early 20th century’s most influential advocates for Black nationalism, Pan-Africanism and economic independence.

His movement encouraged people of African descent around the world to take pride in their heritage, build Black-owned institutions and pursue political and economic self-determination.

August 18, 1920: The 19th Amendment Was Ratified

The 19th Amendment was ratified on August 18, 1920, prohibiting the federal government and states from denying voting rights based on sex.

Although the amendment represented an important victory, it did not guarantee equal access to the ballot for all women. Black women, particularly those living in the South, continued to confront poll taxes, literacy tests, intimidation, violence and other discriminatory barriers.

Black women remained central to the continuing struggle for voting rights, which eventually helped produce the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Explore the 19th Amendment through the National Archives⁠.

August 20, 1619: Africans Arrived at Point Comfort

The arrival of Africans at Point Comfort in the English colony of Virginia is traditionally commemorated on August 20.

Approximately 20 Africans were brought to Virginia aboard the English privateer White Lion in late August 1619. The event became an important moment in the development of racialized slavery in English North America.

The date should be understood within a broader history. Africans were present in other parts of the Americas and North America before 1619, and historians continue to examine the status and experiences of the Africans who arrived in Virginia.

August 21, 1831: Nat Turner’s Rebellion Began

Nat Turner and a group of enslaved people began an uprising in Southampton County, Virginia, on August 21, 1831.

Turner, an enslaved preacher, believed he had been called to lead people out of slavery. The rebellion became one of the most consequential uprisings by enslaved people in United States history.

Authorities responded with executions and widespread violence against Black residents. Southern lawmakers also imposed more restrictive laws designed to control the movement, education and religious activities of enslaved and free Black people.

Learn more from the National Museum of African American History and Culture⁠.

August 25, 1925: The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Was Organized

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was organized in 1925 under the leadership of A. Philip Randolph.

Pullman porters performed demanding work while facing low wages, long hours and racial discrimination. Their union became a pioneering force in the Black labor movement and eventually secured a landmark collective-bargaining agreement.

The Brotherhood’s organizing helped connect economic justice, workers’ rights and the emerging civil-rights movement.

Explore the history of the Pullman porters through the National Park Service⁠.

August 27, 1963: W.E.B. Du Bois Died

Scholar, author and civil-rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois died in Ghana on August 27, 1963, one day before the March on Washington.

Du Bois was a co-founder of the NAACP and an influential advocate for civil rights, higher education and Pan-African unity. His writings examined race, democracy, economics and the experiences of Black Americans.

His death came as a new generation of activists prepared to gather in Washington to demand jobs, equality and freedom.

August 28, 1955: Emmett Till Was Murdered

Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black teenager from Chicago, was abducted and murdered while visiting relatives in Mississippi on August 28, 1955.

His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, made the courageous decision to hold an open-casket funeral. Images showing the brutality inflicted on her son were published by Black media outlets and seen around the world.

Till’s murder and the acquittal of the two white men charged with the crime helped galvanize a new generation of civil-rights activists.

Read Emmett Till’s story from the Smithsonian⁠.

August 28, 1963: The March on Washington Took Place

Approximately 250,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C., for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963.

The demonstration brought national attention to employment discrimination, segregation, voting rights and the need for comprehensive civil-rights legislation. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

The march became one of the defining events of the Civil Rights Movement and helped build momentum for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Explore the March on Washington through the National Park Service⁠.

August 30, 1967: Thurgood Marshall Was Confirmed to the Supreme Court

The United States Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall as an associate justice of the Supreme Court on August 30, 1967.

Marshall became the first African American to serve on the nation’s highest court. Before joining the Supreme Court, he was a leading civil-rights attorney who successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case that declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

Marshall served on the Supreme Court from 1967 until 1991.

View the Senate’s historical record⁠.

Why August 28 Is Especially Important in Black History

August 28 stands out as an exceptionally consequential date in African American history.

Emmett Till was murdered on August 28, 1955. Eight years later, the March on Washington brought approximately 250,000 people to the nation’s capital. W.E.B. Du Bois had died in Ghana just one day before the march.

The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture has highlighted August 28 because of the number of major events connected to Black history that have occurred on that date.

Keep Learning About African American History

These anniversaries provide opportunities to learn about the people and movements that transformed the United States. They also remind us that progress resulted from sustained organizing, courage, creativity and sacrifice.

Raleigh residents can continue exploring African American history through local museums, historic sites, libraries, archives and community organizations throughout the year.

Follow DoRaleigh.com for everything Raleigh, including local history, community events, government news and cultural coverage.

Connect With Us: Instagram | Facebook | BSky | Linkedin

Share With Us: Post your community News, Events, on our Submissions Page.

Advertise With Us: Interested in Advertising click here.

Written by Bryan Tomlinson, Editor of DoRaleigh.com.

Their Loved Ones Died to Give Us the Voting Rights Act. They Have a Message for the Supreme Court.

One of the simplest and most immediate steps Americans can take regain control of their rights is to simply vote and force accountability on politicians. “Otherwise, you sit there and moan and groan and don’t vote. They’re going to do what they want,”

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2026/07/voting-rights-act-andrew-goodman-family-supreme-court-callais-killers.html

Paywall free version https://archive.ph/vNuUe

#VRA #Voting #VotingRights #VotingRightsAct #Slavery #JimCrow #CivilRights #CivilRightsAct #SupremeCourt #constitution #USconstitution #Callais

Since #SCOTUS’ April ruling, largely #white #Republican-led legislatures across the #South have moved to dismantle #Black political #power at stunning speed, breaking apart voting blocs at the urging of a failing president desperate to keep control of #Congress in this fall’s midterm #elections.

#RepresentationMatters #SouthernStrategy #JimCrow #law #ElectionLaw #ActivistCourt #VotingRights #VotingRightsAct #VRA #redistricting #elections #USpol #Trump #Republicans #WhiteSupremacy

#GiftArticle

A Shocking Betrayal of #Black Americans

by Mara Gay

The dismantling of Black political #power in the South is a great betrayal, & its effects will ripple through our #democracy.

#RepresentationMatters #SouthernStrategy #JimCrow #law #ElectionLaw #SCOTUS #ActivistCourt #VotingRights #VotingRightsAct #VRA #redistricting #elections #USpol #Trump #Republicans #WhiteSupremacy
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/opinion/voting-rights-act-black-voters-south.html?unlocked_article_code=1.oVA.qSCM.vEpY9cDXlL3Z&smid=nytcore-ios-share

Over the course of several months, #SCOTUS has had a hand in congressional maps in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Virginia & California. Most of those decisions have benefited the #Republican Party.

The Alabama case is also the latest “emergency” order tied to the court’s April decision on the #VotingRightsAct, in which a 6-3 majority gutted the ability of groups to bring claims of racial #discrimination under that 1965 landmark #law.

#redistricting #SouthernStrategy #JimCrow #Trump #ActivistCourt

#Louisiana Approves Map Eliminating a Majority #Black District

Louisiana lawmakers gave final approval on Friday to a new congressional map that would eliminate 1 of the state’s 2 majority-Black districts, making it the second Southern state to draw & approve carving out such a district since #SCOTUS weakened the #VotingRightsAct​ last month.

#law #ElectionLaw #VotingRights #VRA #Trump #BigLie #ActivistCourt #SouthernStrategy #JimCrow #redistricting #gerrymandering
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/29/us/politics/louisiana-redistricting-map-majority-black-district.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

The political drama in #SouthCarolina is part of a #Republican strategy—propelled by #Trump — to redraw voting districts to the #GOP’s advantage in an attempt to hold on to a slim #House majority in the #midterms. #Republicans have been moving quickly to try to leverage a recent #SCOTUS ruling that weakened minority protections under the federal #VotingRightsAct.

#VotingRights #VRA #redistricting #law #ElectionLaw #RepresentationMatters #WhiteSupremacy #gerrymandering #SouthernStrategy #JimCrow

If the case makes it to #SCOTUS, it will be the first major test of the high court’s new standard for challenging congressional maps. The lower court judges made clear that they had reviewed the arguments through the lens of the Supreme Court’s #VotingRightsAct ruling last month but maintained that the state’s map failed under the new standard by intentionally discriminating against #Black voters.

#VotingRights #VRA #redistricting #law #WhiteSupremacy #SouthernStrategy #JimCrow #Trump

The ruling further confuses the electoral landscape across the #South, as #Republican-led legislatures have raced to implement new district lines after #SCOTUS narrowed the #VotingRightsAct of 1965. It also demonstrates how the ruling from the nation’s highest court has further muddled how lower courts interpret the landmark #CivilRights #law.

#VotingRights #VRA #redistricting #ElectionLaw #RepresentationMatters #WhiteSupremacy #gerrymandering #SouthernStrategy #JimCrow #Trump

‘Beyond court reform, Americans have to reacquaint themselves with constitutional thinking — with the idea that we, the people, make constitutional meaning. To the extent that the Supreme Court claims broad authority to say what our constitution means, it is in large part because we have given this authority to the justices through our indifference.’
https://youtube.com/watch?v=wCgDj8UHfXc

#JamelleBouie #VotingRightsAct #americanRacism #antiBlackness #politicalApathy #USConstitution #USSupremeCourt #SCOTUS

“It’s all just a little bit of history repeating.”
- Shirley Bassey

( "Tear Gas: the most effective agent used by employers to persuade their employees that the interests of capital and labor are identical." - T-Bone Slim )

https://www.propublica.org/article/charles-mauldin-selma-tear-gas

#civilrights #ICEout #Photography #Selma #TearGas #VotingRightsAct

Supreme Court Breaks Another Election To Make Sure Black Voters Are Disenfranchised

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.techdirt.com/2026/05/12/supreme-court-breaks-another-election-to-make-sure-black-voters-are-disenfranchised/

ICYMI Excellent interview about the Voting Rights Act and where it now stands with Sherrill Ifill and Jon Stewart of The Daily Show.

Civil rights lawyer and founding director of Howard Law School's 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy, Sherrilyn Ifill, sits down with Jon Stewart to discuss the Supreme Court’s weakening of the Voting Rights Act.

They talk about how the reinstatement for purposeful discrimination overturned the court’s own precedent, how the Voting Rights Act protects the voting strength of minorities and their candidates of choice, and the dangerous potential for Trump and Republicans to redistrict using this precedent in an effort to turn seats in the House.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCse1FFEKLM

#Voting #VotingRights #VotingRightsAct #SherillIfill #JonSteward #TheDailyShow #DailyShow #Louisiana #SupremeCourt

cc: @heidilifeldman

This, precisely, is the problem:
https://www.contrariannews.org/p/america-becomes-outraged-only-when?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
#scotus #votingrights #vra #dei #louisiana #alabama #votersuppression #gerrymandering #rigged #cherrypicking #mlk #callaisrequirements #callais #minorityrepresentation #reconstruction #justiceelenakagan #nikolehannahjones #attackondemocracy #votingrightsact #civilwar #confederacy #southernstrategy #supplysideeconomics #trickledowntheory #race #gender #socioeconomicstatus #educationallevel #obbb #nabj #project2025 #heritagefoundation

@indivisibleteam

The #SCOTUS decision on the #VotingRightsAct is exactly what #LeonardLeo and the #FederalistSociety paid for in #ChiefJustice #JohnRoberts

@georgetakei

The #SCOTUS decision on the #VotingRightsAct is exactly what #LeonardLeo and the #FederalistSociety paid for in #ChiefJustice #JohnRoberts

Gerrymandering or not, however you slice it, this does not change my view that drawing districts ought to be a process left to independent commissions based on as transparent and nonpartisan a methodology as possible. The United Kingdom knows better than to have politicians pick voters, as does even Brazil.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5856022-redistricting-supreme-court-voting-rights-act/

#democraticBacksliding #democracy #electionReform #elections #gerrymandering #partisanship #redistricting #SCOTUS #VotingRightsAct #voterSuppression
#USPolitics

Here lies the #FourteenthAmendment, which could not survive the exsanguination of the #VotingRightsAct at the hands of a compromised and corrupt #SCOTUS.

May its memory be a blessing.

#Amerika #impeach47 #resist #Ω #donotcomply #crushICE #VRA #CRA #CivilRightsAct

The 1965 #VotingRightsAct, the #centerpiece legislation of the #CivilRights Movement, succeeded in opening the ballot box to #Black Americans & reducing persistent racial #discrimination in voting. Nearly 70 of the 435 congressional districts are protected by #Section2, #ElectionLaw expert Nicholas Stephanopoulos has estimated.

#law #SCOTUS #VotingRights #RepresentationMatters

What Is A #PollTax? Definition and Examples

By Robert Longley, July 27, 2022

Excerpt: "In the United States, the origin of the poll tax—and the controversy surrounding it—is associated with the agrarian unrest of the 1880s and 1890s, which culminated in the rise of the Populist Party in the Western and the Southern states. The Populists, representing low-income farmers, gave Democrats in these areas the only serious competition that they had experienced since the end of Reconstruction. The competition led both parties to see the need to attract Black citizens back into politics and to compete for their vote. As the Democrats defeated the Populists, they amended their state constitutions or drafted new ones to include various discriminatory disfranchising devices. When the payment of the poll tax was made a prerequisite to voting, impoverished #BlackPeople and often #PoorWhitePeople, unable to afford the tax, were denied the #RightToVote.

"During the post-Civil War Reconstruction Era in the United States, the former states of the Confederacy repurposed the poll tax explicitly to prevent formerly enslaved #BlackAmericans from voting. Although the #14thAmendment and #15thAmendment [s] gave Black men full #citizenship and #VotingRights, the power to determine what constituted a qualified voter was left to the states. Beginning with Mississippi in 1890, #SouthernStates quickly exploited this legal loophole. At its 1890 constitutional convention, Mississippi imposed a $2.00 poll tax and early registration as a requirement for voting. This had catastrophic results for the Black electorate. Whereas approximately 87,000 Black citizens registered to vote in 1869, representing almost 97% of the eligible voting-age population, fewer than 9,000 of them registered to vote after the state’s new constitution took effect in 1892.

"Between 1890 and 1902, all eleven former #Confederate states imposed some form of a poll tax to deter Black Americans from voting. The tax, which ranged from $1 to $2, was prohibitively expensive for most Black sharecroppers, who earned their wages in crops, not currency. Beyond the cost, voter registration and tax payment offices were usually located in public spaces designed to intimidate potential voters, like courthouses and police stations.

"The southern states also enacted #JimCrowLaws intended to reinforce #RacialSegregation and restrict Black voting rights. Along with the poll tax, most of these states also imposed literacy tests, which required potential voters to read and interpret in writing sections of the state constitution. So-called 'grandfather clauses' allowed a person to vote without paying the poll tax or passing the literacy test if their father or grandfather had voted before the abolition of slavery in 1865; a stipulation that automatically precluded all formerly enslaved persons. Together, the grandfather clause and the literacy tests effectively restored voting rights to poorer White voters who could not pay the poll tax, while further suppressing the Black vote.

"Poll taxes of varying stipulations lingered in Southern states well into the 20th century. While some states abolished the tax in the years after World War I, others retained it. Ratified in 1964, the #24thAmendment to the #USConstitution declared the tax unconstitutional in federal elections.

"Specifically, the 24th Amendment states:

'The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.'

"President Lyndon B. Johnson called the amendment a 'triumph of liberty over restriction.' 'It is a verification of people's rights, which are rooted so deeply in the mainstream of this nation's history,' he said.

"The #VotingRightsAct of 1965 created significant changes in the voting status of Black Americans throughout the South. The law prohibited the states from using literacy tests and other methods of excluding Black Americans from voting. Before this, only an estimated twenty-three percent of voting-age Black citizens were registered nationally, but by 1969 the number had jumped to sixty-one percent.

"In 1966 the U.S. Supreme Court went beyond the Twenty-fourth Amendment by ruling in the case of Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections that under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, states could not levy a poll tax as a prerequisite for voting in state and local elections. In two months in the spring of 1966, federal courts declared poll tax laws unconstitutional in the last four states that still had them, starting with Texas on February 9. Similar decisions soon followed in Alabama and Virginia. Mississippi's $2.00 poll tax (about $18 today) was the last to fall, declared unconstitutional on April 8, 1966."

https://www.thoughtco.com/poll-tax-definition-and-examples-5443130
#VoterDisenfranchisement #USPol #USHistory #TwentyFourthAmendment #FourteenthAmendment #FifteenthAmendment #VoterRights #LiteracyTests #USElections #VoterSuppression #BlackAmericans

#SupremeCourt's #rulings on #gerrymandering are under scrutiny for being #incoherent and #raciallybiased.

The #Court going to #weaken the #VotingRightsAct, by allowing #states to claim their #racially-driven #gerrymandering is merely #partisan. It's #Alarming.

#Women #Transgender #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Courts #Conservatives #Extremism #Fascism #RepublicanParty #Hate #Bigotry #Violence #Genocide #Discrimination #Racism #Homophobia #Transphobia #ThePartyOfHate #BlackMastodon

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/racism-gerrymandering-supreme-court