Street roots., July 14, 2017, Page 4, Image 4

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Street Roots • July 14-20, 2017
P H O T O B Y ERIC G U O /W I K I M E D I A C O M M O N S
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a civil rights leader and form er presidential candidate, is an ardent advocate o f voter-rights protections.
Renewed crusade for voter justice
Jesse Jackson fought fo r the Voting Rights Act. Now, he's fighting to repair it.
BY A D A M SENNOTT
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
n March 1965, 24-year-old Jesse Jackson
joined the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
and hundreds of others as they marched
on Selma, Ala., in protest of the state’s
racist voting laws.
Many, including a future congressman,
John Lewis of Georgia, were beaten by
police during the 18-day protest, but their
actions led to the passage of the Voting
Rights Act of 1965. While their victory was
historic, Jackson now says they had no idea
how fragile it was.
“We didn’t understand the chains of voter
suppression,” Jackson said in a telephone
interview with Street Roots’ sister street
paper in Chicago, Streetwise.
More than five decades after securing the
right to vote, Jackson and other civil rights
leaders are fighting to defend it. In the
2013, Shelby v. Holder decision, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that key provisions
of the landmark law requiring federal
oversight of voting practices in states and
municipalities with histories of
discrimination in voting were
unconstitutional because these provisions
did not reflect the less restricted landscape
since the Voting Rights Act was enacted.
Jackson said the decision allowed
Republicans to manipulate the electoral
map via gerrymandering. Since then, many
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JESSE JACKSON
states have also enacted voter ID laws and
closed hundreds of voting precincts. In the
2016 election, there were 868 fewer
precincts across the U.S., according to the
Leadership Conference on Civil and Human
Rights.
“They fought to remove the protections
for 40 years,” Jackson said. “The Shelby
decision undercut the Selma decision. They
removed the protections, and
gerrymandering started all over again.”
Despite President Trump’s claims that
millions voted illegally, costing him the
popular vote, in-person voter fraud “very
rarely happens,” according to a report from
the Brennan Center for Justice.
“Voter fraud is a fraud,” Jackson said.
“Voter suppression is real.”
Since the Supreme Court’s decision, 33
states have passed laws requiring some
form of identification to vote. November
marked the first election in 50 years without
the full protections of the Voting Rights Act.
Jackson said that voter suppression in
several states, though not all with voter ID
laws, was responsible for Trump’s defeat of
Hillary Clinton.
“Hillary lost not by the Russian hack but
because of voter suppression in North
Carolina and Philadelphia and Detroit and
Milwaukee,” Jackson said. “They suppress
the black vote and elevate the white vote.”
In Detroit, there were 75,000 ballots that
“didn’t have the top of the ticket marked,”
Jackson said - blank presidential votes.
Voting precincts were also closed in North
Carolina.
On May 11, Trump signed an executive
order creating a commission on voter fraud
and suppression.
“The Commission on Election Integrity
will study vulnerabilities in voting systems
used for federal elections that could lead to
improper voter registrations, improper
voting, fraudulent voter registrations, and
fraudulent voting,” the White House said in
a statement. “The Commission will also
study concerns about voter suppression, as
well as other voting irregularities. The
Commission will utilize all available data,
including state and federal databases.”
Shortly after the commission was
announced, Jackson released a statement
giving Trump credit for getting it at least
half right by considering voter suppression,
See JACKSON, page 5