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Page 2 The Skanner October 11, 2017 ® Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now Bernie Foster Founder/Publisher The Fight to Protect Voting Rights Must Continue in 2017 Bobbie Dore Foster Executive Editor W Jerry Foster Advertising Manager Christen McCurdy News Editor Patricia Irvin Graphic Designer Melanie Sevcenko Reporter Monica J. Foster Seattle Office Coordinator Susan Fried Photographer 2017 MERIT AWARD WINNER The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published every Wednesday by IMM Publi- cations Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. ©2017 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission prohibited. Local News Pacific NW News World News Opinions Jobs, Bids Entertainment Community Calendar LOCAL NEWS BRIEFS to y • d ay ! • L i ke u s o n F ac it Updated daily. ebo m me • nts TheSkannerNews o k • learn • co in y o u r c o m m u n Opinion e all know the power of the vote. One person, one vote serves as the ba- sic ethos and measurement of any democratic nation. With- out true voter protection, in- tegrity and universal access, America’s light on the hill dims. Since Shelby V. Holder dis- mantled the Voting Rights Act, many southern states with a history of voter sup- pression and related oppres- sion of Black communities, could, once again, enact laws that would attempt to manip- ulate the sole entity which made all Americans equal: the vote. During the Presidential election of 2016, the first in 50 years without full protec- tion of the VRA, six of the 14 states implementing restric- tive voter laws were previ- ously covered by Section 5 of the VRA. Additionally, five of those states — Mississippi, Texas, South Carolina, Ala- bama and Virginia — put in place new voter ID laws. Since 2010, twenty states have placed additional ob- stacles to the ballot box and according to the Brennan Center for Justice, “states most likely to pass new voting restrictions were those with the highest African American turnout in 2008, those with the highest Hispanic popula- tion growth between 2000 and 2010, and/or those formerly covered under Section 5 of Derrick Johnson NNPA Interim President & CEO the Voting Rights Act.” In 1858, when running for the U.S. Senate from Illi- nois, Abraham Lincoln said: “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot en- dure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the oth- er…” Lincoln would go on to lose that election to Stephen A. Douglas, but the words he uttered would last the test of time. Today, we ask the same question: Can a nation half- slave and half-free continue? It’s the same question ath- letes like Colin Kaepernick ask when they are singled out for freedom, yet their broth- ers remain in chains. If the vote is actively suppressed in communities of color and poor communities, are we re- ally free or just half-free? Sometimes history will re- peat itself, if we give it enough time and a little help. What is the difference be- tween our present, partial believers in democracy, who callously promote gerryman- dering, mischievous voter ID laws, poll moving and poll closing or voter purges, and those who engineered the post-Reconstruction elimi- nation of Black Power in the South? During the first post-Civil War election in which Blacks could vote, they provided 700,000 votes to help elect Ulysses S. Grant to the White House in 1868. The often-un- “ Since 2010, twenty states have placed additional ob- stacles to the ballot box told secret is that before the Civil Rights Era, where Black voters in the South once again sought out the ballot box in greater numbers, we stood ready at the first opportunity to use the vote, when treated as free people. At that time, and clearly to some today who seek to suppress the vote, this was not acceptable. During the 1898 constitu- tional convention in Louisi- ana, Thomas J. Semmes, chair of the Judiciary Committee of the Convention and former president of the American Bar Association said, “We (meet) here to establish the supremacy of the White race, and the White race consti- tutes the Democratic Party of this State. The Convention of 1898 interpreted its mandate from the people to be, to dis- enfranchise as many Negroes and as few Whites as possi- ble.” This process was replicated throughout the South as An- drew L. Shapiro points out in his Yale Law Journal article, “Challenging Criminal Disen- franchisement Under the Vot- ing Rights Act: A New Strate- gy” (1993). He highlights how Mississippi’s constitutional convention of 1890 became a prototype for implement- ing constitutional provisions designed to disenfranchise those individuals, who com- mitted “certain crimes, which Blacks were supposedly more likely than Whites to com- mit.” This meant that, “the law removed the vote from those convicted of such ‘furtive of- fenses’ as burglary, theft, ar- son, obtaining money under false pretenses, but the ‘ro- bust crimes of Whites,’ which included robbery and murder or ‘crimes in which violence was the principal ingredient,’ were not.” Today, we know the impact of felony disenfranchisement and the role it plays in keep- ing millions of individuals, who have served their time, from being able to vote. Read the rest of this commentary at TheSkanner.com Parents Deserve ‘Real’ School Choice I was recently approached by a father of a student from Ann Arundel County, Maryland that was disap- pointed that his son was un- able to attend his neighbor- hood magnet school; his son met all the requirements to become classified as a mag- net student. Upon inquiry, administrators informed the father that the feeder school system did not permit his child to attend the desired school, even though the cam- pus was less than two miles away from their family home. This was especially upsetting to the father, because he pur- chased the home 10 years ago with that specific school in mind. The school prescribed by the feeder school system is 12 miles away from his home. Great Schools, the leading national nonprofit organi- zation devoted to assisting parents in unlocking educa- tional opportunities for their children, gives the prescribed feeder school a two out of five stars rating, compared to the four stars given to the school initially selected by the father. Realizing that the school’s rat- ings may lead to a misguided conclusion, he and his wife Dr. Elizabeth Primas Progam Manager, NNPA toured the school to get a first- hand look. They were equally disappointed with the school climate and physical condi- tion of the building. His son is a recipient of the “ non-magnet school, which has only one Advanced Place- ment (AP) course and limited opportunities in advanced courses. My question to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is this: Why is it that, despite your push for “school choice,” par- ents are still being directed to lower performing schools with poor school climate, in- adequately prepared teach- ers, and failing test scores? This is contradictory to the It appears that this administration has allowed states and local school districts to re-segregate and to provide lower quality education to children of color President’s Award for Educa- tional Excellence. The admin- istrators were adamant that the prescribed school would meet his son’s educational needs; despite their insis- tence, the father was never convinced. After failing to make prog- ress with school administra- tors in Ann Arundel County, he made the hard decision to enroll his child in a local intention of the Every Stu- dent Succeeds Act. It is the opposite of the policies you and the Trump Administra- tion say you support. The options offered to this parent were inadequate and did not allow him the opportunity to ensure his child will receive a quality education. Fur- thermore, the feeder school system, in this instance, was completely ineffective. Instead of fixing education, it appears this administration has allowed states and local school districts to re-segre- gate, provide lower quality education to children of color and sentence our children to academic underachievement. This is not how ESSA was de- signed to operate. Thankfully, this parent did not accept less for his child. Other parents may not have the ability to stand for their children. ESSA was supposed to provide a high-quality ed- ucation to all children. Let’s make sure no child is faced with choosing between po- tential social isolation for a higher quality education or convenience at the expense of academic achievement. Get involved with education in your community and learn more about the Every Student Succeeds Act at www.nnpa. org/essa. Dr. Elizabeth Primas is an educator, who spent more than 40 years working towards im- proving education for children of diverse ethnicities and back- grounds. Dr. Primas is the pro- gram manager for the NNPA’s Every Student Succeeds Act Public Awareness Campaign. nt • lo c a l n e w s • eve
