Racism + Politics
A 21st Century American Town Has Not Held an Election in 60 Years
Voter suppression has many egregious manifestations
What is voter suppression?
Voter suppression is a strategy used to influence the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing specific groups of people from voting. Voter suppression is an anti-democratic tactic associated with authoritarianism. African Americans are the primary target of voter suppression in the United States.
Voter suppression has been practiced in the United States since at least the end of Reconstruction (1865–77). After Reconstruction, African Americans living in the former Confederate States were briefly able to exercise their newly won rights to vote; to run for local, state, and federal offices; and to serve on juries.
The Fourteenth (1868) and Fifteenth (1870) Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, along with a series of laws passed between 1866 and 1875, attempted to extend to all American men (yes, “men”) the liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights. The 15th Amendment specifically prohibited restricting or denying the right to vote on the basis of race.
In 1867, nearly three years before the passage of the 15th Amendment, Congress…
