The Jim Crow Law Stopping African Americans From Voting in 2017

[DonViejo]

SUPPRESSION
The Jim Crow Law Stopping African Americans From Voting in 2017

Since 2016, 15 percent of the black voting population had been barred from the polls. The GOP secretary of state doesn’t want to tell anyone that they may be able to vote again.

BARRETT HOLMES PITNER
07.10.17 1:00 AM ET

President Trump’s sham “Presidential Commission on Election Integrity”—which has received nearly universal opposition from voting rights advocates and state officials—follows the same template that conservative, regressive politicians have followed since the end of the Civil War to undermine American democracy. They seek to manipulate the language of liberty to conceal their true intentions and skew the electoral process in their favor, more often than not facilitating racial oppression in the process.

The same day the “integrity commission” sent out its letter demanding states provide the names, Social Security numbers, and political affiliation of registered voters, the Justice Department issued a letter to many states asking about their compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. Normally, the DOJ issues this type of letter in accordance with a specific investigation into one state’s voting practices, but this one was sent out widely, leading many voting rights advocates to fear a new national voter suppression agenda.

We still haven’t overcome the old suppression agenda. In Alabama, a battle over the definition of “moral turpitude” shows America remains mired in voting-rights battles from the turn of the last century.

Since 1901, residents of Alabama have been barred from voting if they had committed a “crime involving moral turpitude” as stated in Article VIII, Section 182 of Alabama’s Constitution. That constitution is an outrageous and dangerous document that was created that year with the explicit purpose of sustaining white supremacy and oppressing African Americans. Black voter turnout dropped a whopping 96 percent as a result of its passage.

Because Alabama’s constitution never defined “moral turpitude,” its meaning has largely been left to the whims of state election officials who’ve used it to stop black citizens from voting for misdemeanors like cashing a bad check.

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-jim-crow-law-stopping-african-americans-from-voting-in-2017

[MineralMan]

1. Exactly. And short of a Federal Court declaring that law

unconstitutional, the practice will continue. Alabama is one of those states that will almost certainly never become enlightened. Its racism and bigotry is so deeply embedded in its politics that I doubt any change will come unless it is forced.

My suggestion for that state is depopulation. Let its population decrease to a level where it no longer can support any real congressional delegation. Let it decrease until the remaining bigoted white residents have no economic base. Then, turn the entire state into a national wilderness area and build a high fence around its borders.

I know there are good people living in Alabama. They should pack their bags and move somewhere else, because they will never be able to turn that state around. Maybe we can come up with a way to defray their moving costs and find jobs for them elsewhere.

"Sweet Home Alabama" is a fraudulent concept.