New cover story @motherjones: GOP enacting greatest assault on voting rights since end of Reconstruction and if Congress doesn’t pass federal legislation to stop new wave of Jim Crow 2.0 voter suppression laws Second Reconstruction will end like the first motherjones.com/politics/2021/…
“The same pattern that existed during Reconstruction—the enfranchisement of Black voters, followed by the manipulation of election laws to throw out Black votes, culminating in laws passed to legally disenfranchise Black voters—is repeating itself today”
"the vicious white backlash that has followed Biden's victory—an attempt to overturn the election, an insurrection at the US Capitol, a record number of bills to restrict voting rights—has all the makings of a concerted attempt to end the second Reconstruction"
Reconstruction showed how easily voting rights can be lost
In 1868 Georgia elected 33 Black lawmakers. 2 months after ratifying 14th Amendment white members of legislature expelled all of them
“The sacred rights of my race were destroyed at one blow” said Henry McNeal Turner
In 1890 Mississippi approved new constitution to disenfranchise Black voters
House passed federal legislation that would have blocked it, but it was killed by Senate filibuster
By early 1900s every Southern state had passed suppression laws & Black turnout fell from 61% to 2%
Failure to pass federal legislation protecting voting rights in 1890s led directly to Jim Crow & disenfranchisement of Black voters
Similarly, failure to pass HR1 & John Lewis Voting Rights Act will allow GOP to undermine fair elections for next decade & beyond
To stay up to date on the latest news about the GOP’s assault on voting rights, sign up for @motherjones great daily newsletter motherjones.com/newsletters/?m…
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