Thread by @23rdspiral

#GeorgiaOnMyMind
I am English, and I am elated that Georgia has turned #Blue and come out for Biden.
I'd like to tell you why.
Most of my followers are Pro Europe, #FBPE, and American has such a different system and history to here, this might help explain things a little.
1/

Biden is now leading in Georgia by 917 votes!
#Georgia has turned #Blue!
American politics is purposefully confusing, but THIS is hugely significant. Georgia is not any old state.

A win in Georgia would leave Biden one electoral vote short of the presidency. But there's more..
2

#Georgia is old slaver territory.
Georgia is where many freed slaves stayed.
Georgia is grass roots civil rights movement.
Georgia has seen huge voter suppression.
Georgia’s Black women have done the world proud.
91%
Just Look. 91% is #Historical.
3/

Remember. The Voting Rights Act only passed in 1965, with 2 amendments in the 70s.
Before then the DESCENDENTS of FREED SLAVES STILL COULDN'T VOTE.
Voters had to qualify on tax, literacy and even whiteness, whilst risking intimidation and lynching. #CivilRights #GEORGIA #vote
4/

And the reason the Act was finally passed? Many.
Including a young man called Jimmie Lee Jackson who kept asking for his vote. And asking. And his mother was beaten and he was shot, because he asked.
He died 8 days later. Whilst dying in hospital..
#Alabama #VoterSuppression
5/

...Martin Luther King visited him. I'd like to think everyone knows the history from there on.
If not, or you’d like to know more. This is a good start.
kinginstitute.stanford.edu/enc.../jackson…

#MLK #Alabama #Georgia #CivilRights #VoterSupression
6/

A bit more Geography.
Jimmie Lee Jackson was from Marion, Perry County, Alabama.
Neighbouring Dallas County was already a seat of the growing civil rights movement.
Alabama is next to #Georgia, which may be a Red state, still supporting Trump, but Perry County & Dallas..
7/

..County are 2 of the 13 of Alabama’s 67 Counties that voted #Biden.
The way Americans votes are distributed is still part of ongoing voter suppression.
You saw the huge queues at polling stations? 7 hrs, 11 hrs wait were mostly in Black areas where too many voters were..
8/

..allocated to too small a station. Voter suppression is rife. And it’s why Biden asked supporters to vote early by post. THIS is why his numbers are gaining now, as postal votes are counted after those cast in-person.

Trump asked his supporters to..
9/
#VoterSupression

..vote in person. Trump has been hobbling USA postal service for a year to try to discredit early, mostly Blue, votes.

So #CivilRightsMovement #VoterSupression and #Historical slavery are why I am elated at #Georgia.

But I'm just an English person seeing this all add up.
10/10

Actually, I'm not done. I can't end this without passing you over to the work of the brilliant @staceyabrams. She's spent years working to end #VoterSuppression, and her team have added 800,000 supressed voters to #Georgia's register. I am in awe.

https://twitter.com/TheWomensOrg/status/1324653254450569218?s=20

11/11