All posts tagged: Voting Rights Act

Colorblindness won’t fix inequality

Colorblindness won’t fix inequality

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — The Supreme Court’s latest ruling on voting rights rests on a faulty premise — the idea that the best way to address racial inequality is not to consider race at all. In its ruling, the court shifted the burden of proof for race-based gerrymandering of congressional districts from demonstrating discriminatory effects to proving racist intent. Its harm may extend not only to minority representation in Congress and state legislatures, but to race relations and to Christian witness. For several decades now, many white Christians have been taught to see “colorblindness” as a virtue — a sign of spiritual maturity that rises above division. But the 1965 Voting Rights Act was born from a confrontation with the color line. Faced with poll taxes, literacy tests and grandfather clauses, measures to circumvent federal law and disenfranchise Black voters, Black Christians mobilized as a matter of human rights and God-given dignity. They spoke with moral clarity about the issues of their day, including segregation, lynching, police brutality and the denial of voting rights. The Black church …

The Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. Black churches know exactly what to do.

The Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. Black churches know exactly what to do.

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision on Wednesday (April 29) that struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, making it nearly impossible to challenge racially discriminatory voting maps without proving intentional discrimination. Hours after the ruling, Florida’s Legislature approved a new congressional map, skewed in Republicans’ favor, and many experts are predicting a historic drop in Black representation in Congress — and much longer lines for Black voters.    None of this is surprising. The history of civil rights in America is one in which there is progress followed by retrenchment, expansion followed by restriction.    In 1870, the 15th Amendment promised that the right to vote could not be denied on account of race. Within a generation, that promise was hollowed out by poll taxes, literacy tests and racial terror. Nearly a century later, there was the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — recognizing that discrimination in voting was systemic and required federal oversight of states with histories of disenfranchisement. Black voter registration surged. Representation followed. And then, …