Restrictive voter ID laws. Limiting mail-in ballots. “Cleaning” voter rolls. Redistricting.
These are just a few of the ways voting rights in America are being targeted in the weeks and months leading up to this year’s pivotal midterm elections. And by and large, they affect Black voters in disproportionate ways. Look no further than the Supreme Court’s recent decision that all but gutted the Voting Rights Act, which gave states license to eliminate Black-majority districts by saying they were carving up electoral maps based on party, not race.
What I’ve wondered with all this going on is this: What is it like to be on the front lines of mobilizing Black voters when the promise of equal representation itself is under assault?
Well, I asked LaTosha Brown. She’s a community organizer and co-founder of Black Voters Matter, a group that focuses on getting Black citizens to the polls, especially in the rural South, where voter turnout is historically low. She’s pushing against many of the stringent voting restrictions she’s seeing on the ground in Georgia and elsewhere. And let me tell you: She’s not disheartened about what’s happening right now. She’s fired up. Hear why on this week’s More To The Story.
—Al Letson, host of Reveal and More To The Story
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