In 2012, when I first became a mother, my oldest son was born into a world many of our ancestors had only dreamed was possible. My country was about to elect the nation’s first Black president to his second term, and I was filled with so much hope for the future.
Not even a decade later, I now worry my two sons could lose their right to vote. As a current resident of Georgia, I reside in a state that just this past year enacted new voting laws so restrictive, President Biden called them “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” I’ve written a lot about voting since 2016, whether it’s talking about the role that voting has played in my connection to American politics or encouraging those who feel political apathy to not give up after the polls close and their candidate did not win. It comes as no surprise that I am closely watching the discussions on the need for a new Voting Rights Act in 2022.
Georgia’s current voting laws will impact the availability of the ballot for voters of color at a higher rate than white voters. From closing the polls earlier, which makes it harder for working voters to vote to changing the voter identification rules. Mail-in ballot requests are now only available 78 short days before an election, rather than the generous and often necessary six months we had before. Counties used to send out mail-in ballots up to 49 days ahead of an election, but the new law limits them to 29 days, which can lead to voters not receiving their ballots in enough time to return them. These changes will profoundly impact and impede Black Georgia voters much like the poll taxes of old.
My oldest son will be eligible to vote in 8 years. If the restrictive laws that are currently being put into place in Georgia, and other states, are allowed to stand with no intervention from the legislative or judicial branches, there will be nothing to stop individual states from continuing to devolve and target the voting rights of minority citizens. As it stands, my sons cannot even hand out food or water to voters who are waiting in long lines without the threat of being arrested.
The United States Congress’s refusal to pass a clear Voting Rights Act that upholds the right for all Americans to vote is disgraceful. The message they are sending to my Black sons is that their skin color makes them less American than their white counterparts.
Interested in teaching your kids more about Black History? Check out our Black History is American History curriculum.
