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The Supreme Courts guts the Voting Rights Act — Transcript

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0:00I want to begin today with a voice
0:02that most Americans have never ,
0:04or a name that most of you wouldn't know about,
0:06but probably should.
0:08In January of 1901, a man named George Henry
0:11White rose to
0:14address the United States Congress
0:15for the last time.
0:17He was a lawyer and a Republican from North
0:18Carolina.
0:20He was the son of a formerly enslaved man,
0:22and he had served two terms in the House
0:25of representatives.
0:26He was also at that moment the only
0:28black member of Congress,
0:31and he knew he was about to become
0:33the last one for a long time.
0:35Not because he had lost an election fairly,
0:37but because the full machinery
0:39of disenfranchisement.
0:41Poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses,
0:45violence and the complicity of federal courts had made
0:47it impossible
0:49for black Americans to elect
0:51representatives who looked like them.
0:52An era was ending, and George Henry White knew
0:54it.
0:56Recounting all the progress black Americans
0:59had made since the end of the Civil War 36
1:01years earlier before white Confederates
1:03successfully clawed back the political gains
1:06made by black Americans, Congressman White declared
1:08in part, quote,
1:10we have done it in the face of lynching,
1:12burning at the stake with the humiliation
1:15of Jim Crow laws, the disenfranchisement of
1:16our male citizens,
1:18slander and the degradation of our women.
1:20With the factories closed against us,
1:23with all these odds against us,
1:25we are forging our way ahead slowly perhaps
1:27but surely.
1:29THIS, MR. CHAIRMAN, IS PERHAPS THE NEGRO'S
1:31TEMPORARY FAREWELL
1:33TO THE AMERICAN CONGRESS.
1:35BUT PHOENIX-LIKE, HE WILL rise up someday and
1:37come again.
1:39He was right.
1:41Black Americans would rise again,
1:44but not before decades of terror,
1:47disenfranchisement, and the systematic erasure
1:49of black political power, enabled just as before by
1:52the courts,
1:54by the states, and by those who understood
1:58that democracy actualized threatened
2:00their monopoly on power.
2:03This week, I'm thinking about George
2:05Henry White
2:06because what happened at the Supreme Court
2:08on Wednesday feels a lot like that moment,
2:10that shameful chapter again.
2:13Consider this. When did
2:28that, the answer is not 1776
2:30with the Declaration of Independence
2:32nor is it 1787 with the Constitution.
2:35It is reconstruction or at least partially
2:37it was reconstruction.
2:39What we think of as the founding was not
2:41in fact a democracy.
2:43The Declaration of Independence proclaimed
2:44that all men are created equal
2:46but in practice it did not guarantee
2:48equal rights for all people.
2:49The Constitution that followed
2:51in 1787 was built
2:52on compromises that protected slavery.
2:54Women could not vote. Black people were not
2:56citizens.
2:57What changed things were the 13th,
2:5914th and 15th amendments.
3:01The reconstruction amendments that were
3:03adopted during and after the Civil
3:04War.
3:06The 13th abolished slavery.
3:08The 14th made black American citizens
3:09for the first time,
3:11guaranteeing them equal protection under the law.
3:13The 15th gave black men the right to vote
3:15together.
3:16They did what the founders had refused to do.
3:19They made the promise of the Declaration
3:21of Independence apply to everyone.
3:23These three amendments fulfilled
3:25the promise of the Declaration
3:27of Independence some 90 years
3:28after its signing.
3:30The America that emerged from Reconstruction
3:32was a fundamentally different country
3:35than the one that the founders built.
3:36And for a brief extraordinary moment,
3:38it really worked.
3:40After the Civil War and the passage
3:42of the Reconstruction Amendments,
3:44black men voted across the South
3:45in massive numbers.
3:47They ran for office and they won.
3:48Between 1870 and 1901, 22 black men were elected
3:51to Congress
3:54in states like Mississippi and South Carolina where
3:55black
3:56people were the majority.
3:57They participated in government.
3:59And then it all ended because the courts took it
4:02away.
4:04Despite the reconstruction amendments,
4:06the southern states overturned
4:08the period's small-d democratic progress,
4:10implementing Jim Crow segregation
4:12and denying black people the right to vote.
4:14White southerners called it the redemption.
4:18Constitutional law professor Kermit
4:20Roosevelt describes it for what it was,
4:22an attempt to restore the political regime
4:23of white supremacy.
4:25He writes, quote, the former
4:26confederate
4:27states resisted black citizenship
4:28and they resisted black equality,
4:30and that's what the reconstruction
4:31amendments are meant to overcome.
4:33Black people will be full and equal citizens
4:35of the new American nation.
4:37And the national government and the U .S.
4:40Army will protect
4:42THEIR CONFEDERATES DIDN'T ACCEPT THAT
4:44AND THEIR RESISTANCE OUTLASTED THE
4:46NATIONAL WILL TO FIGHT FOR EQUALITY.
4:49THE SUPREME COURT OF THE
4:51LATE 19th CENTURY GUTTED Reconstruction
4:54the same way today's Supreme Court is
4:56gutting the Voting Rights Act,
4:58piece by piece, ruling by ruling,
5:00always with careful legal language
5:02designed to mask what's actually happening.
5:04By 1901, when George Henry White rose
5:06to give that farewell address,
5:08the damage was complete.
5:10The full machinery of disenfranchisement had
5:12been assembled with the blessing
5:15of the federal courts and black representation
5:17in Congress would not recover for generations.
5:20The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was born
5:23of what Justice Elena Kagan writing
5:25in her dissent this week called
5:27the literal blood of union soldiers
5:29and civil rights marchers.
5:31Before the Voting Rights Act, half of Selma,
5:33Alabama was black.
5:35Two percent of black eligible voters
5:37in the country were registered.
5:38Poll taxes, literacy tests and organized
5:41terror had done the intended work
5:44of suppressing the black VOTING RIGHTS ACT,
5:47SIGNED BY PRESIDENT LINDEN JOHNSON,
5:48CHANGED THAT.
5:49IT BANNED DISCRIMINATORY QUALIFICATION LAWS.
5:52IT REQUIRED THE WORST OFFENDING STATES TO GET
5:54FEDERAL APPROVAL BEFORE CHANGING VOTING RULES.
5:57IT GAVE VOTERS the power to challenge electoral
5:59maps designed to dilute their power.
6:01The results were extraordinary.
6:03In 1964, the year before the Voting Rights Act,
6:06there were four black members of Congress.
6:10Today, or rather until this week, there were 67.
6:14More than 10 ,000 black elected
6:16officials serve across the country
6:18today, compared to 1 ,469 in 1970.
6:23We've really only been living
6:25in something resembling a true
6:26multi-racial democracy for 60 years.
6:2960 years in a country that is 250 years old.
6:32This week the Supreme Court completed
6:34what what journalist and scholar Nicole
6:36Hannah-Jones called the Second Nader.
6:38The First Nader, a term coined by the
6:40historian Rayford Logan,
6:42described the period following Reconstruction,
6:45roughly 1877 through the early 20th century,
6:48what white Confederates celebrated
6:50as the redemption was for black Americans
6:52the lowest point since slavery.
6:54The federal government had abandoned them to
6:56violence and disenfranchisement.
6:58Everything built during reconstruction was
7:00systematically torn down.
7:02Hannah Jones argues that we're living
7:03through a second one,
7:05and after Wednesday's ruling,
7:06it's kind of hard to disagree.
7:08In a 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Calais,
7:11the the court's conservative supermajority
7:14gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,
7:16the provision that allowed voters to
7:18challenge electoral maps designed to
7:21dilute the power of black communities.
7:23Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel
7:27DECISION THAT OVERTURNED ROE V. WADE,
7:30THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT NOW REQUIRES PROOF
7:32OF INTENTIONAL DISCRIMINATION.
7:35NOT DISCRIMINATORY EFFECT, but intent.
7:40Justice Kagan's dissent was unsparing
7:41and in a rare move she read it aloud
7:43from the bench.
7:44It's a gesture reserved for moments when a justice
7:45believes something
7:47of historic consequence has just occurred.
7:49In it, she said, quote, the Voting Rights Act is,
7:53or now more accurately was, one of the most
7:54consequential,
7:56efficacious and amply justified
7:58exercises of the federal legislative power
8:01in our nation's history.
8:02It ushered in awe-inspiring change,
8:05bringing this nation closer to fulfilling
8:07the ideals of democracy and racial equality.
8:10And it has been repeatedly and overwhelmingly
8:11reauthorized
8:13by the people's representatives
8:14in Congress.
8:15Only they have the right to say it is
8:18no longer needed,
8:19not the members of this court.
8:20I dissent then from this latest chapter
8:23in the majority's now completed demolition
8:26of the Voting Rights
8:41Act, as we have known it, is over.
8:44The immediate consequences arhere.
8:47Louisiana has six congressional districts.
8:50A third of its population is black.
8:53Mathematically, proportional representation
8:54would mean
8:56two majority black districts.
8:57For decades, there was only one.
9:00After years of litigation, a second was finally drawn.
9:03This week, the Supreme Court threw that map out.
9:06Among those most directly affected
9:09is the representative Cleo Fields,
9:11a black congressman from Louisiana whose seat
9:12exists
9:14because of the very district
9:15that the court just eliminated.
9:17Speaking shortly after the ruling,
9:19Fields had this to say.
9:22This is not new for me. I've been down this road
9:25before.
9:27Louisiana's minority population is over 33
9:31percent but people have a right to participate
9:36in their democracy if you tell me that I got to
9:39be a I got to jump a certain height I could
9:43probably DO THAT.
9:44TELL ME I GOT TO RUN A CERTAIN DISTRICT,
9:46I COULD DISTANCE, I COULD PROBABLY DO THAT TOO.
9:49BUT IF YOU TELL ME I HAVE TO BE WHITE
9:51TO SERVE IN CONGRESS FROM LOUISANA,
9:54I CAN'T DO NOTHING ABOUT THAT.
9:56I NEED SOME HELP FROM MY GOVERNMENT.
9:58THE REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA IS ALREADY MOVING
10:01TO
10:02DELAY THE HOUSE PRIMARIES WHICH
10:04WERE SCHEDULED FOR MAY 16th.
10:06THE POLITICAL MAP IS BEING REDRAWN,
10:08NOT TO REFLECT THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN Louisiana,
10:10but to reflect the preferences
10:12of those who want those people's voices silenced.
10:15According to an analysis from NPR,
10:18at least 15 black represented house districts
10:21are at risk risk of elimination entirely.
10:25And critics warn that this is just the beginning.
10:27The real impact is actually going to come
10:29in 2030, when the next census triggers
10:31a new round of redistricting
10:33across every state in the country.
10:35Red state after red state will dismantle
10:36black and Latino voting power,
10:38and thanks to this ruling, they will be able to do it
10:40legally.
10:42Nicole Hannah-Jones captures exactly what's
10:44at stake,
10:46and I want to read her words very carefully.
10:48The VOTING RIGHTS ACT IS ESSENTIALLY
10:50DEAD AND IT'S QUITE POSSIBLE THAT WE WILL,
10:52LIKE WHEN A SIMILAR SCOTUS GUTTED CIVIL
10:54RIGHTS AT THE FALL OF RECONSTRUCTION,
10:56SEE A DISAPPEARANCE OF MUCH OF THE BLACK CONGRESSIONAL
10:58REPRESENTATION,
10:59ESPECIALLY IN THE MOST HEAVILY BLACK States,
11:01which are in the South.
11:03There are people still living who fought
11:06and watched their compatriots be murdered
11:09for the passage of this act and to attempt to
11:11democratize America,
11:13to see it completely felled in the span
11:16of their own lifetimes is just absolutely
11:19devastating.
11:20The racist political rhetoric,
11:22the erasure, the attacks on black history,
11:24the reinstallation of Confederate names
11:26and monuments,
11:27the gutting of DEI AND CIVIL RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT.
11:29AGENCY BY AGENCY ARE NOT SEPARATE PHENOMENA.
11:33THEY ARE A COORDINATED PROJECT AND THE SUPREME
11:36COURT UNDER THE CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS IS
11:39a willing participant in that long-term project.
11:42As Nicole Hannah-Jones writes,
11:44we must understand that these things go
11:46hand in hand as the court and the Congress legitimize
11:47the taking
11:48of political rights and the end
11:50of multiracial democracy democracy itself,
11:52we must be clear about what multiracial
11:55democracy actually requires, again,
11:58in her words, democracy cannot and will
12:00not exist
12:02without these IN 1901, GEORGE HENRY WHITE KNEW
12:05WHAT WAS COMING.
12:07HE STOOD ON THE FLOOR OF CONGRESS AND SAID
12:09FAREWELL NOT JUST FOR
12:11HIMSELF BUT FOR AN ENTIRE ERA OF EQUALITY,
12:13OF REPRESENTATION, OF POSSIBILITY.
12:15WHAT HAS HAPPENED THIS WEEK IS A CATASTROPHE FOR
12:17DEMOCRACY.
12:19THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NOW AND 1901 IS
12:22THAT WE KNOW THAT HISTORY.
12:24WE'VE SEEN WHERE IT leads.
12:26And despite that, with the full knowledge of
12:27what came before,
12:28the Roberts court chose to lock
12:30in its legacy as the court
12:32that took a wrecking ball to
12:34the true promise of a democratic America.

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