Black History

Why The 2020 Election Is Being Compared to Elections After The Civil War

Published

4 years ago

October 25, 2020

Historians and political scientists are turning to the past to frame the discussion about the more than 50 million Americans who have already voted before Election Day, many of whom have stood in line for hours. Media outlets are comparing an obviously energized electorate to the percentage of voters who participated in the elections after the Civil War, but at least one political scientist, Dr. Sekou Franklin of Middle Tennessee State, hesitates to compare the percentages of voter turnout.

“It’s much easier to make that conclusion if the voter eligible population is very narrow and much smaller,” says Franklin. “So, I’m very reluctant to do century-to-century or regional comparisons when the number of eligible voters was much narrower than today.”

According to USA Today, the nation “saw the highest eligible voter turnout rate, 82.6%, in 1876, when Republican Rutherford Hayes defeated Democrat Samuel Tilden. In 1860, when Abraham Lincoln defeated John Breckinridge, John Bell and Stephen Douglas, 81.8% of eligible voters turned out.”

And voter turnout climbed above 80% in at least four other elections in the 1800s.

Why So High

With the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, newly freed slaves embraced their right to vote. Before the passage of the Amendment in 1869 granting Black men the right to vote, voting rights advocates questioned the logic behind disenfranchisement and pushed for the inclusion of Black men.

Delegates attending the 1864 National Convention of Colored Men in Syracuse, New York asked, “Are we good enough to use bullets, and not good enough to use ballots?”

Abolitionist Frederick Douglass attended the Convention and said, “We are here to promote the freedom, progress, elevation, and perfect enfranchisement, of the entire colored people of the United States; to show that, though slaves, we are not contented slaves, but that, like all other progressive races of men, we are resolved to advance in the scale of knowledge , worth, and civilization, and claim our rights as men among men.”

And there was Congressional assistance in the effort. In 1867, Republicans in Congress passed a series of Reconstruction Acts, overriding President Johnson’s veto. The first act required former Confederate states to form new governments that enfranchised all “male citizens…twenty-one years old and upward, of whatever race, color, or previous condition” before they could be readmitted to the Union.

The next election saw Black men finally allowed to participate at the polls which explains, in part, the high turnout numbers in 1868, 1872, and 1876.

Franklin points to the impact of what some historians call “the squeeze” or in his words, “white voters in the South who were still committed to the Confederate Cause.”

And he describes the 1876 election as “full of fraud and voter intimidation, particularly talking about African American voters.”

It was the 1877 Compromise when newly elected Republican President Hayes struck a deal to clinch the White House which included removing federal troops from southern states that ushered in the end of Reconstruction.

More than a century after that fateful 1876 election, Franklin cites the issues of today as offering the most striking historical parallels.

“Those were elections in which race and federalism were at the front and center,” he says. “And so I think, if you were to look at the election today and what may be animating in the electorate, on the one hand, you have Black and Latinx voters, perhaps…at least Black voters, some Latinx…and still a pretty dogmatic, white racial grievance that’s gravitated towards Trump. That those things are animated in that election as they were animating in the election in the late 19th century.”

Black History

Coco Gauff Becomes the Youngest Flag Bearer in US Olympic History

Published

1 month ago

July 25, 2024

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During the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony, the female American flag bearer will be Coco Gauff, the 20-year-old tennis star. She will be the youngest flag bearer in American Olympic history. Basketball legend LeBron James has been selected as the male flag bearer.

Gauff said, “I was not expecting that.”

Delighted to be selected, Gauff admitted she has “no idea” what her assignment includes, adding, “I don’t know if there’s flag bearer-training I have to go to.”

James has been to the Olympics four times. He was part of U.S. teams that won bronze in 2004, gold at Beijing in 2008 and gold again in London in 2012.

But this will be his first time as the flag bearer.

He said, “It’s an absolute honor. I hope I continue to make my community proud and continue to make my family proud.”

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Black History

California Is the First State to Create A Public Alert for Missing Black Youth

Published

2 months ago

July 3, 2024

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It’s been 21 years since Cleashandria Hall disappeared from Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Her mother Laurell Hall says she dropped her 18-year-old daughter off at her after-school job and never saw her again. For years, Hall and her family have kept their loved ones name in the media by hosting vigils and events that remind the public of their steadfast hope for answers.

But the attention is unusual. More often than not, experts say Black people who go missing do not receive the coverage as whites.

In October 2023, the state of California passed legislation that alerts the public to the disappearance of young people. It’s called the Ebony Alert, and it hopes to change the narrative about Black youth who are missing but don’t receive the same media coverage as white youth.

“We feel it’s well beyond time that we dedicate something specifically to help bring these young women and girls back home because they’re missed and loved just as much as their counterparts are,” State Senator Steven Bradford said in an interview with NBC News.

The recent docuseries about a California woman who faked her disappearance garnered 3.6 million viewers on Hulu, making it the most popular docuseries ever on the streaming service– a distinction that adds more credibility to the ongoing conversation about the disparities in media coverage and public attention when Black Americans are missing.

Sherri Papini grabbed the spotlight in 2016 as authorities searched for her before she reappeared and years later admitted the hoax. The popularity of the docuseries has reignited the dismay Black families experience when their loved ones are missing.

According to the Black and Missing Foundation, Black Americans make up 40% of missing Americans but only 13% of the population.

Foundation Founder Natalie Wilson said, “There’s a need for an Ebony Alert because people of color are disappearing at an alarming rate, and typically their cases are under the radar when it comes to media coverage and getting law enforcement resources.”

The Ebony Alert is activated when local authorities request it because a Black youth is missing, and there is concern the youth has been targeted for trafficking, or foul play is suspected. The Ebony Alert uses electronic highway signs and encouraged radio, TV, and social media and other systems to spread information about the missing persons’ alert.

In 2022, California began the Feather Alert which publicizes the disappearance of Indigenous people.

Black History

First Black Manhattan District Attorney Wins Historic Felony Convictions Against Donald Trump

Published

3 months ago

May 31, 2024

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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg led the investigation that resulted in the first felony conviction of a former United States President, Donald Trump. Bragg’s case centered on the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels, a porn actor who said she and Trump had sex in 2006. The trial involved charges that Trump falsified business records to cover up the payment to Daniels.

“While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial and ultimately today at this verdict in the same manner as every other case that comes to the courtroom doors,” Bragg said during a press conference after the jury’s verdict was announced. “By following the facts and the law and doing so without fear or favor.”

Trump and his Republican supporters have accused Bragg of “weaponizing” the judicial system.

“This was a disgrace,” Trump said. “This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt as a rigged trial, a disgrace. The real verdict is going to be November 5^th by the people. And they know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here.”

Who is Alvin Bragg

In 2021, Bragg became the first African American elected as the District Attorney for New York County covering Manhattan. He graduated from Harvard Law School and has served as an Assistant Attorney General at the New York State Attorney General’s Office and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Bragg is a former member of the Board of Directors of the New York Urban League and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and a Sunday School teacher at his church.

Political Science professor, Sekou Franklin, said, “Bragg took a big risk bringing the case against former President Donald Trump. Undoubtedly, this risk is both personal and political. Despite this challenge, his willingness to prosecute Trump took great courage.”

Trump’s litany of indictments started when he left office in 2020 after losing the White House to President Joe Biden. Charges of Trump’s attempts to overthrow the 2020 election continue to generate investigations and outrage. African American prosecutors have led three of the most significant cases.

In Georgia, Trump was indicted, along with 18 of his allies, for attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis brought the charges; however, the case became overshadowed by controversy when Willis was accused of hiring Nathan Wade as the special prosecutor because she was in a romantic relationship with him. Judge Scott McAfee declined to disqualify Willis, a decision Trump and his team are challenging.

Earlier this year New York State Attorney General Letitia James handed Trump a defeat after a New York judge ordered him and his business trust to pay $453.5 million in penalties and interest as part of his civil fraud case. The judge ruled that Trump fraudulently inflated the value of his real estate holdings when applying for loans.

But the latest convictions on 34 felony counts against the former President known for his boundary-breaking is historic.

“Alvin Bragg represents the new wave of prosecutors who have strong ties to public impact and community lawyering,” said Franklin, a professor at Middle Tennessee State. “Many of these prosecutors were elected as a result of protests that targeted racialized violence by law enforcement.”

Trump has described James, Willis and Bragg as “racists” – a thinly veiled attempt to tap into a vein of ingrained racism in the nation. The Republican Party lamented the convictions, decrying the trial as a political attack and a “shameful” day in American history.

Democrats view the convictions as an opportunity to sharpen their arguments that Trump is unfit to lead the nation domestically or represent America globally.

Trump faces up to four years in prison. His sentencing is set for July 11 – days before the start of the Republican National Convention.