For Black voters, democracy is eroding in the South

Following the midterm elections, we celebrated the wins for protecting democracy and better-than-expected Democratic results. However, this has crowded out the real story: The rights of Black voters — the most reliable Democratic bloc — are increasingly in jeopardy.  

And the truth is that without a restored voting rights act, the fundamental rights of Black and brown voters in the South, once a moral imperative for this nation, are eroding, potentially for generations. 

In recent years, the number of eligible Black voters has grown and turnout rates are comparatively high, making Black voters’ influence in elections a decisive factor in protecting our democracy. While Black voters were key to preventing the predicted national Republican “red wave,” they had to navigate a maze of new voting restrictions that weaken the Black electorate and multiracial coalitions for fair democracy. 

Since the beginning of 2021, state lawmakers have passed at least 42 restrictive voting laws in 21 states, including adding onerous voting qualifications and limiting early voting, by mail or by drop-box. Given who these laws most impact, they take square aim at Black voters. Yet, with two years controlling the presidency and Congress, the very lawmakers that Black voters put into power did not protect them with national voting rights legislation. 

Despite these new barriers, Black voters showed up at the polls. They also turned out despite persistent Democratic under-investment in community turnout efforts and record-breaking midterm spending, coupled with the growing influence of new unaccountable dark money from outside parties on primary and general elections.  

In the South — the cradle of the civil rights movement and now home to draconian voting restrictions harming Black Americans— the view of the midterms looks different than from the rest of the country.  

In North Carolina, state courts deciding voting rights challenges turned decisively conservative, which is expected to create further hurdles along the path to progress and equity. In Alabama and Louisiana, people voted under discriminatory districting maps. Georgia voters had to cast ballots under a voter suppression law, and they had truncated early voting days. Of course, these were new barriers in elections in which the candidates included a Black woman running to become the state’s first Black governor and a pastor trying to become the state’s first full-term Black senator (whose opponent was also Black). 

And in a race that was off the national radar, but of serious consequence to local residents, Jody Greene was reelected as sheriff of Columbus County, North Carolina, a month after resigning because he was heard on a recorded phone call making vile, racist comments about Black employees and calling for them to be fired. Unfortunately, many Columbus County residents signaled that they approve of this conduct from law enforcement official.  

Among Black voters, the most loyal Democrats are women. Yet, Black women from Cheri Beasley in North Carolina to Stacey Abrams in Georgia lost their races across the South to white conservatives who opposed voting rights protections, meaning the people of the South lost hard-won gains for representative multi-racial democracy. There will be no Black women governors or U.S. senators in 2023. Where is the national reckoning about this?  

The Democratic Party and its members in Congress must take more responsibility for engaging, protecting and empowering Black voters and poor and low-income voters. The stronger Black voters become, and the stronger multi-racial coalitions committed to advancing agendas for racial and economic justice become, the more that those who are afraid of our power are going to try to deny us our fundamental right to vote.  If elected leaders do not take immediate action to protect voting rights, we will find our democracy in an even more precarious position in 2024 and beyond. 

Passing national voting rights legislation must be the main priority for the remainder of this lame-duck Congress. A restored and strengthened Voting Rights Act would reinstate preclearance in key jurisdictions across the country, which will be critical to stave off the coming wave of voting restrictions expected between now and 2024. This would also allow for the historic expansion of the right to vote to include voters who are under felony supervision in all federal elections; institute key protections against partisan and racial gerrymandering; as well as strengthen anti-corruption and campaign finance protections. All of these are foundational legal protections necessary to give voters faith that we can achieve representative, fair elections.  

If not now, when? How will future generations look at our actions during this critical time, when they’re living with less freedom, representation, bodily autonomy and access to the ballot than previous generations?  

As the Supreme Court considers further gutting voting rights protections and the foundations of our theoretical democracy with Moore v. Harper and Merrill v. Milligan, decisive action by this Congress is our only protection.  

As we fight for a true multiracial democracy in this country, we should appreciate every person who, in spite of extraordinary challenges, has continued to make their voice heard. Now, Congress must take immediate action to pass the national voting rights protections to allow those voices to be heard in seats of power and our local, state, and federal policy.   

Ashley Marshall, Daryl Atkinson and Caitlin Swain are co-directors of Forward Justice Action Network.