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Activists descend on Washington, DC, to mark the 60th anniversary of MLK's "I have a dream" speech.
The March on Washington, 60 years later
Sixty years ago on Monday, over a quarter of a million people gathered in Washington, DC, for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a century after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream Speech,” galvanizing supporters of the Civil Rights Movement.
The march was initially conceived 20 years prior by labor leader Philip Randolph when African Americans were excluded from the job creation programs under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. By the late 1950s, with the Civil Rights Act stalled in Congress, Dr. King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference were also planning to march on Washington for freedom.
Together, they planned a march to capitalize on the growing grassroots support and outrage over racial inequality in the US. The massive turnout, in conjunction with a decade of other peaceful protests for civil rights, convinced President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign the Civil Rights Act into law in 1964. The following year, he signed the National Voting Rights Act of 1965. Together, these bills outlawed discrimination against people of color and women, effectively ended segregation, and made discriminatory voting practices illegal.
This weekend, thousands gathered in Washington to commemorate the march’s 60th anniversary. The day was filled with speeches from civil rights leaders and activists reminding the nation of its unfinished work on equality. I attended and was struck by how intergenerational but connected the crowd was – alumni of HBCUs were embraced by current students, and older members of Black fraternities and sororities reminisced with new members. Like an echo, the words “go vote” were exchanged in lieu of “goodbye.”
Yolanda King, Dr. King’s 15-year-old granddaughter, told the crowd, “If I could speak to my grandfather today, I would say, I’m sorry we still have to be here to rededicate ourselves to finishing your work and ultimately realizing your dream,” she said. “Today, racism is still with us. Poverty is still with us. And now, gun violence has come for places of worship, our schools, and our shopping centers.”
Leaders of other social movements also gave speeches, from Parkland survivor and March for Our Lives founder David Hogg, to Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning Affirmative Action and Roe v. Wade, all of the speakers warned that the progress of the civil rights movement could be reversed.
“We’ve come a long way in the 60 years since MLK stood on those steps, " said Albert Williams, a civil rights activist who attended Saturday’s march and the original in 1963, “but black communities throughout the world are still in a state of emergency today.”
GZERO reporter Riley Callanan was on hand this weekend for the commemorative march in Washington, DC.
Clarence Page: Why Black voting rights matter
When the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Clarence Page had just finished high school.
This legislation changed the lives of Black people in America because Jim Crow laws had virtually prevented Blacks from voting in the South with impossible poll questions and literacy tests, he said in an interview with Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.
But the Supreme Court gutted the law in 2013, allowing states to pass new voting legislation that progressives say restricts Black access to the ballot box.
The 2022 midterm elections will be the first major test of these laws — which Democrats in Congress are unlikely to be able to stop. How will this all affect Black turnout in November?
Page explains that if Trump loyalists win in key states, their legislatures — not voters — may end up deciding the next US presidential race.
What may happen in 2024 reminds him of 1876, when the end of Reconstruction after the Civil War, along with a disputed presidential election, ushered in the Jim Crow laws that ended ability to vote in Alabama.
Page asks, “Are we going to get rid of these last vestiges of discrimination from the Jim Crow era?"
The Graphic Truth: Black immigrants in the US
One in 10 Black Americans was born overseas, up by 3 percentage points since 2000. By 2050, the US Census Bureau estimates that immigrants will make up 15% percent of the Black population in America. The data shows that national origin reflects differing education and average household wealth levels. We look at a few data points distinguishing US- and foreign-born Black Americans.
Critical race theory and Black voting rights
Did conservative backlash against critical race theory influence Republican-led US states to pass new voting laws restricting Black Americans' access to the ballot box?
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Clarence Page thinks so, to a certain extent, he tells Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.
Anything that looks like Black history or that makes white children feel bad, he says, has been inaccurately labeled as critical race theory and presented as a danger, motivating a lot of voters to get rid of it — for instance through voter suppression.
For Page, it's ironic that some in the party of Abraham Lincoln are now fighting those old Civil War battles again as far as democracy is concerned.
Watch this episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer: Black voter suppression in 2022
Black voter suppression in 2022
Until the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Black people in America who wanted to vote faced impossible poll questions and literacy tests. But the Supreme Court gutted the law in 2013, allowing states to pass new voting legislation that progressives say restrict Black access to the ballot box.
The 2022 midterm elections will be the first major test of these laws — which Democrats in Congress are unlikely to be able to stop. How will this all affect Black turnout in November?
On this episode of GZERO World, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Clarence Page tells Ian Bremmer that if Trump loyalists win in key states, their legislatures — not voters — may end up deciding the next US presidential race.What may happen in 2024 reminds him of 1876, when Page says the end of Reconstruction after the Civil War, along with a disputed presidential election, ushered in the Jim Crow laws that ended his ancestors' ability to vote in Alabama.
What's driving all this? For Page, part of the problem is the grievance narrative around critical race theory, which has made some Americans confused between being a Democrat and being democratic.
Still, he says you can't deny that Republicans want to make it harder to vote, while Democrats try to make it easier. That's a big problem because "we're at loggerheads over who should be allowed to vote and, and who shouldn't."
Page also compares President Biden's pledge to nominate a Black woman to fill Justice Breyer's seat on the Supreme Court to Ronald Reagan's decision to pick Sandra Day O'Connor. And as a bonus, Ian looks back at the history of Black women judges in America.
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Podcast: It’s getting harder for Black Americans to vote, warns journalist Clarence Page
Listen: Voter suppression is a front and center issue. But it’s not always black and white…or red and blue. Black voters continue to turn out in smaller numbers than white voters. How much of that is due to conscious efforts to make voting harder? Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page joins Ian Bremmer on the GZERO World podcast to discuss the past and future of the struggle for Black voting rights in America. Page warns that if Trump loyalists win in key states, their legislatures — not voters — may end up deciding the next US presidential race.
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.- Why do Black people feel "erased" from American history? - GZERO ... ›
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The history of Black voting rights in America
Until 1965, Black Americans who wanted to vote first faced faces unanswerable poll questions, and later equally tough literacy tests.
The Voting Rights Act banned these and other forms of overt voter suppression. But in 2013, the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the law, requiring states to get prior federal approval to tweak their voting laws for racial discrimination.
The ruling has allowed dozens of states to pass increasingly restrictive voting laws targeting minority groups with measures like bolstering voter ID, eliminating polling places, and rolling back mail-in voting.
But things aren’t always so black and white, or blue and red, Ian Bremmer explains on GZERO World. Georgia is now ahead of New York on expanding early voting and no-excuse absentee ballots.
There are many reasons why Black voters turn out less than white Americans, and not all have to do with voter suppression. Still, progressive leaders worry restrictive laws will (further) widen the gap.
The upcoming 2022 midterm elections will be the first major test of these new voting laws. That is, unless Democrats pass new voting rights legislation — but the bill will die on the Senate floor.
The 1619 Project’s creator Nikole Hannah-Jones discusses its cultural impact
Today, we take a fresh look at US history—and the role Black people have played in it—with a woman who is reshaping that national conversation. When Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones published the “1619 Project” in 2019, not even she could have predicted its cultural impact. It’s hard to think of another piece of modern journalism that has garnered such praise while also sparking such intense outrage. Now, her new book, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, expands upon her initial work. She joins Ian Bremmer for an in-depth look at how she’s trying to reshape US history, and the backlash it has caused.
Watch this episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer: Counter narrative: Black Americans, the 1619 Project, and Nikole Hannah-Jones