Well read thank you so much. Good night. Bestsellr most recent book held Voter Suppression is destroying our democracy. Doctor anderson is a renowned historian and author. She is the professor of africanamerican studies at every university and is the author of the unspoken truth of our nation is divided. I am a great admirer of her work exploring the legacy of slavery, segregation and discrimination and how we remain fundamentally an equal nation 400 years after the arrival of slavery in north america. Doctor Andersons Book one person no vote, calls the history of the Voter Suppression including all of the current ways the Republican Party is undermining Voting Rights. Doctor anderson, im delighted ti am delightedto have you heret your work. Its wonderful to meet you, and to talk about what they can do to fight back against efforts to suppress the most fundamental rights we have, the right to vote, and we know that this is occurring each and every day in the country so thank you again. First let me ask a question of doctor anderson one person, no vote. As you explore the history of Voter Suppression with a particular focus on the path following the Supreme Court decision in Shelby County. To start the conversation, can you give the audience a summary of the decision and what it meant . It will go down in the same way as the dred scott decision act as one of the worst decisions ever made by the Supreme Court. What shall Shelby County does is it that the preclearance provision of the act. So a bit of background on that and what that means coming up to 1965 you have massive Voter Suppression in particular in the south against africanamericans to the point where you have 0 African Americans registered to vote with over 100 of white registered to vote. After more pressure particularly in selma, that cinematic explosion on the bridge and they did it shocked the nation finally led congress and the president to sign the Voting Rights act which is said states that have a demonstrated history that discriminated against their voters and who have used one of the conditions of the literacy test have to give any changes made approved first by big u. S. Department of justice or by the federal courts in dc. That is called preclearance because what happened previously is that the states would implement, there would be litigations, they would tweak the law but the way that these things were happening is the greatest interesting millions of black voters and so now with the preclearance and they could be in place. In mississippi for instance only 5 of africanamericans were registered to vote. Two years after the Voting Rights act we had almost 60 of African Americans registered to vote. The Voting Rights act word and thats why it got a crosshairs because it imports the democracy. The Supreme Court said section four of which is the preclearance, how you determine whether a state or jurisdiction comes under preclearance that racism really isnt a force that was and it looks like its picking on the south and it would have been more movement. Thats what it may have been to the Supreme Court. What is said to me if there were states that were working to implement and the federal courts for blocking them. The reauthorization of the Voting Rights act had shown the department walked over 700 proposed changes to the law by preclearance statements because they were racially discriminatory so racism has not stopped. But by blocking the preclearan preclearance, what it did, it let the dogs out and they kept charting out two hours after the decision it implemented a racially discriminatory voter id law. These states were coming in with confidence and we ended up in a terrain by the time we got there where over half the states have implemented one of these voter implementation techniques. Thank you for that history. I was born and raised in El Paso Texas and i remember those days. For those who think racism isnt alive and well in america all we have to do is look at what you are saying and how it has reemerged with a different face. We have to make it clear African Americans and people of color are still fighting many battles just to be able to participate in our democracy. That is what we are fighting for and im so glad you are laying it out because so many young people dont know that history. Lets go back to the beginning of the democracy now. What did the right to vote for quick at that time and before the goals to limit or suppress access . Generally you have to be male and have property and for the most part, white. The larger the population became, the more useful the voting restrictions implemented. Delaware, maryland and kentucky all initially allowed to vote but there was a general fear if there are more people voting than they wont really have a say in what the government looks like and what the policies are and we cant have that. What they did in new york is eliminated at the property requirement and increased the property requirement for black males devote. They had to have 250 for property and business in the early 18 hundreds so you see these barriers in the founding and the evolution of the United States in terms of how they would curtail the black political participation, how do we curtail and just stop the participation so thats what it looked like at the founding. After the civil war, we ended up getting first the reconstruction of sedlak males can vote. Then congress was like lets nail this down in a constitutional amendment so we get the 15th amendment says the state shall not abridge the right to vote on account of race, color or previous. Thats is what you saw happening. The state of florida looked and said black men can vote and came up in 1868 with a felony disenfranchisement law. Then you saw george implement a tax debate 1860s and early 70s. Then we start to get to the rise of jim crow. Black folks were mobilizing, advocating, voting. Because almost half the population in mississippi was black, one legislator looked up and it was almost like a scooby doo moment for them. Now weve got this amendment says the state shall not abridge the right to vote on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. We are going to use the conditions and entry point to the ballot box, poverty, hundreds of years of slavery followed by sharecropping and massive systemic poverty. We are going to make it reasonable. If you value the right to vote you would be willing to pay a small fee, a tax because democracy is expensive. If you want a democracy to thrive, you would be willing to pay for that. After you have hundreds of years of unpaid labor, that tax is real it was between two to 6 of the family income, two to 6 of their annual incomes to be able to vote. The Supreme Court said it didnt violate the 15th amendment. You are giving a lesson right now to the audience about institutional racism and Structural Racism. People always want to know what that means. Keep going. [laughter] is almost invisible. Racism is and always that person. We have the literacy test. Again its going to sound reasonable. We want an engaged citizenry. We want people who understand the values of the nation. Whats more is there to ask that they do something as simple as read a section of the constitution and interpreted appropriately. As youve gone through hundreds of years of slavery where you will be killed if you know how to read, if they find out you can come you will get at least 39 lashes against your back and you may be killed. Then black folks are already creating their own schools but with the death of poverty, youve got this massive imbalance between the number of teachers who can teach and the number of students that are hungry for that education and they systematically underfund black schools so that when you get to the literacy test 50 years later and the u. S. Is getting ready to go fight nazis. Over 50 is mississippi, alabama, georgia, louisiana and South Carolina that have less than five years of formal jim crow education. More than 50 of black adults in those states have less than five years of jim crow education. We then put the constitution in front of them and say read it and interpret it and again, the Supreme Court said because everybody has to read it and interpret it it doesnt violate the 15th amendment so that is when we get to 1940, only 3 of African American adults were registered to vote in the south. This is where the bulk of black folks live. This is how you can eviscerate the right to vote. It took mobilizing and organizing in order to break it down. Let me interject something im working on because youve inspired me to talk about this very quickly. Ive said you dont know the history of the country. The last few years ive been working on legislation but i decided to work with some academics and members of congress for a true transportation debate a Transformation Commission because it is about time we tell the truth. Thatso to let you know im getg ready to do this and i wont work participation because people have to understand in this country rwanda south africa has their commissions on the racial appeal and reconciliation but theres nothing really to reconcile in this country. So we are going to do that and youve inspired me to kind of told you about that. What you are saying lays out, why people have to be educated and if they can understand this goes back. The 14th amendment of course technically gave African American men the right to vote, but women didnt get the right until two years later. So after it became the law of the land, how are those undermined and ignore . This is mind boggling. Guest weve got a lot of celebrations rightfully so. But weve got to tell the truth and that is for the most part in the south black women could still not vote. This is why you have for any looting or in mississippi when she dared to try to register to vote, they beat her and then used economic extortion. They kicked her and her husband off the land. Then they forcibly sterilized her because she dared to believe that she had the right to vote. This is why you see this [inaudible] i had a chance to meet her. She was wonderful. Fierce to the organizing in selma where youve got. 7 . Let me be clear. 7 of africanamericans registered to vote and she said anime boy, not on my watch and became mobilizing, organizing until we could see that cataclysm. I got the chance to meet her and she told the attorney general eric holder after he thanked her for what shed done [inaudible] you gave a good speech, but that was quite a moment. She led the way. A black woman should be president or short of that, vice president. I believe on the history of africanamerican women in this country who else can save the fall of america and so now is the time. Now the last case for Voter Suppression today but they tell you in california for example there was a Campaign Recently where the voting place was shut down at the last minute and they had to fight to get it back open for black people could vote. How has that manifested throughout the country as youve said . It is like the mississippi plan of 1890. One is that they make it sound reasonable. We are trying to stop this massive voter fraud, the integrity of the ballot box. Who could be against that. So that is what it is operating under. Number two, just like the mississippi plan that has the grandfather clause, the good character clause and eventually coming out of South Carolina its all of these things the literacy test doesnt get it, the grandfather clause will. There are an array of hurdles black folks have to jump through, under, around in order to get to the ballot box. We see the same thing happening today. The tools in voter id, again its going to sound reasonable. Weve got this rampant massive voter fraud so we think it just isnt much to ask you just show your id when you vote to make sure we dont have all these people trying to steal elections or try to impersonate somebody at the ballot box. First lets deal with the why we and im going to call it a usda prime beef lie. California did a study from 2000 to 2,141,000,000 votes cast in the United States there were 31 cases of voter impersonation fraud out of 1 billion votes. Host why are people falling for this . Because of the brilliant marketing campaign. All you have to say is voter fraud. That republicans mounted that evil genius kind of good after the election with the help america vote act where they were talking about voter fraud so when the help america vote act you get Congress Working to fit us for what went wrong in florida and then you get senator bond of missouri and that didnt happen. Weve got proof that that didnt happen. It was the language, the marketing so it gave the equivalent of the Voter Suppression that was happening in florida and made those two things the same so this is how we get a voter id and that is where they got that credibility. We have proposition 209 to repeal all of the affirmative action in california for student enrollment universities and contract and i fought against that so hard. I knew and everyone knew what would happen if a. The language of the initiative was nobody to be denied access based on their color. Its so awful the sinister nature of how they were trying to deny full participation. In the book white rage to support its Movement Something powerful. Its part of the coverage we can be. We had a problem and we faced it head on and fixed it. You get the pictures of rosa parks on the bus and thats part of the narrative of field and phuket that power coming out of 64. How do you overcome that . They began to adopt the language of reverse racism, of how they no longer have covered only or white equal debate cole might so therefore it must be racially discriminating against whites so this is the battle that you saw. I wasnt in california and i was like no because what it doesnt do is deal with systemic inequality. It doesnt deal with the fact the k12 system for instance, the Public Schools are not only racially segregated, but economically segregated and unequal and has devastating consequences as children move into adulthood and unless we intervene, the consequences will remain the same. Now going through the legislature we are working hard to get that done but let me tell you theres all these other fights when i raised these issues and others. Brianna taylor launches his campaign in mississippi where cheney, Andrew Goodman and civil rights workers in 1964 that helped launch the leaders and to the right of 64. He says im a believer in the states right. Thats playing the race card but its never cast that way. Part of what happens is when we bring it up. When we talk about how it was hit with voter id, let me give a quick what i mean by that. When alabama entered into the voter id law they actually drafted before Shelby County but they couldnt get it through. I dont use those terms likely, but the republicans have recorded themselves in a previous bill talking about how do we depress the black voter turnout because they will get on these buffers and go to the polls so you think that is made of the recent show. So they look at the bow and said lord you must have a government issued photo id. But they noticed that Public Housing id for instance wasnt on the list. 71 of those in Public Housing and alabama are africanamerican and for many it is the only id that they have. Alabama looks at that and says no that is not an acceptable form of the government issued photo id. Does it get more than Public Housing but this is how you can begin. So then for fiscal reasons the department of Motor Vehicles to and also those with sizable populations so how do you get to the next county to get a drivers license if you dont drive . Alabama is like 48th in the nation in terms of public transportation. So how can you go tens of thousands of miles to get a drivers license thats what i mean when i say it sounds reasonable but then you see how targeted this is. Remember the 2008 election . We put a black man in the white house twice. What that means is the majority voted for barack obama and therefore america is not racist. That is what the narrative means. The majority didnt vote for barack obama. In fact the majority had voted for Democratic Candidates for president since 1964 when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and that includes jimmy carter and bill clinton. They have a sizable number that voted that she had an incredible round that brought 50 million student voters to the polls. They were overwhelmingly africanamerican, hispanic, asianamerican, young and poor. This would be the hippest of Voter Suppression. Hospost to get the after he was elected he would say the goal is to make sure [inaudible] exactly. The rules that rain down on obama, the obstruction, page read was intense and you see its policy wide into the republican legislation governors going after those folks in this community so just like the mississippi plan if this one doesnt get them, this one will. Thats right. The way that you will have black and brown precincts where they will have fewer operational Voting Machines and poll workers so there will be lines that stretch for ho