by Marc H. Morial
President and CEO
National Urban League
“Today, it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans. Once you’re labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination—employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service—are suddenly legal.” – Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow.
One out of every eight Black people in Florida, where President-Elect Donald Trump is registered to vote, is disenfranchised due to felony convictions.
Trump, who was convicted of 34 felony charges, is not.
Florida law allows those convicted of felonies to vote only after their full sentences have been served, including probation and parole, and all fines, fees, and court costs have been paid.
The vast majority of disenfranchised Floridians have served their sentences. Trump has not even been sentenced yet.
But, under Florida law, Trump is subject to the far less restrictive laws of New York state, where he was convicted. Only those currently incarcerated on felony charges are barred from voting in New York.
Felony disenfranchisement is a relic of Jim Crow white supremacy. Its enforcement after the election of a convicted felon to the nation’s highest office is indefensible.
Confederate states were required to ratify the 14th Amendment to be readmitted to the Union after the Civil War. No longer legally able to deny the vote based on race, the states rushed to deny the vote to anyone convicted of a felony. While at the same time enacting “Black Codes” — laws “essentially intended to criminalize Black life,” Douglas Blackmon wrote. While white people accused of crimes often escaped punishment, Black people were arrested and convicted “almost always under the thinnest chimera of probable cause or judicial process.”
Book Explain. Almost 160 years later, Black Americans are three times as likely to be disenfranchised as non-Black Americans. Nationwide, about one in 22 Black citizens of voting age is disenfranchised. In five states – including Florida – more than one in 10 Black adults is disenfranchised.
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