Local leaders showed up at Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan on May 26 in solidarity with Black voters, especially those registered in southern states who fear their voting strength has been nullified as a result of the Supreme Court decision negatively impacting the Voting Rights Act. This “Protect the Black Vote” rally stems from a United States Supreme Court ruling undermining the Voting Rights Act as mid-term elections approach.
New York Working Families Party co-director Jasmine Gripper credited City Councilmember Sandy Nurse for organizing a thread with fellow elected officials and inspiring the event, which included the likes of Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, NAACP State Conference president L. Joy Williams, and former Congressional Rep. Jamaal Bowman.
“We took assignments about who we were going to reach out to and needed to be there,” said Gripper. “[We] wanted to bring attention to what was happening in the South, particularly around all the egregious redistricting things that are about to take place in order to erode people’s access to the ballots and the polls.”
Nurse says she saw an absence of movement here in New York City in response to what was occurring in the South. The Brooklyn-based councilmember wanted to connect this issue locally, particularly with a significant exodus of Black New Yorkers to the South.
“New York is not immune from these things, if across the country we lose Black voting power,” said Nurse. “So [the rally] really was to bring a lot of political, organizational, and community leaders together, including faith leaders, to start that conversation across New York City. We haven’t really seen the media pick it up locally and make those connections.
“It was really important that we demonstrate those connections. We’ve seen a loss of almost 200,000 Black New Yorkers over the last 10 years. They’re [often] going to the South in a place where they are going to lose representation under a very specific and clear white nationalist project.”
The April ruling in Louisiana v. Callais gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a key provision in preventing racial discrimination at the polls. Two majority-Black districts in Louisiana came under scrutiny in the case, as both Democrats and Republicans look to redistricting as a tool to win important seats that often hinge on Black voter turnout.
