Honor John Lewis by restoring the Voting Rights Act
It started hours after civil rights icon Congressman John Lewis passed.
Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell mourned the “pioneering civil rights leader.” Other Republicans tried - and failed - to post photos with the late congressman. Here, Republican Senator Thom Tillis applauded “a titan” whose “legacy as a civil rights leader will continue to have a profound impact on our nation for generations to come.”
Tillis and his fellow Republicans have a chance to back up their words with action by finally passing a bill to restore the Voting Rights Act in Lewis’ memory, which has been languishing in McConnell’s legislative graveyard for more than 220 days. Yet far from supporting when he was alive the man they now applaud in his passing, these Republican leaders stood against Congressman Lewis’ legacy of promoting civil rights - pushing extreme voter suppression efforts and disparaging Black and Brown people, including just last week.
Senator Tillis’ legacy of voter suppression extends back to his days as Speaker of the North Carolina House. There, Thom Tillis passed some of the most extreme racial gerrymanders in history that, according to the U.S. Supreme Court which later struck them down, were meant to silence African-Americans. Black leaders agreed, calling Tillis’ maps “among the worst racial gerrymanders in the nation” and saying he and Republican lawmakers “engaged in systemic racism and cheated to win elections.”
Tillis did more than racially gerrymander our state. He passed a “monster” voter suppression bill that imposed one of the strictest photo ID requirements in the county, cut a week of early voting, and eliminated same-day voter registration and out-of-precinct voting - restrictions the court agreed disproportionately affected African Americans and other minorities.
The courts found a “smoking gun” in Republicans’ effort to cut Sunday voting because counties that used it were “disproportionately black” and “Democratic.” The primary reason was to “target African Americans with almost surgical precision.” As the court wrote, “Neither this legislature -- nor, as far as we can tell, any other legislature in the country -- has ever done so much, so fast, to restrict [voting] access.”
Tillis’ denigration of Black and Brown North Carolinians goes beyond voter suppression. In 2012, Tillis singled out African Americans and Latinx communities and implied they were not part of the “traditional population of North Carolina.” Just last week, he - unprompted - blamed the “Hispanic community” for the spread of COVID-19 and for “less consistent adherence to social distancing and wearing a mask.”
Tillis offered no evidence, nor did he mention that many in our Latinx community are essential workers or that Latinx adults wear masks at a higher rate than white adults. Tillis also has refused to condemn members of his own party, led by the president he applauds, who refuse to wear masks. Latinx leaders, meanwhile, called Tillis’ comments “shocking and upsetting to our community” and “racist BS,” and said he owes “Latinos in North Carolina an apology.” An apology is unlikely, but the moment was revealing.
Our nation is experiencing an awakening to systemic racism. Part of that means demanding more than platitudes from our leaders. Senator Tillis and others should demand a vote on the law restoring the Voting Rights Act this month. Given his record of suppressing -- instead of safeguarding -- the right to vote, we’re not holding our breath.