(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Virginia's GOP governor just revived a Jim Crow voting law designed to target Black voters [1]

['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']

Date: 2023-03-30  

As the Atlantic's Matt Ford wrote in 2016 following McAuliffe's reform, the racist origins of Virginia's felony disenfranchisement system are unambiguous. Although Virginia had disenfranchised people convicted of a limited set of the most "infamous" crimes since before the Civil War, lawmakers greatly expanded the ban in 1902 to cover all felonies. They also adopted a new constitution that featured further voting restrictions such as poll taxes and literacy tests as part of an explicit effort to purge Black citizens from political life—a campaign that successfully ushered in Jim Crow.

One of the architects of that 1902 constitution was Carter Glass, then a state senator who later served in the U.S. Senate and became best known as the author of the landmark Glass-Steagall banking regulation law during the New Deal. But before making his impact on the world of finance, Glass made his mark as a dedicated segregationist.

The voting restrictions he promoted "[do] not necessarily deprive a single white man of the ballot, but will inevitably cut from the existing electorate four-fifths of the negro voters," he said as delegates gathered to rewrite the constitution. "That was the purpose of this convention; that will be its achievement." Glass proved even more effective than he prophesied: Within a few years, the number of Black registered voters had fallen by more than 90%.

Virginia's elections this fall and in 2025 can, however, reshape the fate of this Jim Crow voting law. Democrats passed a constitutional amendment to make Northam's policy permanent in 2021, but to place such an amendment on the ballot, state law requires the legislature to approve it a second time, and Republicans refused to do so after retaking the state House later that year.

But if Democrats hold the state Senate and retake the House this November, they could start the amendment process over again. And if a Democrat succeeds Youngkin, who is term-limited in 2025, they could reinstate the policy of re-enfranchising everyone not in prison even if lawmakers don't act.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/30/2161133/-Virginia-s-GOP-governor-just-revived-a-Jim-Crow-voting-law-designed-to-target-Black-voters

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/