If We Lose Our Voting Rights? Part-4

Photo Description:
This image reflects the author’s vision of what the future should be. As an older person, I remember my youth — the first time I fell in love, when everything felt possible, when the future was wide open. Those moments still live in me, reminders of promise and hope. Now, when I look toward tomorrow, I see that same potential in the young — their energy, their dreams, their right to build something better. This image is for them. It is a vision of renewal, a reminder of what we stand to lose — and why we must fight to ensure we never go back.

We're Not Going Back

What would it mean if the most fundamental promise of democracy — the right to vote — were taken away? For Black Americans, that question is not theoretical. It’s a haunting echo of the past. From the nation’s founding, when freedom was defined by ownership and color, to the centuries of slavery that followed, millions were denied not only a voice but even recognition as human beings under the law. This first part revisits that brutal beginning — when the Constitution was written without us in mind, when laws like the Dred Scott decision declared that Black people had “no rights which the white man was bound to respect,” and when our very existence was an act of defiance.

Yet even in chains, resistance grew. The fight for freedom was not only about escaping bondage but demanding inclusion in a democracy that called itself free. Enslaved people risked everything to learn, to speak, to claim a humanity the law refused to see. That long struggle — from forced labor to fragile liberation — laid the foundation for every battle to come. Before we can imagine what losing our rights might mean today, we must remember how it felt to live in a nation that never meant for us to have them at all.

Recent Developments and Ongoing Battles (2020–2025)

2018: Florida Felon Re-Enfranchisement – and Backlash: One of the most significant recent expansions of voting rights occurred in Florida. In November 2018, Florida voters overwhelmingly approved Amendment 4, a state constitutional amendment restoring voting rights to most people with past felony convictions (except those convicted of murder or sexual offenses) upon completion of their sentences. This reform potentially re-enfranchised up to 1.4 million Floridians, disproportionately Black (nearly one in four Black adults in Florida had been disenfranchised under the old Jim Crow-era felony voting ban) [60]. It was the largest expansion of voting rights in the U.S. in half a century [61]. However, in 2019 the Florida legislature and governor undermined Amendment 4 by requiring returning citizens to pay off all fines, fees, and restitution before voting—effectively a modern “poll tax.” [62] This law has left hundreds of thousands again unable to vote. The Florida fight illustrates a larger theme: even as advocates win victories, opponents find new ways to erode those gains.
2020 Election and Aftermath: The 2020 election saw record turnout (over 158 million votes) despite the pandemic. Black voters were crucial in many states, though Black turnout (~62–63%) lagged white turnout (~70%) and didn’t reach Obama-era highs. False claims of voter fraud targeted cities with large Black populations—Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Milwaukee—aiming to disqualify legitimate ballots. Courts rejected these efforts, but they revealed how racialized “fraud” narratives can be weaponized.
2021: Backlash Legislation Across States: Spurred by false fraud claims, at least 18 states enacted 30 new laws in 2021 restricting voting access. Southern and diversifying states led the way. Georgia’s SB 202 tightened mail ballot ID rules and criminalized giving food or water to voters in line; Texas’s SB 1 banned 24-hour and drive-through voting. Florida and Arizona restricted vote-by-mail. Legislators called it “election integrity,” but these measures targeted methods heavily used by Black voters. Modern voter suppression now relies on ID rules, early-voting cuts, purges, and gerrymandering—all of which hit minority voters hardest.
Continued Court Battles – Brnovich (2021): With Section 5 gone, advocates leaned on Section 2 of the VRA—until Brnovich v. DNC further weakened it. The Court upheld Arizona laws that disproportionately burdened Native, Latino, and Black voters, ruling such impacts were not violations [63]. This narrow view emboldened states to tighten rules further.
Gerrymandering and Dilution in the 2020s: Post-2020 redistricting reduced minority representation. Alabama’s 2021 map packed Black voters into one district despite being 27% of the population. In Allen v. Milligan (2023), the Supreme Court ordered a second majority-Black district—a rare win [64]. But a follow-up case, Louisiana v. Callais, could erase race-conscious districting altogether.
“Voting rights are at risk”: 2025 and Beyond: Despite progress, new barriers persist as the judiciary erodes the 1965 VRA. The nation again debates, “Who gets to vote—and whose votes count?” [65] Advocates push federal reforms (John Lewis Voting Rights Act, Freedom to Vote Act) and state-level suits, while organizing voters to overcome obstacles.
Black Voter Turnout Trends: Black turnout peaked in 2008–2012, fell in 2016, and rebounded in 2018–2020. Yet the turnout gap between Black and white voters remains wide in post-Shelby states [43]. Groups like Black Voters Matter, the NAACP, and Stacey Abrams’s Fair Fight continue registering and defending voters, even as state laws retaliate. The pattern of progress and backlash endures.
The Legacy of 150 Years: From Reconstruction’s promise to Jim Crow’s betrayal and the Civil Rights victories later eroded, the fight for the Black vote remains ongoing. Congress still holds the power to protect voting rights [66]. Whether the nation chooses to fulfill that promise remains to be seen.

After centuries of struggle — from chains to ballots, from marches to lawsuits — the fight for Black voting rights has never truly ended; it has only changed form. Each generation has faced its own version of suppression, yet each has answered with courage, vision, and unbreakable resolve. Today, as new laws threaten to silence voices once again, the weight of history reminds us that freedom is never permanent — it must be protected, renewed, and defended. The message from the past to the present is clear: we have come too far, and sacrificed too much, to ever let democracy move backward. We are not going back.