Over the past few years, there have been some extremely disturbing movements in our government which are totally anti-democratic. Here in North Carolina, the Republican legislature is trying to reinstate Jim Crow here in our state, working to make it near impossible for Black people to vote.

For those who might not know much about Southern USA history, Jim Crow was a state-sanctioned system of racial apartheid that dominated the American South from the late 19th century until the mid-1960s. It enforced strict segregation, disenfranchised Black Americans, and relegated them to second-class citizenship through a combination of laws and systemic violence. This included poll tax, where Black (and poor) people could not vote before paying a tax.

So what is happening now in North Carolina? The Republican dominated legislature is doing everything in their power to keep Black People (and now they are also targeting young voters since they also tend to vote strongly Democratic) away from the polls.

First, when a Democrat won the governorship election, the state legislature quickly passed laws taking away any election oversight responsibility away from the Governor. Our corrupt Republican dominated state Supreme Court refused to stop this power grab.

“Souls to the polls” is an organized efforts to support more Black citizens to participate in early voting after attending Sunday church services.

Now since Republicans control all local and state level election oversight, they are:
• Trying to eliminate early voting on Sundays when a large number of our Black citizens vote after church as part of their faith responsibility.
• Moving voting precincts off college campuses (with a focus on HBCUs – Historically Black Colleges and Universities) and from predominately Black neighborhoods and creating more precincts to the whiter more Republican neighborhoods. This would force college students and inner-city Black people to travel greater distances to vote.  (see recent article)

If you are a Republican colleague reading this blog, how do you justify this? And if you also claim to be a Christian, how can you support an unfair racist system over doing what is right? If you believe in democracy and if you claim to be a Christian in North Carolina, you simply cannot vote for any Republican running for our state House or Senate.