7th Annual President’ s Breakfast Highlights the Continued Importance of the Right to Vote
The audiovisual montage that opened the 7th Annual President’ s Breakfast created the appropriate compelling atmosphere for the event’ s topic,“ Voting Rights and Redistricting: What’ s at Stake?” Clips of historic speakers including Martin King, John Lewis, and Fannie Lou Hamer were on view. Working class people in skirts, jeans, and overalls lined up to cast their ballots. Clips from memorable moments in the history of the voting rights movement offered historic context.
The message was clear: African Americans and other formerly disenfranchised people need to take voting seriously because the right to vote influences so many aspects of their daily lives. All of the participating speakers echoed the theme, beginning with Sylvia Drew Ivie, who noted the many voting rights controversies, struggles, and challenges during her opening Sponsor Remarks.
President David Carlisle noted that the 1965 Voting Rights Act was intended to give a voice to the voiceless, but many critical provisions have been stripped away over time. The result is that activist legislatures interested in restricting universal voter access have become more emboldened.
The breakfast topic highlighted the problem at hand through the work of the Guest Speaker, writer-activist Shaun King. He has recently devoted considerable time to investigating the strategies at work in the rolling back of voting rights gains. He is the co-founder of the Real Justice PAC. He has also launched a website, North Star, named after the 19th century newspaper, founded by Frederick Douglass.
King has been extremely prolific in his work on a variety of platforms and communication outlets, including podcasts, videos, and print media. He is also a sought-after speaker whose audiences range from corporate boardrooms, educational institutions, to the prison-industrial complex.
King identified three states, Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin, where restrictive voting policies are most prevalent. The restrictions, he noted, have a strong impact on healthcare, education, as well as restricting equal opportunities for all people through repressive legislation.
King indicated his interest in tracking and reporting such incidents began as a personal quest. He grew up in rural Kentucky, where he faced so much bigotry that he was forced to fight for his own dignity against racism. That experience influenced his career pathway. He became a civil rights activist while attending Morehouse College.
During his freshman and sophomore years, two notorious killings took place. On June 7, 1998, James Byrd was dragged for three miles along an asphalt road with a rope around his neck by three white men in a pickup truck. On February 4, 1999, Amado Diallo, a 23-year old unarmed Guinean student, was killed by New York City police officers, who fired 41 shots into his body.
Those incidents received international notoriety and catalyzed King’ s commitment to the cause. The cases were not dissimilar to the plight of teenaged Emmett Till during the 1950s, with extreme racism and bigotry at work.
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 4