Volume 54 -No. 18: October 26 - November 6, 2020

Darren Miller

Fresno County Board Of Education Trustee Area 3

Yolanda Moore Clovis Unified School Board Area 7

Shawn Brooks Central Unified School District Area 4

Abena Cruise

State Center Community College District Trustee Area 7

Eric Payne

State Center Community College District Trustee Area 2

Fresno’s Black Candidates on local ballots !

See Page A3

Advocate The California

Volume 54 - No. 18: October 26-November 6, 2020

Fresno’s African American Community Newspaper

2020 ELECTION ISSUE

Who Fresno’s Black Voters Should Support!

The History of The Black Vote in the United States of America

America at the Crossroads and the Black Vote!

The First African American Senator And Representatives In The 41St And 42Nd Congress Of The United States. Group Portrait Of African American Legislators: Portrait of the first black senator, H. M. Revels of Mississippi (far left) and black representatives of Congress during the Reconstruction Era, circa 1870-1875. (See pages B1 through B8)

Editorial By Kehinde Solwazi for the Advocate Newspaper

This election is the most important since the Civil War. America can determine its future with this vote and become a multiracial and multicultural country oppose to white nationalist like Nazi Germany or Apartheid, South Africa. Donald Trump and the White Nationalist Party represent the past Republican Party.

This political party has ideas and motives to see this country as an American style, white supremacy nation.

The United States Declaration of Independence states, “…

(Continued on page A5)

Volume 54 ~ No 18: October 26-November 6,2020 2020 P.O. Box 11826 • Fresno, CA 93775 www.caladvocate.com

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The California Advocate

October 26, - November 6, 2020

Vote by November 3rd

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your mail-in ballot or about your polling place please call:

(559) 600-VOTE or (559) 600-8683

The California Advocate Newspaper

To advertise or subscribe call the Advocate @ (559) 268-0941 or visit our website - thecaladvocate.com Mark Kimber

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October 26, - November 6, 2020 October 26, - November 6, 2020

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advocate NEWSPAPER recommendations

Presidential General Election Tuesday, November 3, 2020 US President

Joseph R. Biden & Kamala D. Harris US CONGRESSIONAL, DISTRICT 16

Jim Costa

Fresno County Board Of Education Trustee Area 3

Darren Miller

Clovis Unified School Board Area 7

Yolanda Moore

Darren Miller

Central Unified School District

Fresno County Board Of Education Trustee Area 3

Shawn Brooks

State Center Community College District Trustee Area 7

Yolanda Moore Clovis Unified School Board Area 7

Abena Cruise

Abena Cruise

State Center Community College District Trustee Area 7

State Center Community College District Trustee Area 2

Eric Payne

Shawn Brooks Central Unified School District Area 4

Eric Payne

State Center Community College District Trustee Area 2

For any questions or concerns regarding your vote, call the Fresno county Elections Department @ (559) 600-VOTE or (559) 600-8683.

The California

Established in 1967

November 3, 2020 Consolidated General Election

PROPOSITIONS

Measures Submitted To The Voters P R O P

14

YES

To continue vital stem cell medical research.

P R O P

The California Advocate Endorses

20

NO

A Yes vote will stop prison reforms we have already approved.

P R O P

15

YES

P R O P

21

To control property tax increases.

P R O P

16 P R O P

17

YES

Allow parolees to vote.

P R O P

18

P R O P

22 The California Advocate Newspaper full 2020 election issue available October 23rd on our website

thecaladvocate.com

YES

To allow 17 year olds to vote in primaries if they turn 18 before general election.

P R O P

19

To stop increasing rent prices.

YES

To maintain affirmative action in education and employment.

YES

To fund Fire Response Fund

YES

printed copies on newsstands October 26th.

See our website

thecaladvocate.com or call us at (559) 268-0941

NO

To allow UBER and other drivers to be treated fairly as employees with benefits.

P R O P

23

YES

To make clinics accountable of how they treat our community as hospitals are.

P R O P

24

NO

To stop providing too much personal information online.

P R O P

25

YES

To stop holding poor people in jail.

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The California Advocate

October 26, - November 6, 2020

America at the Crossroads and the Black Vote!

(Continued from page A1)

that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.� At the end of enslavement, African Americans took these concepts and the concepts of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments very serious and literal. We clearly wanted to accomplish five goals: 1) attain political power, 2) land for our families, 3) the best education for our children, 4) the right to acquire wealth for our future, and 5) to restore strong Black families. Once African American men received the right to vote and gain political office, we took political power very seriously.

African Americans were betrayed by all branches of the U.S Society and came under violent repression by white racist, both North and South. As a result, the vote was taken away from African Americans. It was the success of the Black freedom struggle in the sixties that restored voting rights and political power to African Americans. White racist has made every effort to undercut Black political power.

The right to vote is the most important asset to gain political power in this American system. Voting is to you as a hammer is to a carpenter.

ITY HIGH SC H

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Ad Astra Per Aspera

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UN

I

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U NIVERSITY H IGH S CHOOL

E S T. 2 0 0 0

You cannot build a house without a hammer, therefore, in this system we have no political rights without the vote. Voting is very important when is serves our empowerment.

African Americans have had a history of not benefiting from our voting power. As African Americans, we must vote with empowerment; without it, our action is nothing but an empty gesture. Voting without empowerment gives politicians who do not care to serve our community any obligations to pay attention to or serve the needs and interests of our communities. As a result of African Americans not properly acquiring all the knowledge of our roles in politics and furthermore not investing enough resources in candidates or legislation to better serve us, we have not fully embraced or enacted our power. Our votes have been cast almost in vain without ample return on investment. Voting without power does nothing to change the conditions we already experience. We are adversely affected by police brutality, an unfair justice system, poor and false education being taught to our children, disadvantaged, and impoverished communities, and no economic empowerment.

What does empowerment mean and look like for African Ameri-

cans? Black empowerment is ownership, equity, and control of the wealth and resources in our community. Black empowerment is also control of the education being taught to our children, and the polices, methods, and tactics of policing for our community. This time we vote, we will utilize our vote as a valuable tool. To do this, we must require candidates and polices that support our advancement and development as a people. In turn we will support and hold these candidates and laws accountable by giving our time and resources to further their causes. We African Americans, ultimately determine our own fate and destiny.

We must vote! Voting is essential for our political power. But when we vote, we must be in control of who and what we are voting for. When we do that, our vote is now empowered. We must see our empowered vote as part of a three-part process: culture, politics, and economics. The reason we do not currently possess political power or benefit enough from voting is because we have not mastered this three-part process on a large enough scale. Our culture is a very essential asset to us. The overwhelming influence of our culture in this country (and even the world)

helps to shape our political views, while simultaneously playing a vital role in our economics; from the way we spend our dollars, to who wants to invest with us. In turn, the combination of our economic power and our cultural power drive our political power. These three essential parts to our empowerment work fluidly and cyclically with each other.

To attain the power, ownership, and equity of and for ourselves in this country, we must control these three things and use them intentionally and diligently for our overall goals.

Finally, let me conclude with a simple diagram presented by Dr. Leonard Jeffries. (To view diagram See the Advocate website thecaladvocate.com.) This diagram illustrates the three-part process and relationships of economics, politics, and culture. These must always be of value, interest, and priority to African Americans.

This election is the most important vote in your lifetime. Your vote will determine the future of this country, the future of what it means to be African American living in America, and most importantly, the future of our children. The livelihood of our people depends on your vote!

Yours in Truth, Baba Kehinde Solwazi

SET YOUR CHILD UP FOR SUCCESS WITH NATIONALLY ACCLAIMED

UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL

FOR INFORMATION attend one of our webinars on: Nov. 17th, Jan. 13th, Jan. 28th UHS-INFO.COM

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October 26, - November 6, 2020 October 26, - November 6, 2020

The California Advocate

Page A5

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Agree

Vote No on Prop 22

Uber and Lyft wrote deceptive Prop 22 to buy themselves a new law to deny their drivers sick leave, workers compensation, and unemployment benefits.

Stop Uber and Lyft Greed.

LY R I A F S ER V I R D T TREA

Nooncaprop22.com

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votenoonprop22

Ad paid for by No on Prop 22, sponsored by Labor Organizations.

Committee major funding from International Brotherhood of Teamsters United Food and Commercial Workers International Union CLC Service Employees International Union Funding Details At www.fppc.ca.gov

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October 26, - November 6, 2020

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California Republican Party placed illegal ballot drop boxes in Fresno county else’s ballot.

“Today, the Secretary of State’s office, jointly with the (California) Department of Justice, issued a cease and desist order to the California Republican party to remove these dropboxes,” Padilla said.

The individuals responsible for putting out the boxes have until Thursday to comply with the cease and desist order.

Padilla reminded voters only to use official ballot drop boxes deployed and secured by a county elections office.

Becerra says those who choose to leave boxes out, knowing it is against state law, are at risk of criminal or civil charges.

In addition to the boxes in Fresno County, a regional field director for the California Republican Party in Orange County posted a photo to social media showing with a box labeled “official ballot drop off box” and encouraged voters to message him for “convenient locations” to drop their ballots.

The Associated Press also reported that there was a similar box at a church in the Los Angeles County community of Castaic. The church posted on social media the box was “approved and brought by the GOP.” Another church, Grace Baptist in Santa Clarita reported a dropbox was placed in front of the church and they were led to believe it was a nonpartisan effort and the ballots would be brought straight to the registrar’s office.

“As soon as there was any confusion or concern, we called them to remove the box,” said Joe Keller, executive pastor of Grace Baptist church.

Voting by mail? Here’s how to make sure your mail-in ballot is counted Want your mail-in ballot to be counted? Send your ballot as soon as you can, sign it and make sure your signature matches the one on file.

In counties across the state, official drop boxes are clearly recognizable, carry the official county elections logo, and are designed to be very secure. Elections clerks from several counties say their signature check is the best form of security to ensure there’s no fraud.

Vanderhoof said the boxes in Fresno County had been pulled, but he also called Padilla a hypocrite, accusing California Democrats of setting up the system to allow cheating through sameday registration, keeping inactive voters on the rolls, and ballot harvesting.

The California Republican Party also issued a statement defending the ballot boxes, “In Cali-

The Advocate staff encourages Black voters not to use these fake Republican drop boxes and turn there ballot in at a polling place or the Fresno County Elections Department. fornia, where you can have convicted felons and individuals with a criminal history go door to door and collect ballots from voters, Democrats are now upset because organizations, individuals and groups are offering an opportunity for their friends, family, and patrons to drop off their ballot with someone they know and trust. The Democrat anger is overblown when state law allows organizations, volunteers or campaign workers to collect completed ballots and drop them off at polling places or election offices. If Democrats are so concerned with ballot harvesting, they are the ones who wrote the legislation, voted for it, and Governor Jerry Brown signed it into law.

California Republicans would be happy to do away with ballot harvesting.”

Ada Briceño, chair of the Democratic Party in Orange County, said in a statement the fake boxes were an attempt at voter suppression.

“Voters need trust in our election system, and this latest attempt by senior Republicans only erodes that trust,” she said.

To find early voting and vote-by-mail ballot drop off locations, visit https://caearlyvoting. sos.ca.gov/ and to make sure your vote is counted, visit https://wheresmyballot.sos.ca.gov/.

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By Corin Hoggard Unofficial ballot drop boxes have been spotted in Orange County, Los Angeles and Fresno, and state officials say they are illegal.

UPDATE: The Fresno County District Attorney’s Office confirms that it received several complaints regarding unofficial, illegal ballot drop boxes placed throughout the county. They say they will review the complaints, investigate and, if appropriate, prosecute any criminal violations of the Elections Code.

California’s chief elections official on Monday ordered Republicans to remove unofficial, illegal ballot drop boxes from churches, gun shops and other locations and Attorney General Xavier Becerra warned those behind the “vote tampering” could face prosecution.

The collection bins were not authorized by any elections office and, in some cases, were simple cardboard boxes with no locking security mechanism.

It turns out, the local Republican parties in several counties, including at least Fresno, Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange counties, came together to place boxes at Republican-friendly locations to collect ballots, and they even announced their plans online. Those drop-off locations included local Republican party offices, candidate headquarters, gun stores and churches.

Republicans say their collection of ballots is no different than the practice of “ballot harvesting” where a third party collects signed ballot envelopes.

“Because ballot harvesting is legal, we wanted to be open about it,” says Fresno County GOP Chairman Fred Vanderhoof. “We let people know on Facebook and social media that they could drop their ballot at a secure ballot box and we’ll take it down for them.”

Ballot harvesting is used in some cases where voters lack transportation, are elderly or disabled or are in the hospital, and the third party must sign the ballot as a witness. Because the unofficial ballot boxes are unmanned, the state says it’s not the same as ballot harvesting.

Local GOP places unauthorized ballot dropboxes around Fresno area Boxes were reported in Fresno, Los Angeles and Orange counties at locations including political party offices, candidate headquarters and churches.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla says it’s illegal to put out unofficial ballot boxes and collect votes, even though it is legal to turn in someone

Page A8

The California Advocate

October 26, - November 6, 2020

“Now, as much as ever, it is critical that you vote and make your voice heard. Our health, security and future depend on it.” ~ Congressman Jim Costa

Congressman Costa bringing one of the icons of the civil rights movement to Fresno, Congressman John Lewis, also with former Councilmember Oliver Baines.

Congressman Costa greeting Fresno’s own Audra McDonald, 6 time Tony Award Winner, when she received the National Medal of Arts Award at the White House.

Congressman Costa bringing President Obama to our valley to see the severe impacts of the drought.

r e h t e g o T g Workin . y t i n u m m o C r u O r fo FOR CO N G R E S S

Jim Costa Keeping Our Valley Strong Paid for by Jim Costa for Congress

Page B1

The California Advocate

October 26, - November 6, 2020

The Supreme Court and jelly beans: What Black People Had to Endure To Vote

A hundred years from now our great-grandchildren will ask how it happened.

More importantly, they will want to know why we let it happen and what we, individually did about it.

This period in history will be compared to 1930s Germany, when a handful of people were able to change the lives of millions…because the millions sat and watched.

The culprits will be known by many names, mostly derisive names: the Court of Whores, the Supreme Clowns, the Court of Betrayal, the Court of the New Confederacy.

This is the same court that gave us President George W. Bush, by ordering a halt to the Florida vote count that could have produced a different outcome.

This is the same court that defied the letter, spirit and history of the U.S. Constitution with the Citizens United decision, declaring that a corporation is a person.

This is the same court that allowed Clarence Thomas, former attorney for Monsanto, to actually write the decision that has given that corporation virtually unlimited license to control or shut down smaller farming operations across the country.

And the list goes on and on.

The United States Supreme Court is out of control. It is guided neither by the will of the people, the Constitution, common decency nor conscience. It is

a racist, partisan court with decisions for sale.

On Tuesday of last week, when the Supreme Court voted to gut the Civil Rights Act by striking down Section 4, they merely sounded an acceleration in the direction they have been moving in for years, an escalation of their efforts to turn back the clock, calendar and sundial of racial justice in the United States. It is now open season on voting rights in particular and civil rights in general.

It is said that the devil’s best, most effective lie is that the devil does not exist. On Tuesday the Supreme Court bought and sold the racists’ greatest lie: that racism no longer exists in the United States. Based on this lie, the Court reasons (to use a term loosely) that there is no longer a need for federal oversight. The idea is that racism is so dead that states like Louisiana and Texas should be allowed to make any voting laws that they choose. Blacks and others in these states do not need any protection of their rights.

This defies belief. In the last presidential election alone, candidate Mitt Romney was allowed to own the actual voting machines in five key states, voting machines that are known to be susceptible to computer manipulation. We saw several states purge voting rolls and enact stricter identification laws, just to eliminate the number of Black, brown

Timeline of voting rights in the United States

and poor voters that might not vote Republican. We saw police harassing Blacks at voting polls and people who were legitimately registered told that their names were not on the rolls. Polling times and locations were altered without notice.

This court had to forget and deny both facts and current data to claim that voter suppression is no longer a threat.

But there are many of us who will not forget. Many are old enough to remember the jelly bean jar, the poll tax, the grandfather clause and the voting test.

Prior to the Voting Rights Act, in several states, Blacks would have to leap hurdles to exercise their right to vote, which had been guaranteed immediately after slavery with the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments. You might be asked to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar. Your answer was always wrong. You might have to pay an expensive fee/tax. You might have to prove that your grandfather voted. Or you might have to answer questions such as “How many angels can fit on the head of a pin?” or “What was George Washington’s mother-in-law’s maiden name?”

The Supreme Court says that the racism that spawned these measures is dead so there is no need for monitoring or supervision. Nothing could be further from the truth. Within two hours of

Tuesday’s decision, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott issued a statement declaring that two voter suppression measures that were rejected last year by federal judges could go into effect immediately now that there was no one to block them.

One measure was a voter ID law; the other created voting districts that were obviously designed to neutralize Black voting strength.

satisfied until they see us back in chains. Some of these people, like Justice Clarence Thomas, are Black themselves. And Justice Thomas would be foolish to believe that he wouldn’t be counted in that number, despite him having done their bidding for all these years.

This article originally published in the July 1, 2013 print edition of The Black Newspaper LouisiSome people will not be ana Weekly newspaper.

Timeline

• 1789 The Constitution of the United States grants the states the power to set voting requirements.

Generally, states limited this right to property-owning or tax-paying white males (about 6% of the population).[1] • 1790: The Naturalization Act of 1790 allows free white persons born outside of the United States to become citizens. However, due to the Constitution granting the states the power to set voting requirements, this Act (and its successor Naturalization Act of 1795) did not automatically grant the right to vote.

[2] • 1792–1838: Free black males lose the right to vote in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey.

• 1792–1856: Abolition of property qualifications for white men, from 1792 (Kentucky) to 1856 (North Carolina) during the periods of Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democracy.[3] o In the 1820 election, there were 108,359 ballots cast. Most older states with property restrictions dropped them by the mid-1820s, except for Rhode Island, Virginia and North Carolina. No new states had property qualifications although three had adopted tax-paying qualifications – Ohio, Louisiana, and Mississippi, of which only in Louisiana were these significant and long lasting.[4] o The 1828 presidential election was the first in which non-property-holding white males could vote in the vast majority of states. By the end of the 1820s, attitudes and state laws had shifted in favor of universal white male suffrage.[5] o Voter turnout soared during the 1830s, reaching about 80% of adult white male population in the 1840 presidential election.[6] 2,412,694 ballots were cast, an increase that far outstripped natural population growth, making poor voters a huge part of the electorate. The process was peaceful and widely supported, except in the state of Rhode Island where the Dorr Rebellion of the 1840s demonstrated that the demand for equal suffrage was broad and strong, although the subsequent reform included a significant property requirement for anyone resident but born outside of the United States. o The last state to abolish property qualification was North Carolina in 1856 resulting in a close approximation to universal white male suffrage.

However, tax-paying qualifications remained in five states in 1860 – Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware and North Carolina. They survived in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island until the 20th century.[7] In addition, many poor whites were later disenfranchised.

• 1868: Citizenship is guaranteed to all male

The First African American Senator And Representatives In The 41St And 42Nd Congress Of The United States. Group Portrait Of African American Legislators: Portrait of the first black senator, H. M. Revels of Mississippi (far left) and black representatives of Congress during the Reconstruction Era, circa 1870-1875. persons born or naturalized in the United States by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, setting the stage for future expansions to voting rights.

• 1870: The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prevents states from denying the right to vote on grounds of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude”. o Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era began soon after. Former Confederate states passed Jim Crow laws and amendments to effectively disfranchise African-American and poor white voters through poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses and other restrictions, applied in a discriminatory manner. During this period, the Supreme Court generally upheld state efforts to discriminate against racial minorities; only later in the 20th century were these laws ruled unconstitutional. Black males in the Northern states could vote, but the majority of African Americans lived in the South.

• 1887: Citizenship is granted to Native Americans who are willing to disassociate themselves from their tribe by the Dawes Act, making those males technically eligible to vote.

• 1913: Direct election of Senators, established by the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, gave voters rather than state legislatures the right to elect senators.[8] • 1920: Women are guaranteed the right to vote by the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. In practice, the same restrictions that hindered the ability of non-white men to vote now also applied to non-white women.

• 1924: All Native Americans are granted citizenship and the right to vote through the Indian Citizenship Act, regardless of tribal affiliation. By this point, approximately two thirds of Native Americans were already citizens.[9][10] Notwithstanding, some western states continued to bar Native Americans from voting until 1948.[11] • 1943: Chinese immigrants given the right to citizenship and the right to vote by the Magnuson

Act. • 1948: Arizona and New Mexico became the last states to extend full voting rights to Native Americans, which had been opposed by some western states in contravention of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.[12][13] • 1961: Residents of Washington, D.C. are granted the right to vote in U.S. Presidential Elections by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution.

• 1962-1964: A historic turning point arrived after the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren made a series of landmark decisions which helped establish the nationwide “one man, one vote” electoral system in the United States. o In March 1962, the Warren Court ruled in Baker v. Carr (1962) that redistricting qualifies as a justiciable question, thus enabling federal courts to hear redistricting cases.[14] o In February 1964, the Warren Court ruled in Wesberry v. Sanders (1964) that districts in the United States House of Representatives must be approximately equal in population.[15] o In June 1964, the Warren Court ruled in Reynolds v. Sims (1964) that both houses of the electoral districts of state legislative chambers must be roughly equal in population..[16][17][18] • 1964: Poll Tax payment prohibited from being used as a condition for voting in federal elections by the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

• 1965: Protection of voter registration and voting for racial minorities, later applied to language minorities, is established by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This has also been applied to correcting discriminatory election systems and districting.

• 1966: Tax payment and wealth requirements for voting in state elections are prohibited by the Supreme Court in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections.

• 1971: Adults aged 18 through 21 are granted the right to vote by the Twenty-sixth Amendment to

(Continued on page B5)

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JEROME GAGE, FULL-TIME LYFT DRIVER

“

Uber and Lyft are spending more than $180 million to pass Prop 22, more than any campaign in California history, just

to avoid their legal obligation to provide me with a minimum wage, paid sick leave, or basic worker protections. Uber and Lyft claim drivers like me want to be ‘independent.’ What I really want is to be paid a living wage and have basic employee benefits. Vote No on Prop 22.

See Jerome’s Story at: nooncaprop22.com/jeromegage

Nooncaprop22.com

@votenoonprop22 Ad paid for by No on Prop 22, sponsored by Labor Organizations.

Committee major funding from International Brotherhood of Teamsters United Food and Commercial Workers International Union CLC Service Employees International Union Funding Details At www.fppc.ca.gov

”

votenoonprop22

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October 26, - November 6, 2020

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Timeline of voting rights in the United States (Continued from page B1)

this was inacted in response to Vietnam War protests, which argued that soldiers who were old enough to fight for their country should be granted the right to vote.[8][19] • 1972: Requirement that a person reside in a jurisdiction for an extended period is prohibited by the Supreme Court in Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U.S. 330 (1972).[20][21][21] • 1973: Washington, D.C. local elections, such as Mayor and Council-

men, restored after a 100-year gap in Georgetown, and a 190-year gap in the wider city, ending Congress’s policy of local election disfranchisement started in 1801 in this former portion of Maryland—see: D.C. Home rule.

• 1986: United States Military and Uniformed Services, Merchant Marine, other citizens overseas, living on bases in the United States, abroad, or aboard ship are granted the right to vote by the Uniformed and Overseas

Citizens Absentee Voting Act.[22] • 1996–2008: Twenty-eight US states changed their laws on felon voting rights, mostly to restore rights or to simplify the process of restoration.[23] • 2006: The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was extended for the fourth time by President George W. Bush, being the second extension of 25 years.

[24] • 2008: State laws on felony disenfranchisement have since continued

to shift, both curtailing and restoring voter rights, sometimes over short periods of time within the same US state.

[23] • 2013: Supreme Court ruled in the 5–4 Shelby County v. Holder decision that Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional. Section 4(b) stated that if states or local governments wants to change their voting laws, they must appeal to the Attorney General.[25]

“Direct” disenfranchisement refers to actions that explicitly prevent people from voting or having their votes counted, as opposed to “indirect” techniques, which attempt to prevent people’s votes from having an impact on political outcomes (e.g., gerrymandering, ballot box stuffing, stripping elected officials of their powers).

The 15th Amendment prohibited explicit disenfranchisement on the basis of race or prior enslavement.

So Southern states devised an array of alternative techniques designed to disenfranchise blacks and, to a lesser extent, poor whites. There were three broad, overlapping phases of the disenfranchisement process. From 1868-1888, the principal techniques of disenfranchisement were illegal, based on violence and massive fraud in the vote counting process. Starting in 1877, when Georgia passed the cumulative poll tax, states implemented statutory methods of disenfranchisement. From 1888-1908, states entrenched these legal techniques in their constitutions. Here we explore the principal means of direct disenfranchisement, and the attempts to use Federal law to prevent disenfranchisement, through 1965, when the Voting Rights Act was passed. For the most part, until the advent of the Civil Rights Movement in the 20th c., the Supreme Court acquiesced in the methods used to disenfranchise blacks by gutting the Federal laws enacted to protect blacks. Whenever it resisted, the Southern states followed the motto “if at first you don’t succeed. . . .”

candidates who had been “defeated” through electoral fraud. (Kousser, Shaping of Southern Politics, 263).

In a key test of federal power to prohibit fraud in state elections, prosecutors brought indictments, under the Enforcement Act of 1870, against two inspectors of elections in Kentucky, for their refusal to receive and count the vote of a black elector in a city election. The Supreme Court dismissed the indictments in U.S. v. Reese, 92 U.S. 214 (1875). It eviscerated the Enforcement Act by throwing out its provisions for punishing election officials for depriving citizens of their voting rights, on the ground that they exceeded Congress’ power to regulate elections. (The provisions stated that officials shall be punished for failure to count the votes of eligible electors, when the 15th Amendment granted Congress only the power to punish officials for depriving electors of the right to vote on account of race.) Although electoral fraud remained common in the South, it brought its practitioners under the glare of unfavorable publicity.

This motivated a turn to legal means of disenfranchisement.

Poll Taxes Georgia initiated the poll tax in 1871, and made it cumulative in 1877 (requiring citizens to pay all back taxes before being permitted to vote). Every former confederate state followed its lead by 1904. Although these taxes of $1-$2 per year may seem small, it was beyond the reach of many poor black and white sharecroppers, who rarely dealt in cash. The Georgia poll tax probably reduced overall turnout by 16-28%, and black turnout in half (Kousser, The Shaping of Southern Politics, 67-8). The purpose of the tax was plainly to disenfranchise, not to collect revenue, since no state brought prosecutions against any individual for failure to pay the tax. In 1937, a white man brought suit against Georgia’s poll tax, alleging violations of the 14th Amendment and the 19th Amendment (prohibiting discrimination in the right to vote on account of sex). (Women not registered to vote were exempt from the poll tax). The Supreme Court rejected his arguments in Breedlove v. Suttles, 302 U.S. 277 (1937), disingenuously claiming that it was unrelated to any attempt to disenfranchise. It held that the poll tax was a legitimate device for raising revenue, and that the 19th Amendment regulated voting, not taxation. Although the 24th Amendment prohibited the poll tax in Federal elections, even that wasn’t enough to prevent a last-ditch attempt to burden the right to vote with a tax.

In Harman v. Forssenius, 380 U.S. 528 (1965), the Court struck down a Virginia law requiring federal electors to file burdensome paperwork if they did not pay a poll tax. It took the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prohibit the poll tax in state elections. The Supreme Court independently declared poll taxes an unconstitutional violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment in Harper v.

Virginia State Bd. of Elections, 383 U.S. 663 (1966).

Literacy Tests The first implicit literacy test was South Carolina’s notorious “eightbox” ballot, adopted in 1882. Voters had to put ballots for separate offices in separate boxes. A ballot for the governor’s race put in the box for the senate seat would be thrown out.

The order of the boxes was continuously shuffled, so that literate people could not assist illiterate voters by arranging their ballots in the proper order. The adoption of the secret ballot constituted another implicit literacy test, since it prohibited anyone from assisting an illiterate voter in casting his vote. In 1890, Southern states began to adopt explicit literacy tests to disenfranchise voters. This had a large differential racial impact, since 40-60% of blacks were illiterate, compared to 8-18% of whites. Poor, illiterate whites opposed the tests, realizing that they too would be disenfranchised. To placate them, Southern states adopted an “understanding clause” or a “grandfather clause,”

which entitled voters who could not pass the literacy test to vote, provided they could demonstrate their understanding of the meaning of a passage in the constitution to the satisfaction of the registrar, or were or were descended from someone eligible to vote in 1867, the year before blacks attained the franchise. Discriminatory administration ensured that blacks would not be eligible to vote through the understanding clause. However, illiterate whites also felt the impact of the literacy tests, since some of the understanding and grandfather clauses expired after a few years, and some whites were reluctant to expose their illiteracy by publicly resorting to them. The Supreme Court struck down Oklahoma’s grandfather clause in Guinn v. U.S., 238 U.S. 347 (1915), as an obvious ruse to evade the 15th Amendment. Oklahoma responded to Guinn by passing a law requiring all those who had not voted in the 1914 election (when the grandfather clause was still in effect) to register to vote within 11 days, or forever forfeit the franchise. The Supreme Court invalidated this arrangement in Lane v.

Wilson, 307 U.S. 268 (1939). None of this touched the literacy tests, only the white exemption from it. Not until 1949 in Davis v. Schnell, 81 F. Supp.

872, did a Federal court strike down discriminatory administration of a literacy test. In Lassiter v. Northampton Cty. Bd. of Ed., 360 U.S. 45 (1959), the Court upheld the Constitutionality of literacy tests, notwithstanding their differential racial impact, provided states were willing to have their impact fall on illiterate whites as well. Congress abolished literacy tests in the South with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and nationwide in 1970.

which they could register him. But if the laws were valid, then the registrars enjoyed immunity from damages for the ways they interpreted them. The Supreme Court affirmed this decision in Giles v. Teasley, 193 U.S. 146 (1904).

Techniques of Direct Black Voter Disenfranchisement, 1880-1965

Violence Violence was a principal means of direct disenfranchisement in the South before Redemption. In 1873, a band of whites murdered over 100 blacks who were assembled to defend Republican officeholders against attack in Colfax, Louisiana. Federal prosecutors indicted 3 of them under the Enforcement Act of 1870, which prohibited individuals from conspiring “to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any citizen with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise and enjoyment of any right or privilege granted or secured to him by the constitution or laws of the United States.”

The Supreme Court dismissed the indictments in U.S. v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1875), faulting them for failure to identify a right guaranteed by the federal government that had been violated in the slaughter: (1) Conceding that the right to assemble for the purpose of petitioning Congress or vote in federal elections was derived from the federal government, the Court argued that the right to participate in state politics was derived from the states, so individuals could look only to the states for protection of this right. (2) Conceding an exception, that the U.S. Constitution grants individuals the right against racial discrimination in the exercise of their rights to participate in state politics, the Court faulted the indictment for failure to charge a racial motivation for interference in the victims’ right to vote (even though the racial motive was obvious). (3) In any event, the Court ruled that this federal right against racial discrimination was enforceable against the states only, not against individuals. (4) Other rights violated in the slaughter, such as the rights to life and against false imprisonment, were not derived from the federal government, so individuals had to resort to the states for protection of these rights. Cruikshank “rendered national prosecution of crimes against blacks virtually impossible, and gave a green light to acts of terror where local officials either could not or would not enforce the law.” (Eric Foner, Reconstruction, 1989, 531).

Fraud Electoral fraud by ballot box stuffing, throwing out non-Democratic votes, or counting them for the Democrats even when cast for the opposition, was the norm in the Southern states before legal means of disenfranchisement were entrenched. Between 1880 and 1901, Congress seated 26 Republican or Populist congressional

Restrictive and Arbitrary Registraton Practices Southern states made registration difficult, by requiring frequent reregistration, long terms of residence in a district, registration at inconvenient times (e.g., planting season), provision of information unavailable to many blacks (e.g. street addresses, when black neighborhoods lacked street names and numbers), and so forth. When blacks managed to qualify for the vote even under these measures, registrars would use their discretion to deny them the vote anyway. Alabama’s constitution of 1901 was explicitly designed to disenfranchise blacks by such restrictive and fraudulent means. Despite this, Jackson Giles, a black janitor, qualified for the vote under Alabama’s constitution. He brought suit against Alabama on behalf of himself and 75,000 similarly qualified blacks who had been arbitrarily denied the right to register. The Supreme Court rejected his claim in Giles v. Harris, 189 U.S. 475 (1903). In the most disingenuous reasoning since Plessy v.

Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896) (rejecting a challenge to state-mandated racial segregation of railroad cars, on the ground that blacks’ claims that segregation was intended to relegate them to inferior status was a figment of their imaginations), Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes put Giles in a catch-22: if the Alabama constitution did indeed violate the 15th Amendment guarantee against racial discrimination in voting, then it is void and Giles cannot be legally registered to vote under it. But if it did not, then Giles’ rights were not violated. But, in the face of Giles’ evidence of fraud, the Court cannot assume that the constitution is valid and thereby order his registration in accordance with its provisions. Holmes also held that Federal courts had no jurisdication over state electoral practices, and no power to enforce their judgements against states. Undaunted, Giles filed suit for damages against the registrars in state court, and also petitioned the court to order the registrars to register him. The state court dismissed his complaints and the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed, offering another catch-22: if Alabama’s voting laws violated the 14th and 15th Amendments as Giles alleged, then the registrars had no valid laws under

The White Primary Disenfranchisement brought about one-party rule in the Southern states.

This meant that the Democratic nominee for any office was assured of victory in the general election, shifting the real electoral contest to the party primary. This fact provided yet another opportunity to disenfranchise blacks. Texas passed a law forbidding blacks from participating in Democratic primary elections. The Supreme Court struck down this law as a plain violation of the 14th and 15th Amendments in Nixon v. Herndon, 273 U.S. 536 (1927). So Texas passed another law providing for each party’s state executive committee to determine who could vote in its primaries. Accordingly, the Texas Democratic Party Executive Committee resolved to permit only white Democrats to participate in its primary. The idea was that, as a private association, the party executive committee was not subject to the 14th and 15th Amendments, which applied only to the states. The Supreme Court rejected this reasoning in Nixon v.

Condon, 286 U.S. 73 (1932), holding that the Texas Democratic Party Executive Committee got its power to determine party membership from the state of Texas, and so acted as state officials. The State Democratic Convention promptly met and passed a resolution limiting party membership to whites. This was enough to satisfy the Supreme Court that only private parties, not the state, were involved in determining primary electors (despite the fact that the state required and regulated primaries). It therefore upheld the exclusion of blacks from the Texas Democratic primary in Grovey v. Townsend, 295 U.S. 45 (1935). However, in U.S. v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299, a case involving electoral fraud in a primary election, the Supreme Court acknowledged that primary elections were such an integral part of the selection of government officeholders that federal laws guaranteeing the right to vote applied to them. The conflict between Grovey and Classic was resolved in Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649 (1944), which found that primary elections were so pervasively regulated by the state that, in doing their part to run primaries, political parties were state actors and thus subject to the 14th and 15th Amendments. Texas Democrats evaded this ruling by arrangement with the all-white Jaybird Democratic Association (a leadership caucus within the party), which held elections unregulated by the state.

The winner of the Jaybird Party election would enter the Democratic party primary, and the Democratic party would put up no opposition, thus ensuring victory to the Jaybird Party candidate. The Supreme Court saw through this ruse in Terry v. Adams, 345 U.S. 461 (1953), finally putting an end to the white primary after 9 years of acquiescence and 26 years of litigation.

The history of black disenfranchisement demonstrates that it was a product not simply of the actions of Southern states and individuals, but of a failure to uphold and exercise federal power. Congress failed to fully exercise its powers under the 14th amendment (for example, it never reduced Southern states’ congressional representation in proportion to its illegal disenfranchisement, as it was authorized to do). The Supreme Court actively undermined federal executive powers to protect black voting rights, refused to acknowledge racial discrimination even when it was obvious, and acquiesced in blatant constitutional violations by resorting to specious reasoning. Although it slowly came around in some cases, historian Eric Foner’s judgment, that reconstruction is “America’s unfinished revolution” remains true to this day.

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The California Advocate

October 26, - November 6, 2020

California Advocate’s

Saints Rest Baptist Church “TrendsettersGo”

Saints Community Church

SERVICE TIMES Sunday School

9:15 am

Sunday Morning Worship

10:45 am

Wednesday Prayer Meeting Wednesday Bible Study

11:00 am & 7:00 pm.

12:00 pm & 7:00pm

1550 E. Rev. Chester E. Riggins Ave. Fresno p: (559) 237-5551 f: (559)237-0133 • e: office@saintrest.org • w: www.sainttrest.org

Pastor D.J. Criner

Sunday

Sunday School 9:30 a.m.

Evening Worship 6:00 p.m.

Wednesday: Bible Study 6:15 p.m.

3740 Ashlan Ave. Fresno. • p:(559) 222-9819 f: (559) 2227-2954 • e: admin@saintscommunity.org

Dr. B.E. McAlister, Pastor Tina McAliarwe

Rising Star Missionary

St. Matthew BAPTIST CHURCH Reaching the lost and the Upchurch with the preaching of the Word of God.

BAPTIST CHURCH, FRESNO

‘Join us in Embracing God’s Presence, Experiencing God’s Power, and Equipping to fulfill God’s Purpose’

SERVICE, MEETING AND TIMES Saturday Sunday

Choir, usher and mission meeting Call for times and events

SERVICE TIMES

9:00 am Sunday School 10:00 am Church service Tuesday 6:00 pm Men meeting Wednesday 5:30pm Night bible study

Contact: Reverend Lawrence Chisom (559) 250-3116

Deacon Winroe

(559) 284-9828

1808 S. Crystal Ave. Fresno

Deacon Brewer

(559) 377-3252

Mrs. Gerry Chisom (559) 430-9539

West Fresno Christian Center

Sunday Morning Prayer Sunday Morning Bible Study Sunday Morning Worship Tuesday Prayer & Bible Study

Pastor B. T. Lewis II & Lady Latisha Lewis

Bethel Church of Christ (Holiness) USA

“An old church, with a new beginning”

Sunday School 9:30AM Sunday Worship 11:00AM Tuesday Bible Study 7:00PM Friday Night Prayer 6:00PM

SERVICE TIMES

Sunday Sunday School Sunday Morning Worship Thursday Bible Study

Email: jeparkssr@gmail.com

Phone: (559) 233-3273 Fax: (559) 455-0746 2120 S. Thorne Avenue, Fresno, CA 93706

New Beginnings Community BAPTIST CHURCH MEETING AT

e: bethelchurch2119@att.net

Westside Church of God

“All age groups are encouraged to attend. Youth and children’s classes are available

“Gather. Grow. Go.” Fresno Pacific University

1717 S. Chestnut Ave. Fresno • www.nbcbc.org • (559) 369-3538

SERVICE TIMES

Sunday SundayWorship 9:00 am Tuesday F.A.T. Bible Studies Dinner 5:45 pm 1424 W. California Ave., Fresno

Dr. Paul Lawrence Binion II

p:(559) 237-1444 • e: officewscog@yahoo,cim

Bethesda Churches

Everlasting Love Ministries

LOCATIONS, ADDRESSES AND SERVICE TIMES

“We love you where you are to where God wants to take you”

SOUTHEAST

SUNDAY 10:00am Children’s Activities Available 407 S Clovis Ave., Fresno (Clovis & Huntington)

CENTRAL

SUNDAY 8:15am, 11:00am, 6:00pm Children’s Activities each service 11:00am Youth Activities 3723 E Dakota Ave., Fresno (Dakota & Millbrook)

RIVERPARK

SUNDAY 10:00am Children’s Activities Available 81 E Pinedale., Fresno (Pinedale & Blackstone)

SERVICE TIMES

Sunday Morning 10:30am Wednesday 6:30pm Bible Study Rev. Dr. Angulus Wilson D. Pastor Wilson, Malcolm Sr. Pastor C.

and Lady Audrey Scott

2503 W. Shaw Ave #103., Fresno • (559) 283-8992 everlastinglove.ministries7@yahoo.com

ANEW Pearly Grove

Pastor Tobias Brookins

p: (559) 225-1672 e:frontdesk@thebethesdachurches.com

Power House Institutional COGIC Much Prayer Much Power No Prayer No Power

BAPTIST CHURCH Sunday Morning 9:00 am Sunday Morning Service at 10:00 am Wednesday Prayer & Bible Study at 6:00 pm Pastor Charles

Rev. Dr. Dickersen Name goes here Sr. Pastor

1927 S Van Ness Ave Fresno, California, CA 93721 (559) 266-1420

Fellowship Missionary

BAPTIST CHURCH

“Reaching the Unsaved uncharted for Christ”

Pastor Richard L. Daniels

SERVICE TIMES Sunday

Breakfast 8:00 am Sunday School 9:30am Worship 10:45 am Children’s Church 10:45 am Nursery 10:30 am Saturday Bread of Life Panty 2nd & 4th Saturday FREE Clothes Closet 2nd & 4th Wednesday 12:00 pm and 6:30 pm

2529 E. Belmont Ave. • Fresno • (559) 441-1661 elloshipmbc@sbcglobal.net • Office hours 9:00am-2:00pm

9:30 am 11:00 am 6:30 pm

2119 S. Eunice. Fresno • p: (559) 266-3483

Pastor Darell Jones and Lady Schyienell Jones

Sunday Morning Life Groups at 9:00 am Sunday Morning Service at 10:00 am Wednesday Corporate Prayer & Bible Study at 6:00 pm Super Saturday (1rst Saturday)at 10:00 am Rev. Dr. Angulus Wilson D. Wilson, Sr. Pastor

8:30am 9:00am 10:30am 6:30pm

1104 Collins Ave. - (559) 442-190 e:risingstarfresno@hotmail.com web:risingstarfresno.org

“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which mad heaven and earth.”

Psalm 121:1-2

Pastor James E. Parks and Lady Gwendolyn Parks

SERVICES

Morning Worship 8:00 a.m.. & 10:30 a.m.

SCHEDULE

Sunday School 9:00AM Reg. Service 10:30 AM Wednesday Choir Rehersal 5:30 PM Bible Study 6:30 PM Pastor Duane McAlister & 1st Lady Beverly McAlister

1615 :N” Street P.O. Box 11398 Fresno , CA 93773

First Union Missionary David J. Keener, Sr. Pastor First Lady

Nichole Keener Princess

Payton Keener

BAPTIST CHURCH

SERVICE TIMES

Discipleship ClassesSunday 9:30 AM Morning Worship Service -Sunday 11:00 AM

Mid Week Manna-Wednesday 6:00 PM

2304 E Street Fresno, CA 93706

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The California Advocate

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October 26, - November 6, 2020 October 26, - November 6, 2020 T:10"

The California Advocate

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But you already know that.

Smoking kills more African Americans than AIDS, drug and alcohol abuse, car crashes, and murder combined.

And 70% of us who smoke use menthol cigarettes.

That’s no coincidence.

You’ve spent decades pushing menthols into Black communities with cheap prices and slick advertising.

And the worst part is, you think you can keep getting away with it.

You come after our brothers, sisters, parents, and friends.

Now, we’re coming after you.

We want you out of Black neighborhoods, because our lives are worth more than your bottom line.

We are people, not profit.

Signed,

The Communities You Are Trying to Erase

Fight back at

WeAreNotProfit.org © 2020 California Department of Public Health

T:20.5"

S:20.5"

DEAR BIG TOBACCO, WE ARE DYING.

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The California Advocate

October 26, - November 6, 2020