A new book by Dr. Karcheik Sims-Alvarado details the history of voting suppression in Georgia and the rise of organizations fighting to gain and preserve these voting rights.
It’s easy to look at our voting system and imagine our country’s democracy being determined by the people's wil. It’s equally simple to listen to politicians erroneously decry our system as broken and fraudulent to shift elections to their own gains.
Georgia is heading into one of the most divisive and explosive national elections and its recent shift to the left in 2020, resulting in the election of Pres. Joe Biden (the first Democratic president since the state elected Bill Clinton) has resulted in demanded audits of the election—by Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger—which showed no fraud. Yet, claims continue to this day. In the wake of the 2020 election was legislation to address these claims.
“In 2021, Republicans in the Georgia General Assembly sought to investigate the 2020 election and sponsor numerous bills to address their concerns,” writes Dr. Karcheik Sims-Alvarado in “Georgia and the Power of the Vote,” an Images of America title by Arcadia Publishing. “As a result, the legislature, along party lines, passed Senate Bill 202, entitled the Georgia Election Integrity Act. Many progressive, BIPOC organizations saw this as a direct response to the political victories in 2018 and 2020. (Associated Press).”
The book was published before the recent attempt by the State Election Board to change rules for county election directors that was opposed by the directors and later invalidated by a judge ruling. Also, a record 3 million-plus residents have voted in Georgia by Oct. 29, 2024.
Before you think this is a recent problem that Sims-Alvarado addresses in her new book, the author spends the majority of its pages detailing the state’s long history of denying the vote to African Americans, Jews and other minorities, including voter suppression, intimidation and murder. It’s a lesson on how far we’ve come and how easily the tide may turn back.
This is not a book solely about a southern state and its race issues, although that's at the heart of its history. The last sections showcase the remarkable advances and strides of Georgia’s African Americans, including the election of the first African American and Jewish U.S. senators, not to mention the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr and the Civil Rights Movement with its heart beating from Atlanta. These issues prominent in Georgia have permeated America for centuries, its ugly stain on our democracy still relevant today as we curtail voting access across the country.
Sims-Alvarado’s book is a great history lesson on what can happen when forces work against our democratic system. Women fought for the right to vote, winning in 1920. The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 and the following year African Americans were elected to the Georgia Assembly. That wasn’t that long ago.
I’m a poll worker in this election. I encourage anyone to read this history and learn how precious our right to vote remains. And, of course, I hope you all vote.
Note: Karcheik Sims-Alvarado, PhD, is an internationally recognized historian. She has worked with the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm, Sweden; Time magazine; Hulu network; the National Park Service and National Park Foundation; the Coretta Scott King Estate; and IPM, the exclusive licensor of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Estate. She is an assistant professor of Africana Studies at Morehouse College. Other books by Sims-Alvarado are "Atlanta and the Civil Rights Movement: 1944-1968."
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