This book is dedicated to voters whose voices were and are suppressed by the very government that passed laws for Blacks to vote, not once but twice, and continues to make it difficult to cast a vote.
Foreword
In this timely, provocative book, JoJo Varlack-Hicks clearly and thought-provokingly addresses the efforts made by those in power to continue their quest to deprive blacks of their constitutional right to vote. She also challenges the blacks at who the oppressors efforts are directed to cease from aiding the oppressors by failing to exercise their right to vote and failing to encourage other blacks to vote.
JoJo brings to this writing the passion, critical thinking, and discernment she exhibited in her studies as a student at Fort Valley State University. I enjoyed reading this outstanding book just as much as I enjoyed reading her essays and other writings as her major professor.
This is a book that is certain to educate, motivate, and energize the apathetic black citizen to exercise his constitutional right to vote, and encourage those fighting to secure that right to continue the fight!
Gregory Homer
The Power of the Black Vote : A Clarion Call to Action
I have known JoJo for thirty years and trust her wisdom and prescient judgments. Her book clearly establishes the case against systemic voter suppression designed to disenfranchise voters of color and maintain white political power. JoJo began writing this timely book more than a year agoprior to the most recent, blatant, and almost daily acts of voter suppression designed to bypass the peoples will and reelect Donald Trump as president.
The Power of the Black Vote should be read by all Americans, regardless of ethnicity, color, or religious persuasion, because if successful, in this age of precise electronic targeting of voters, these tactics can be deployed against any segment of voters opposed to the agenda of those in power regardless of race, color, previous condition of servitude, sex, or age. Moreover, those employing these suppression tactics will never have to cede power. At this point, voting will become a perfunctory endorsement of whichever political cabal has succeeded in wresting the power of the ballot from the people.
Abraham Lincoln reportedly described the ballot as being stronger than a bullet in an 1856 address to the Republican State Convention. His election by the people four years later came on the precipice of a war that threatened the unity of our nation. It was the power of the ballot that positioned Lincoln, with a single-minded will, to preserve the Union. In doing so, he emancipated a formerly enslaved people and set in motion a series of amendments and laws leading to their equal treatment under the law and ultimately the Voting Rights Act, by which they were granted the power of the ballot to preserve their hard-won rights.
The quote attributed to Lincoln likely came from an August 26, 1863, letter to longtime friend, James C. Conkling, in which he wrote, To be quite plain you are dissatisfied with me about the negro [sic]. Quite likely there is a difference of opinion between you and myself [sic] on this subject.... You dislike the emancipation proclamation; and, perhaps would have it retracted.... [T]here can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and that [sic] they who take such an appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost.
Ironically, in an act that is the ultimate goal of voter disenfranchisement and suppression, voters were denied the voice of their vote when a little more than two years later and a short five months following his reelection, Lincoln was assassinated on April 15, 1865. What eventually followed was a period of robust black political participation, including election to public office, and then the slow unwinding of the hard-won political gains. As JoJo asserts, the fear of this power was unleashed and a resulting loss of white power as America became increasingly brown is now fueling recent voter suppression activities.
The right to vote is a fundamental constitutional right that cannot be abridged or denied by the federal or state governments on account of race, color, or previous condition servitude, sex, or age (Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-Sixth Constitutional Amendments).
Despite these protections, recent and blatant attacks on the right to vote threaten the very foundation of our Constitution and democracy:
Federal Removal of mailboxes and mail sorting equipment, and reduction of overtime and service hours by the postal service threatens to delay the counting of mail-in ballots.
Florida In an effort to subvert the votes of 1.5 million formerly incarcerated persons, Floridas governor and its Republican legislature added to the law restoring voter rights what amounts to a poll tax, by requiring those whose voting rights were restored to pay all fines and fees from their sentence before they are permitted to vote. Florida was a must-win state in President Trumps re-election bid.
Illinois Black voters were targeted in a robocall attempting to dissuade them from mailing in their ballots with misinformation indicating their personal information would be added to a public database and they could face arrest for outstanding warrants or be forced to participate in COVID-19 vaccine trials.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott removed mail-in ballot drop boxes and ordered the return of ballots to a single clerks office in every county, further limiting a voters ability to participate in the 2020 election on the pretext of preventing unproven voter fraud.
Federal The president of the United States sought to intimidate voters by calling on his supporters to watch the polls.
However, protection of the ballot is only one step in the process of preserving our democracy as we again find ourselves on the precipice of a great war. We must respond by electing politicians who will take a hard stance on homegrown terrorists and militiawhich Trump has refused to dothat again threaten to take by the bullet that which they cannot win with the ballot.
Every American who loves their democratic freedoms should read this book, which is written in an easily understood manner and accessible to all, and heed its warning.
Carolyn Quick Tillery, Esquire
Author, The African-American Heritage Cookbook Series
