Project 2025 is a manifesto that seeks to undermine our progress, dismantle democracy, and take us back to a time when we did not have a vote or a voice.
The comprehensive policy agenda, proposed by a coalition of over 100 conservative organizations, drastically reshapes federal government, particularly impacting Black and marginalized communities.
The proposed policies under Project 2025 include significant rollbacks in regulatory protections, reductions in social welfare programs, the dismantling of the federal civil service workforce, and ban any focus on equity.
We denounce Project 2025 and put forward Our 2025, a collection of policies aimed to benefit Black Americans and the entire nation. Our 2025 is marked by higher wages, investments in our schools, pathways to progress within our criminal justice system, and so much more.We must fight, we must advocate - we must vote - to ensure that Project 2025 does not become our reality.
White men, age 21 and older, who owned property were given the right to vote in 1776.
The 15th Amendment to the Constitution removed racial barriers to voting in 1870, but states continued to practice voter discrimination and continued to deny Black voters a chance to participate in elections.
The right to vote was extended to white women in 1920.
It wasn't until 1965, after years of intimidation, murders, and advocacy that the path to the voting booth was cleared for Black people with the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Just eight days after Martin Luther King, Jr. led a peaceful civil rights march in Selma, Alabama, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced his intention to pass a federal Voting Rights Act to ensure that no federal, state, or local government could in any way impede people from voting because of their race or ethnicity. He signed the Voting Rights Act into law later that year, banning racial discriminatory practices in voting, including literacy tests.
Originally, legislators hoped that within five years of its passage, the issues surrounding the 1965 Voting Rights Act would be resolved and there would be no further need for its enforcement-related provisions. They were wrong. Congress had to extend these provisions in 1970, 1975, 1982 and most recently in 2007, this time for 25 years.
Enforcement measures included:
"It is wrong, deadly wrong, to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. There is no issue of states rights or national rights, there is only the struggle for human rights. - President Lyndon B. Johnson (1965)
Millions of Americans cast their ballots in the November 2020 elections with the belief they can make a difference in this country. We did our job. We waited and the American people have spoken. We pick our leaders — our leaders don't pick their voters. In the midst of a pandemic that's left millions of us grieving our loved ones and wondering how we'll make ends meet, we turned out in record numbers across race and place to cast our votes for new leadership. For the first time in this nation's history, a Black woman is the Vice President of the U.S. When we come together, we come out stronger.
It wasn't until 1965, after years of intimidation, murders, and advocacy that the path to the voting booth was cleared for Black people with the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Act is a bedrock law protecting every American's right to register to vote and cast their ballot. It remains one of the hardest-fought safeguards for Black Americans and other minority groups.
SAFEGUARDING THE RIGHTS OF BLACK AMERICANS AND OTHER MINORITIES
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 remains one of the hardest-fought safeguards for Black Americans and other minority groups as it relates to voting. The power, agency, and access to vote is a civil right for all. The most recent attempt to strengthen the right to vote is the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Introduced in Congress in early 2019, the proposed bill was renamed following the passing of civil rights activist and long-time House of Representatives member, John R. Lewis (D-GA).
Voting is fundamental to U.S. democracy, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a bedrock law protecting every American's right to register to vote and cast their ballot. The Voting Rights Act remains one of the hardest-fought safeguards for Black Americans and other minority groups. Yet today, threats to fair, safe elections persist. Attempts to restore the Act to its fullest protections include the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, introduced in early 2019.
Together, we created an unprecedented civic engagement effort like no other — despite a pandemic, an economic crisis, and so many attempts to stop us — to vote for our community and the things we care about, and to make life better for all of us.
While we must support effective law enforcement, we must also exercise our constitutional rights to ensure law enforcement works as it should – to protect all Americans regardless of race or ethnicity. This guide offers helpful suggestions on how to interact with law enforcement to reduce the probability of conflict.
