Skip to content
(202) 628-7700info@rcrc.org
FacebookTwitter

Press

Donate

Religious Coalition for Reproductive ChoiceReligious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
  • Home
  • About
    • Mission Statement
    • History
    • Even Before Roe: RCRC’s Legacy of Bold Clergy Activism
    • Leadership
    • Staff
    • Founding Members
    • Community Partners
    • 2020 Annual Report
    • 2019 IRS Form 990
    • 2019 Audited Financial Statement
    • Donor Privacy Policy
  • Programs
    • Abortions Welcome
    • Religion & Repro Learning Center
    • Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom (SYRF)
    • Clinic Blessings
    • Compassionate Care Workshop
  • Issues
    • The Moral Case
    • Reproductive Health
    • Reproductive Rights
    • Reproductive Justice
  • Religious Resources
    • Faith Perspectives
      • Protestant
      • Catholic
      • Unitarian Universalist
      • Jewish
      • Muslim
      • Hindu
      • Buddhist
    • Prayers
    • Blog
    • Health Center/Clinic Pamphlets
  • Press Room
  • Contact
  • Donate
 
  • Home
  • About
    • Mission Statement
    • History
    • Even Before Roe: RCRC’s Legacy of Bold Clergy Activism
    • Leadership
    • Staff
    • Founding Members
    • Community Partners
    • 2020 Annual Report
    • 2019 IRS Form 990
    • 2019 Audited Financial Statement
    • Donor Privacy Policy
  • Programs
    • Abortions Welcome
    • Religion & Repro Learning Center
    • Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom (SYRF)
    • Clinic Blessings
    • Compassionate Care Workshop
  • Issues
    • The Moral Case
    • Reproductive Health
    • Reproductive Rights
    • Reproductive Justice
  • Religious Resources
    • Faith Perspectives
      • Protestant
      • Catholic
      • Unitarian Universalist
      • Jewish
      • Muslim
      • Hindu
      • Buddhist
    • Prayers
    • Blog
    • Health Center/Clinic Pamphlets
  • Press Room
  • Contact
  • Donate

The Complex Picture of Voting Rights Past and Present

By Rev. Cari Jackson

We’ve just celebrated the ninety-eighth anniversary of the 19th Constitutional Amendment. On August 26, 1920, this amendment extended voting rights to women. As a woman, I consider my right to vote vitally important. Yet, while I grew up in a black family with three brothers, our parents didn’t teach us much about voting rights for women.  In our home, amendments giving blacks basic freedoms got more attention.

Our parents emphasized the impact of the 14th Amendment which granted citizenship to black former slaves, and the 15th Amendment which extended voting rights to blacks and all others born in the U.S.

Explaining to my brothers and me how hard-won the right to vote was for blacks, my parents taught that we had both the privilege and responsibility to vote in every election. We were also a religious family. Our mother and father made it clear that for our freedoms we owed prayers of thanksgiving to our forebears and blessings to generations to come.

Yet, neither my father or mother explained to me that without the ratification of the 19thAmendment decades after blacks got the vote, as a female, I would still not have been allowed to cast a ballot.

Sex, Race and Class in Conflict

The history of these citizenship and voting Amendments paints complex pictures of the intersections of sexism, racism and classism that continue to impact us today.

Often, these amendments were influenced by the self-interests and fears of various groups.

The exclusion of women, for instance, was included in the 14thAmendment in 1870 despite the organized advocacy for women’s suffrage as early as the Seneca Falls women’s rights convention in 1848.Biases in voting rights history still impact us

And when the Constitution was amended as a corrective to slavery, it pitted white women and blacks against each other. For example, Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National Women Suffrage Association, railed against Congress, “You have put the ballot in the hands of your black men, thus making them political superiors of white women. Never before in the history of the world have men made former slaves the political masters of their former mistresses!”

In her article “Women’s Suffrage Leaders Left Out Black Women”, Evette Dionne writes, “By not addressing this [racial] issue, some white suffragists were able to present voting rights as an extension of white supremacy… When the 15th Amendment passed, white suffragists began pushing harder for voting rights for white women, to the exclusion of black, Native American, and Asian women.”

Today, 98 years since the 19th Amendment was ratified and 150 years since the 14th Amendment was ratified, we continue to see efforts to disenfranchise voters based on race, gender and class.

If you’re reading this blog, I predict you are already registered to vote. You probably will go to the polls in November. You may be involved in assuring that others register, learn about political issues and turn out to vote.

In taking these actions, please reflect on the kind of prayer my parents associated with exercising our constitutional rights — asking God to bring good to others, focusing on their needs and guided by love. Without this, our voting is likely to perpetuate deep-rooted divides based on race, gender and class.

Rev. Cari Jackson is RCRC’s Executive for Religious Leadership and Advocacy.

Related posts
Compassion: Toward a More Just Society
September 7, 2020
Letter to the Trump Administration Regarding Fetal Tissue Use in COVID-19 Vaccine Research
June 12, 2020
God’s Song in a Strange Land (2020 Mother’s Day Tribute)
May 6, 2020
A Rabbi’s Reflections on Her Miscarriage
April 26, 2019
A Constitutional — Not Religious — Test for Federal Judges
February 1, 2019
Recapturing Religious Freedom
January 16, 2019
Leave Comment

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

clear formSubmit

Recent Posts
  • My Religion Makes Me Pro-abortion
  • A Texas minister helps fly dozens of women to New Mexico every month to get abortions. He’s one of many religious leaders working on coordinating abortion care if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
  • Meet the Religious Groups Fighting to Save Abortion Access
  • History shows that the First Amendment should protect abortion
  • How The Elimination of Legal Abortion Could Impact Teens
Archives
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • June 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • December 2015
Categories
  • Blog Entries
  • News Coverage
  • Op-eds
  • Press Releases
  • RCRC Vote
Recent Press
  • My Religion Makes Me Pro-abortion June 16, 2022
  • A Texas minister helps fly dozens of women to New Mexico every month to get abortions. He’s one of many religious leaders working on coordinating abortion care if Roe v. Wade is overturned. May 28, 2022
Contact Us
1413 K Street NW 14th Floor Washington, DC 20005

(202) 628-7700
info@rcrc.org

Students seeking interviews, please click here.

Find us on:

FacebookTwitterYouTubeInstagram
RCRC Tweets
  • Thank you @RepBarbaraLee @RepPressley @RepDianaDeGette @RepSchakowsky for showing that #AbortionJustice belongs in… https://t.co/jlCEKMvmQj7 days ago
  • Meet The Judge Putting Right To Birth Control In The Spotlight, featuring RCRC CEO @kateyzeh https://t.co/NDSm8zzJkh9 days ago
  • "...Our bodily autonomy, our ability to make moral decisions, is a sacred right that can't be taken away by a legal… https://t.co/eelvwso4Ck11 days ago
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
* indicates required
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
Copyright 2020 Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. All rights reserved.
  • Press Room
  • Contact
  • Donate
Our Services