I’m Cosette Lieble, and I am here today asking for your attention as I tell you what happened in the past and what is happening now. Disenfranchisement. Disenfranchisement is a term that prevents people of a certain race, gender, or background from exercising their right to vote with subtle (or not so) laws. Disenfranchising was one of the more popular ways to separate whites and blacks. To start off, let’s begin with disenfranchisement in general. Disenfranchisement was something that was completely unseen by the government for 43 years, and was constantly used to deny voting rights to African Americans in the deep South. There were many ways to rig an election to get the white democratic vote, and here is a few examples. Literacy tests are one of the more infamous ones, where they would test to see if people of color were “literate” by giving them virtually impossible tests. Poll tax was another one, where you charged people to have a say in governmental matters, even Jim Crow laws had a play in this allowing It is called felony disenfranchisement, and it prevents people from voting if they have done a crime and are/were serving a sentence. The reason this causes so many issues is because as the Sentencing Project said, “ 6.1 million Americans cannot vote because of a felony conviction. 1 of every 13 African American lost their voting rights due to felony disenfranchisement law.” States like Florida and Kentucky prohibit felons, even if they have served their time, from ever voting again. This is fine with som since they are convicted felons and they feel as if that is suitable punishment, while on the other hand people are angered because it feels as if a person's right and responsibility is being taken away. Felony disenfranchisement is as big of a hot topic now as black disenfranchisement was
History has experienced a distinct separation between the minorities (Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and African-Americans) and the majority (the whites) in the United States of America. This separation has been brought about by the several models of the exclusion of the minority; these two models are: political and economic disempowerment and apartheid (Forum 2, 1). Apartheid involves the separation of a certain group of people from other parts of the society through legal, political and economic discrimination (Denton 2). Whereas political and economic disempowerment is reducing drastically or taking away the rights previously held by a group, they are taken away to minimize the power of the minorities in the society. Apartheid
Voting is one thing that was still around when Freedom Summer came; and when I say around I mean available. Let me explain… during the Reconstruction era blacks were able to vote. But most of them didn’t due to a number of factors. A couple of these being: poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, etc. And if that weren’t enough you still had the Klan that would destroy any black polling booth and/or shoot, intimidate, and kill any black person trying to vote; especially in Mississippi. In the months leading to Freedom Summer the same thing was going on except the rules had changed. These new rules, to keep the black community from voting, were the same as the old except very vague. In document 2 it details these new requirements to become a registered voter. Some of these requirements included being able to read and write a section of the new Constitution, are able to demonstrate a reasonable understanding of citizenship, make a sworn written application for registration. So as you can see just like in Reconstruction, the voting power shifts back to the white race. Even if every black could read and write, who’s to say what a “reasonable” understanding of citizenship is.
Some people in our country can’t vote because they have felons for the same reason. They aren’t violent criminals, they just made a small mistake or two and now can’t have a voice in our political system because of it. You are in a sense taking away their voice and they think they no longer matter, they may even commit more crimes if they feel unwanted or left out. When released felons are released and have paid their debt to society denying them the right to vote it is essentially taxation without representation(3).
Throughout American History, people of power have isolated specific racial and gender groups and established policies to limit their right to vote. These politicians, in desperate attempt to elongate their political reign, resort to “anything that is within the rules to gain electoral advantage, including expanding or contracting the rate of political participation.”(Hicks) Originally in the United States, voting was reserved for white, property-owning gentleman
...r right to vote. Social and economic segregation were added to the black American’s loss of political power. In some cases, to keep white supremacy, a group called “Ku Klux Klan” would intimidate black males who had voted or who tried to vote. The Ku Klux Klan along with other groups would often burn their homes, churches, and schools down. Some even resorted to murder. A number of these blacks were killed while attempting to defend their right to vote.
The whole idea of taking away a convicted felon’s voting rights started in Rome when they were the controlling empire. Nowadays, a majority of prisons throughout the United States are allowing felons to vote on who becomes the next president. Even though they have committed murder, rape, thievery, we blow off those thoughts and allow felons to have a say in who runs this beautiful country. So the question is, should we allow convicted felons to vote? Not a chance would I ever say yes into letting felons choose our next president! Would you want to stand next to a convicted felon as you vote? I have a hard time imagining this act.
In most states ex-felons are not allowed to vote. This takes away a large portion of the voting population because of how many ex-felons there are right now and the many more that will be in the future. Ex-felons may also have a very hard time finding a job or a place to live. Legally landlords are allowed to deny an ex-felon. In Carbondale Illinois rental properties owners “Home Rentals” does background checks to make sure that none of their potential renters are felons. If they are felons Home Rentals claims that they will deny them the privilege of living in one of their properties. Ex-felons may also have a hard time finding jobs. Not many employers are willing to employ ex-felons for the fear of more crime or less commitment. Though denying these ex-felons jobs will not help the economy, only giving them jobs can help that.
Throughout the nation there are 5.3 million Americans who are denied their right to vote because they have a criminal conviction on their record (“Felon Voting Rights”). In the state of Florida, a felon can’t apply for his right to vote to be restored until at least five years after he has completed his sentence, with no guarantee of his rights being restored. Violent and repeat felons haven’t proved they are good citizens; however non-violent felons, who have committed victimless crimes, should be allowed to have their rights restored when they have served their time and paid off their fines. Non-violent felons would have a better chance of readapting into society because they would be able to vote in elections, be rehabilitated, and return to fully contributing members of society.
At the heart of the problem was segregation. Segregation is the act of separating a certain person or faction from the main group. In America’s case segregation was practiced on minorities such as African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asians. The full force of segregation was brought down on African-Americans. Segregation was based on shear hatred of blacks by white Americans. The majority of them derived their hatred for African-Americans from their parents. This hatred was applied to all aspects of black people’s lives, they couldn’t do the most mundane activity without some sort of segregation. Everything from water fountains to public schools were under the influence of segregation.
The Women’s Suffrage Movement was successful in that it achieved its original goal of earning voting rights for women. This movement officially began in the United States in 1848 at the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. They drafted 12 resolutions calling for voting rights for women and overall equal treatment of women. This historic conference created a primary goal of obtaining voting rights for women. The first national women’s rights convention was held two years later in 1850 in Worcester, Massachusetts. This convention held over 1,000 participants and started an annual national convention.
Throughout the 1800s, women across the world began establishing organizations to demand women’s suffrage in their countries. Today, there are still women in countries fighting for their right to vote. Some countries who’ve succeeded in the mid to late 1800s were Sweden and New Zealand. Once they expanded women’s suffrage, many other countries followed. Like Sweden, countries first granted limited suffrage to women and other countries approved to the full national level. Additionally, there were quite a few countries who had taken over a century to give women the right to vote, Qatar being a prime example. Although the fight for women’s suffrage varied in the United States, France, and Cuba in terms of length and process, each effort ultimately
Even though the American Revolution constituted represented a tremendous strike against the old social order, its founding ideals could not be realized within the socioeconomic framework that existed in colonial America.
In a truly just society, justice would lead to a heightening of the vulnerable patients making their health perhaps the only position of their life that is no longer vulnerable. Until social justice is applied to our geopolitical stage, gender and ethnicity differences will continue to limit work opportunities and fair pay. But, if we were to get the health component right, their health would not be a compounding factor in their vulnerability. Instead, good health can help to establish one’s capabilities to explore opportunities and better their lives. Whether it is Nussbaum’s (2000) exhaustive list of 10 essential capabilities or liberalism’s primary good (Almgren, 2013, p. 35), good health and well-being enables a person to fulfill their
Massive protests against racial segregation and discrimination broke out in the southern United States that came to national attention during the middle of the 1950’s. This movement started in centuries-long attempts by African slaves to resist slavery. After the Civil War American slaves were given basic civil rights. However, even though these rights were guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment they were not federally enforced. The struggle these African-Americans faced to have their rights ...
People have the right to not be forced to do something they don’t agree with, for example, women have the right to choose what happens with their body but in some cases it is not equal for all women. Here in the United States fortunately women have the power to decide whether to abort or not. But in china and India they have different beliefs and traditions; therefore women have no such thing as rights they are not able to express their thoughts, this is discrimination against females. Just as Richard Wright states on the article “The library card”, “hiding my thoughts and feelings from them”. The speaker of the passage did not have the right to go in the library do to his ethnicity; this was not social justice towards him.