Why Wisconsin can be a blueprint for black voters
OPINION - As an African-American woman, I can tell you that these recalls, the protests, the organizing, all take me to the history of the great moments of the civil rights movement...
This is what democracy looks like!
Those words crossed my ears for the first time on February 15th when I headed to the Joint Finance Committee room to begin the public hearing on Governor Walker’s budget repair bill that ended workplace democracy in Wisconsin. Thousands of people were jammed into the Capitol and around the Square calling out for the elected officials inside that room to listen to the voices of the people and simply not do whatever Governor Walker wanted.
Fast forward through that hearing where people were not allowed to petition their government, through Assembly Democrats holding the floor of the Assembly for over 60 hours, through Governor Walker’s lockdown of the State Capitol, and of course, through the long journey of the Wisconsin 14 as we filibustered from Illinois to bring the people’s attention to the ideological goals of Governor Walker and the Fitzgerald brothers.
Those battles were followed by one of the worst budgets for working people and minorities ever passed in the history of Wisconsin. After all of that, yesterday we finally came to the recalls.
WATCH RACHEL MADDOW’S COVERAGE OF THE WISCONSIN RECALLS:
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Wisconsin’s citizens propelled these recalls to a national focus as they demanded that their voices be heard. The progressive leader, Fighting Bob La Follette, once said, “The will of the people is the law of the land.” Quite simply, Republicans refused to listen to the outcry of hundreds of thousands of people demanding that they do different and when they chose not too, recalls were forced. It’s been one of the greatest examples of civil rights being exercised in the history of our state.
As an African-American woman, I can tell you that these recalls, the protests, the organizing, all take me to the history of the great moments of the civil rights movement. The 1950s and 60s saw our community standing up, demanding, and winning our rights under the law. We refused to be silent, we marched on the cities, we sat at the whites-only lunch counters, and we rode in the front of the bus. We locked arms and went to vote. Dr. King, Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, Rosa Parks, and many others — all in our own way proclaiming, this is what democracy looks like! This recall season has been about continuing that legacy.
These recalls are more than just getting rid of Scott Walker’s allies in the Senate. It is a deep reaction from the people of Wisconsin to an assault on their values. Wisconsin cannot stand for a cut to public schools, because we know the future economic value of a quality education. We won’t stand for cuts to health care, because we believe that all people should receive quality health care. Wisconsin surely won’t sit and allow the voting rights of its citizens to be affected, like the Republicans did with their voter ID bill. All across my community, that has inspired and driven more people to become active than all of Scott Walker’s other plans!
That issue inspires African-Americans and Latinos in Wisconsin the most in these recalls. No other issue is more of an assault on the rights of people all across Wisconsin. Since the mid 1800s, when former slave Ezekiel Gillespie went to the Supreme Court of Wisconsin and won his right to vote, Wisconsin has been one of the most progressive states to maintain open and fair elections where the vote is protected.
Voting is a sacrosanct right in this state. Wisconsin citizens went to the South to march with Dr. King in Selma. We agreed with President Johnson when he asked Congress for the Voting Rights Act to be passed. We cheered and put ourselves into the work of creating change when LBJ said, “Their cause must be our cause too. Because it is not just Negroes, but really it is all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.” We went to work to ensure the right to vote always was protected, to ensure liberty and justice for all.
When you assault the values and history of the Badger State, you will be held accountable. That is what these recalls were and are. A forced election, a forced referendum on the policies that attack Wisconsin. Whatever the coming days hold, I know that we shall overcome, because this is what democracy looks like!
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