I've been sitting with the word disenfranchisement this week.
If you need a working definition: it's the revocation or restriction of the right to vote for a person or group — often achieved through legal barriers, voter registration laws, or intimidation. In short, it's the stripping of citizens from their political power, voice, and ability to participate in democratic processes.
When I think about the blood, sweat, tears, and prayers poured out — and the living souls deliberately extinguished — to hold this nation accountable to the principles in its own founding documents, I find myself continually disappointed (but not surprised) by its determination to stay backslidden. A nation that calls itself the greatest in the world, uniquely blessed by God, a city upon a hill — and yet so intent on walking back, or outright dismantling, any progress that moves us closer to genuine racial equality and equity.
The Supreme Court has now signaled that we no longer need to guard against racial gerrymandering — the kind that plagued the South for decades in the mid-20th century, even after the 15th Amendment formally extended the right to vote to Black men. Instead of the old tools — contrived literacy tests, "character" requirements, outright intimidation — the new method is quieter: carving up voting districts that just happen to dilute Black voting power and just happen to lean Republican. The effect is the same. Black voters, who skew heavily Democratic, are systematically cut off from electing representatives who will actually keep their interests front and center.
Several Southern states have already moved in this direction, and more are expected to follow with November in view. But Black Christians have been down this road before. They are not deterred — they are organizing. You can read about some of that work by clicking this link, or the button below, to the explainer on the site:
Stay Faithful,
Nicola
Managing Editor, FM
