Photos: Economic Policy Institute\YouTube Screenshots
From the abolition of slavery until now, Southern white elites have used a slew of tactics to suppress Black political power and secure their economic interests—including violence, voter suppression, gerrymandering, felony disenfranchisement, and local preemption laws.
Black voter disenfranchisement remains a key feature of the racist and anti-worker Southern economic development model today.
However, periods of progress toward Black political empowerment, such as during Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement—though met with fierce suppression—show that targeted policy action has the power to dismantle racist barriers to political participation and disrupt the cycle of political suppression and economic exploitation.
While significant advances have been made over the last century, a resurgent backlash underscores the need to strengthen civil rights protections and ensure all Southern workers and their families can enjoy political and economic equality.
