Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off Juneteenth’s National Day of Action by highlighting organizations working to expand voting rights for Black Floridians.
In a new letter, Harris highlighted the Florida-based Equal Ground Education Fund, a nonpartisan, Black-led organization that works to expand Black political power in the state.
“As everyone knows, freedom to vote is fundamental. Our democracy is strongest when everyone participates and it is weakest when someone is left out,” Harris wrote in her letter.
“Across our nation, extremists have attacked the sacred freedom to vote,” she added. “Not only does this harm voters in every state, but it also disproportionately harms voters of color across Florida.”
Since 2022, nearly 1 million registered voters have been purged from Florida’s active voter rolls, according to Tampa-based station WMNF.
In 2023, Florida Senate Bill 7050 implemented severe restrictions on third-party voter registration and voting by mail. These restrictions have a disproportionate impact on black voters. Florida’s black voters are five times more likely using third-party organizations other than white people to register to vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
“Today, as we celebrate 159 years since enslaved Black people across the country were freed from slavery, we also live with the reality that extremist lawmakers are rewriting that same history and working to silence us, just as they did nearly 160 years ago,” said Genesis Robinson, interim executive director of Equal Ground.
The Biden-Harris re-election team is hoping to rebuild support among black voters as some polls show the president struggling with a crucial demographic.
Before Wednesday, the White House hosted a Juneteenth concert and announced that Juneteenth would be a National Day of Action for voting.
On Tuesday, President5634zXk]Biden — who recognized June 16 as a federal holiday in 2021 — said the holiday not only marks the end of “America’s original sin” but marks the beginning of “making the promise of Real America for all Americans.”
“I call on the people of the United States to recognize and condemn our nation’s history of slavery and recognize how the impact of America’s original sin remains,” Biden said in his proclamation. “I call on all Americans to celebrate Juneteenth and recommit to working together to eradicate systemic racism and inequality in our society, wherever you find them.”
Harris also told Equal Ground in her letter that the administration is committed to passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, two pieces of federal legislation that would expand voter registration and voting access and would prohibit electoral discrimination.
Equal Ground will kick off its own day of action on Wednesday, bringing together more than a hundred volunteers to mobilize and educate Black Floridians about recent election changes and what they should do to vote in the November election.
“This June 19, we continue our efforts to combat attacks on Black Floridians and voter suppression tactics in the best way we know how: by reaching out directly to our community,” Robinson said. “No matter what extremist lawmakers do, our community will not be silenced and our resilience will not be broken.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
