Jim Crow laws may have died years ago but unfortunately, Donald Trump’s Attorney General is trying to bring back racist voting laws.
The Department of Justice just reversed a major voting rights case from Texas in which the state is now allowed to require citizens to present very specific identification in order to vote. The list of acceptable ID includes a driver’s license, US passport, military ID, a concealed handgun license, and a Texas Election Identification Certificate.
The reasoning behind the new ruling is to supposedly prevent “voting fraud” — which, based on significant evidence, DOES NOT EXIST.
So basically that explanation is bullshit.
So what is this law actually doing, you ask? Preventing minorities from voting.
Here’s how it works:
According to the NAACP and the ACLU, voters of color are less likely to have one of these forms of identification. So despite being a citizen of the United States and thus being eligible to vote, they will no longer be able to do. Let us repeat: this directly impacts people of color because they will not be able to use their constitutional right to vote.
Does this sound familiar? It should because it’s exactly what happened during the Jim Crow era.
Some of the many Jim Crow laws included literacy tests, property tests, poll taxes, and the infamous Grandfather clause, which said that if your grandfather did not vote prior to 1867 then you could not vote. Since black Americans could not vote before 1867, this meant they could not vote. All of these laws were intended to keep black Americans from voting.
Pretty much exactly like this law, right? Right.
Despite the disappointing ruling, the NAACP will continue fighting against these racist laws. The assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund told Fusion,
“It’s nice to have the Department of Justice on our side, but it’s not necessary. It doesn’t change the nature of the work we do.”
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