After reversing decades of civil rights gains, Trump’s next goal: disenfranchise Black voters

As Election Day approaches, American democracy faces threats we haven’t seen since the age of Jim Crow.

Led by a White House whose policies facilitate the deportation and marginalization of people of color, America has become a house divided.

From granting refugee status to white South Africans who come from the birthplace of the racist apartheid system, to the deployment of National Guard troops in largely Black cities, this administration has gone well beyond targeting violent immigrants.

In fact, the Trump White House has sent federal agents to carry out raids in which Black American citizens are detained along with undocumented Latinos. The target, it would seem, is anyone who is not white.

I know that’s a serious assertion, but we are in a serious time, and as we make our way to the polls, we must understand that the Trump administration has pulled a bait and switch.

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While we’ve been watching immigrants being shipped to a prison in El Salvador, or the aggressive tactics of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Trump and his minions have systematically taken aim at Black political power.

The stakes in this moment could not be higher. If President Donald Trump can successfully disenfranchise African Americans, no one’s rights are safe, and democracy itself is at risk.

Trump has already directed red states to redraw their congressional districts in ways that advantage Republicans. Trump’s Justice Department has also joined lawyers for the state of Louisiana and a group of “non-African American voters” in a U.S. Supreme Court case known as Louisiana v. Callais. The Trump administration wants the court the throw out a 2024 electoral map that created two majority Black districts in the state.

If the Trump administration gets its way, which is likely with a 6-3 conservative majority on the court, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act will be weakened, and it will be much harder to challenge electoral maps on the basis of race. States could then reorganize their districts in ways that significantly dilute Black political representation, and Black votes won’t matter as much.

Perhaps this is what Trump meant in July 2024, when he told a group of predominantly white Christians that if they voted for him in the presidential election, “in four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.”

No one should be able to “fix” democracy so that only one party has the opportunity to win. No one should be able to freeze out voters based on their race. However, we are on the cusp of returning to a past where skin color determined one’s political power, or lack thereof. It doesn’t have to be this way.

If we are willing to admit the hard truth that freedom comes at a cost, perhaps we can climb out of this dark political hole. If we can accept that the fight for equal opportunity is an ongoing struggle, perhaps we can become a better country.

If we can accept that the fight for equal opportunity is an ongoing struggle, perhaps we can become a better country.

If we believe in that kind of vision, we can start that fight today by choosing to vote in our local elections.

We get to decide who prosecutes crime in Philadelphia. We get to decide who sits on our state Supreme Court. We get to decide who is the governor of New Jersey. We get to decide who represents the people.

My choices in this election will be based on a simple qualification. If you are aligned with those who are trying to snatch voting rights from my community, I cannot support you. But if you are willing to submit to a system in which both parties have an equal opportunity to win, you have my ear, you have my vote, and I’ll join you in the fight to save America.

We can no longer afford to squander the right to vote, because if Trump has his way, we may not get the chance to vote again.