What Our Students Should Know About the Struggle for the Ballot ---- but Won't Learn from Their Textbooks
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 15th Amendment, which promised "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
Given the dizzying array of disruptions to our lives during the pandemic, one could be forgiven for failing to register this anniversary. But the fight for voting rights enshrined in the 15th Amendment is still very much alive, and more urgent than ever. At this very moment in Wisconsin, Republican lawmakers (bolstered by a conservative Supreme Court majority) have forced voters to literally risk their lives to exercise the franchise.
It is critical that voter suppression, of the sort we are witnessing today in Wisconsin, and the long struggle to win and protect the right to vote, be taught to every student in this country.