Ten Spence juniors and seniors, in conjunction with the History Department, sponsored an Upper School Assembly focused on U.S. voting rights.

 

History Department faculty Selah Johnson, Barbara Berg and Sandra Weathers Smith worked with the Grades 11 and 12 students—Namrita K., Brooke H., Catherine M., Grace F., Madeleine W., Mary McKenzie G., Phoebe G., Ines B., Aruna P. and Emily Y.—to prepare the multimedia presentation that engaged the Upper School through a series of question and answers.

 

These students, who had taken U.S. history in Grade 10, as well as electives such as Women’s History and African-American History, volunteered to present at the Voting Rights Assembly.

 

“We felt that it is crucial that students understand the history of the struggle to gain voting rights in this country and the historical context in which those rights are questioned, even threatened, in the current political campaign,” Smith said.

 

The students discussed the 70-plus-year fight for women’s suffrage, including the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, which marked the first time the women’s right to vote was formally discussed.

 

While women finally gained the right to vote in 1920 with the 19th amendment to the Constitution, the students discussed some current troubling trends including a hashtag that started trending on Twitter recently: #repealthe19th.

 

The Upper School also watched a clip from the movie Selma, showing the attempts to dissuade African-American women to vote. In the scene, Annie Lee Cooper (played by Oprah Winfrey) tries to register to vote. The white clerk tries to stop her by asking her to recite the preamble to the Constitution and how many county judges there are in Alabama—both of which she can tell him. However, when he asks her to recite the names of all 67 judges, she’s stumped and her voter registration is denied.

 

The students also discussed literacy tests, poll taxes and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was designed to stop state and local efforts to discourage African-American men and women from voting.

 

Junior Mado W. spoke about some of the positive effects of the Voting Rights Act, including that a quarter-million new black voters were registered by the end of 1965.

 

“The nation still had a ways to go, however, as Southern states managed to find loopholes to keep black people and other citizens of color from voting,” Mado W. said. “I speak in the past tense, but I might as well speak in the present. Even with a black man in the Oval Office, today’s voting practices are extremely discriminatory.”

 

The students shared other examples of efforts to manipulate or limit the vote, such as gerrymandering and voter ID laws. Supporters of voter ID laws argue that they prevent voter fraud, but the requirement creates a problem for many citizens. The students noted that 25% of African-Americans don’t have a government-issued ID, and neither do 20% of Asian-Americans, 19% of Latino-Americans, 18% of individuals 18-24 years old or individuals with an annual income of less than $35,000.

 

Juniors Phoebe G. and Ines B. also discussed the intersectionality of race, gender and class and the struggles that black women in particular face when they stand up against oppression.

 

“It is not enough for black women to tell us they are oppressed,” Phoebe G. said. “Society must hear it from another perspective to consider it valid. Let’s be clear: Human rights, civil rights and sexual assault are not partisan issues.”

 

The students also offered their perspective and solutions to increase voter turnout, such as making Election Day a national holiday and decreasing limitations on early voting.