We are at Code Red for Democracy
As community leaders, we are calling on the Rhode Island
General Assembly to pass the RI VRA and all 10 amendments before the session
ends in June. There is extreme urgency.
Voting rights are being attacked across the country, both at
the state and federal levels. The recent United States Supreme Court decision
in Louisiana
v. Callais gutted the federal Voting Rights Act. Action needs to
be taken now. Rhode Islanders cannot afford to have their voting rights put at
risk. The way to do this is to pass the Rhode Island Voting Rights Act and its
ten amendments before the session ends, and implement the bill immediately upon
passage.
“Standing inside the Rhode Island State House
alongside Common Cause, The Womxn Project,
the RI Coalition of Black Women, The Women’s Fund, Clean
Water Action, and members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta
Sigma Theta and Zeta Phi Beta sororities, lobbying
for the codification of the Voting Rights Act into Rhode Island law, was a
surreal and sobering moment — because sixty-one years ago, my grandparents
already fought and won this battle,” says Shahidah Ali, the
Political Action Committee Chair of the RI
Coalition of Black Women.
Yet here we are again.
The historic 1965 Voting Rights Act was enacted to dismantle systemic barriers that denied marginalized populations their constitutional right to vote. Over time, the definition of “marginalized” populations was expanded to include the demographics covered by the ten amendments, thereby extending the same protections. In a true democracy, there should be no barriers to the ballot box.
The Supreme Court’s decimation of this civil rights
protection dropped like a hammer. The day after the ruling, elected officials
in Tennessee and Louisiana moved with alarming speed to redraw voting maps,
strategically diluting Black districts and erasing political power that
communities had spent generations building. In a single stroke, Southern Black
voters were catapulted back to the 1950s — back to marching, back to fighting,
and back to proving that their vote deserves to count.
The NAACP quickly
organized a march in Selma — not in remembrance, but in resistance. Not to
honor the eve of the Voting Rights Act, but because they are standing once
again at day one, stripped of the protections their ancestors bled for on that
bridge.
“Across the South, Black voters are being forced to refight
battles their grandparents already won sixty years ago. That is not progress,”
said Shahidah Ali. “That is a crisis.”
Rhode Island is not immune. Without strong state
protections, the same tactics devastating communities in the South — diluting
votes, redrawing districts, quietly shifting power away from marginalized
communities — can take root here. Many in our communities do not yet fully
grasp what is at stake. This is why we are calling the push for a Rhode Island
Voting Rights Act what it is: Code Red for Democracy.
Members of the National Panhellenic Council of RI include
members from Theta Pci Omega Chapter-Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. (pink and
green), Providence Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated
(red and white), and Zeta Phi Beta (blue and white)
Passing this legislation is not symbolic or performative. It
is a necessary safeguard at a moment when voting rights are disappearing at the
federal level, and states are scrambling to fill the void — or exploit it.
Every marginalized community in Rhode Island deserves a guaranteed say in its
government. Those rights must be protected. And since the federal government
has abandoned that responsibility, Rhode Island must step up.
History has taught us, repeatedly and painfully, that
democracy is not self-sustaining. It survives only when people are willing to
defend it — in courtrooms, in the streets, and yes, in state houses. The
responsibility now falls to Rhode Island’s elected leaders and our community to
call on them to be inclusive of all protections and pass all 10 amendments with
it.
“We join coalition partners in calling for the immediate
passage of the Rhode Island Voting Rights Act and its ten amendments,”
said Angie Bannerman Ankoma, President of the Providence Alumnae
Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. “In
this moment of national uncertainty around voting protections, Rhode Island
must lead with courage and affirm that every community deserves fair
representation and a protected voice in our democracy.”
Join all of us in calling on Speaker of the House Chris
Blazejewski and Senate President Val Lawson to not
waste time or make trades that sacrifice the ten amendments and pass this bill
before the end of June.
This state must decide whether it will stand on the side of
democracy or remain indifferent to the voices of Black Americans throughout
Rhode Island. Passing the Rhode Island Voting Rights Act is not optional — it
is a moral obligation. It is urgent. It is overdue. It is code red. And for
those of us whose grandparents marched so we would never have to — it is
personal.
- Shahidah
Ali, Political Action Committee Chair, RI Coalition of Black Women
- Angie
Bannerman Ankoma, President, Providence Alumnae Chapter, Delta Sigma Theta
Sorority, Incorporated
- Jocelyn
Foye, Executive Director, The Womxn Project
- Susan M. Pires, Connection and Social Action Committee Chair, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Theta Psi Omega Chapter
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