LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic
Copyright 2001 Newspaper Publishing PLC
Independent on Sunday (London)
January 14, 2001, Sunday
SECTION: FOREIGN NEWS; Pg. 21
LENGTH: 906 words
HEADLINE:
BLACKS SUE FLORIDA OVER RACIST VOTING LAW
BYLINE: David Usborne In Miami
BODY:
ALMOST A third of black men in Florida were denied a vote in the US
presidential election in November because of a
"discriminatory" law enacted just after America's slaves were emancipated.
Florida is one of 14 states that bar anyone with a criminal record from voting
for the rest of their lives. The impact falls hardest on the black community,
where rates of conviction, especially for non-violent drugs crimes, run far
higher than among whites. And Florida is leagues ahead in the number of blacks
it has thus disenfranchised.
All that may change, however, depending on the fate of a little-noticed
lawsuit filed last September - even before the fiasco of November's election -
alleging that in allowing laws which date back to 1868 to remain on its books,
Florida is deliberately, and with racist intent, muzzling the voices of black
voters in federal and state elections.
The suit has gained new urgency in the light of November's race, which gave a
whisker-thin victory in Florida - and hence the country - to George Bush. It
alleges that 107,000 blacks in the state who have served time, but who are now
back in society, were unable to vote because of the laws. Nine in 10 blacks who
did vote chose Mr Gore.
The issue surfaces also in a second lawsuit filed last week by a collection of
civil rights groups focusing on various obstacles allegedly put in the way of
black voters on election day. That suit will form the background of black
rights marches to be held across the country this week to coincide with
Saturday's inauguration of Mr Bush.
The alleged irregularities notably concerned the purging of thousands of names
of blacks from voters roles and the use of antiquated voting equipment,
particularly in black districts. In addition, however, thousands of blacks in
Florida received letters saying they could not vote because they had criminal
records when, in fact, they did not.
While secondary to the larger question of why released inmates should be
barred from voting at all, the bungled letters were especially galling to black
leaders.
"It is just another kind of racial profiling," raged Adore Obi Nwezi, the president of the Florida chapter of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP.
As many as 16 per cent of the letters, sent out by county elections officials,
went to people with no criminal record,
"not even a parking ticket," Ms Nwezi said.
"It's the most asinine thing I've ever heard. If that's not another clear
example of institutionalised racism I don't know what is."
Studies offer varying figures on just how many voting-age black men in Florida
are denied the chance to vote. A study by Human Rights Watch and the Sentencing
Project puts the figure at 31 per cent. The lawsuit filed last year suggests it
is closer to 24 per cent. Either way, it is an enormous part of Florida's
population, of which 15 per cent is black.
While naming eight plaintiffs, the September filing is a class action lawsuit
on behalf of an estimated 525,000 Florida citizens who are disenfranchised
because they are categorised as
"felons". Of those, 170,000 are black. The suit was brought against Governor Jeb Bush
and his Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, by the Lawyers' Committee for
Civil Rights, a Washington group that fights civil rights cases.
The suit recounts how provisions barring felons from voting were inserted in
Florida's 1968 constitution precisely to circumscribe the political power of
blacks, then freed slaves.
"We contend that there was a deliberate intent to disenfranchise black voters
and that it still has that effect now," said Edward Still of the lawyers' committee.
"In Florida, they continue to argue that even people who have paid their debt to
society by serving their time and completing probation and who are now supposed
to be good members of society should not be allowed to do one thing that is the
hallmark of citizenship in a democratic society, which is to vote."
That was certainly the view of Ron Ragins, a black man who can usually be
found working at Styles Are Us, a hair salon on a busy commercial boulevard in
Hollywood, just north of Miami.
He was imprisoned for two and a half years in 1991 for his part in an
embezzlement scam at a Hollywood post office where he used to work.
When Mr Ragins was released, he did something few ex-convicts attempt - he
took advantage of provisions that allow them to regain their voting rights by
requesting a pardon from the state Clemency Board. It took a long time, and
involved interminable paper work, but eventually he prevailed.
"I felt that I had paid my debt and done my time and I didn't feel whole without
having the right to vote," he said last week, taking a pause between customers.
"I wanted to vote again because I know how important it is. I was 13 when Martin
Luther King was assassinated and I saw what happened during that time."
Although the procedures for getting back the right to vote have been
simplified since Mr Ragins applied, it is still too daunting for most
Floridians leaving prison. In 1998, for instance, pardons were granted in this
way to only 1,400 people, of all races, across the state.
Mr Ragins, 45, is justifiably proud that on election day he was able to vote
in spite of his past. Who did he vote for? With hair waiting to be cut, he did
not say. But we can guess.
NOAM CHOMSKY, PAGE 25
GRAPHIC: Katherine Harris and her election director being sworn in before the
Commission on Civil Rights on Friday AP
LOAD-DATE: January 14, 2001