Keep the Faith: Voting equality is a moral issue
The 117th United States Congress (2021-2023) is the most racially diverse in American history.
According to analysis by the Pew Research Center, 124 voting members of the 117th Congress identify as non-white. Thirteen percent of House members identify as Black, matching the percentage of Black Americans in the general population. This is the sixth consecutive Congress to break the record for non-white lawmakers set by the preceding Congress.
Similarly, a century and a half ago, the 44th United States Congress (1875-1877) was the most racially diverse in American history. It was the third consecutive Congress to expand the number of non-white members. Among its 76 senators was U.S. Senator Blanche Bruce (R-Mississippi), the second Black man to serve in the United States Senate and first to be elected. Among its 293 representatives were 7 Black men: U.S. Reps Jeremiah Haralson (R – Alabama), John Adams Hyman (R – North Carolina), John Roy Lynch (R – Mississippi), Charles Edmund Nash (R – Louisiana), Joseph Rainey (R – South Carolina), Robert Smalls (R – South Carolina), and Josiah Walls (R - Florida).
But the racial diversity set by the 44th Congress was a high water mark not to be reached again for nearly a century. By the 46th Congress (1879-1881) only Senator Bruce remained in Congress. No Black members served in the 50th Congress (1887-1889). From 1891 to 1901, only three Black members served in Congress, but never more than one at a time.
This reversal was no accident. In response to the electoral success of Black politicians across the South, white Southerners reacted swiftly and violently. Black politicians and white Republican supporters were attacked and killed. Mobs threatened violence on election days and suppressed voter turnout. When white Democrats regained control of Southern legislatures they systematically enacted laws restricting voting access. Registrars were given discretion on whether or not to add voters. “White Primaries” were created in which only whites could vote, which in Southern Democratically controlled states ensured that the primary winner would be elected in the general election.
U.S. Rep George White (R – North Carolina) was the final Black Congressman elected in the 19th Century, and the only Black member of Congress from 1897-1901. He decided against running for a third term after the North Carolina Legislature adopted voter restriction laws already adopted in other Southern states. Rep. White’s popularity had already plummeted after he introduced legislation making lynching a federal crime and capital offense equivalent to treason. For this he was criticized for “introducing a color line in his district.” His anti-lynching legislation died in Committee without a vote while Black people continued dying in lynchings without Federal protection. In a farewell address to Congress Rep. White lamented, “This is perhaps the Negroes’ temporary farewell to the American Congress.”
The temporary farewell lasted 28 years. Not a single Black American served in 14 consecutive Congresses between 1901 and 1929
It wasn’t until 1929 and the election of U.S. Representative Oscar De Priest (R-Illinois), the first northern Black to serve, that Congress welcomed back another Black voice, though the welcome was strained. When the Congressman’s wife was invited along with the other Congressmen’s wives for Tea at the White House there was an immediate uproar among Southern Congressman and politicians. The Mississippi Legislature called upon Mrs. Hoover to rescind the invitation and give “careful and thoughtful consideration to the necessity of preservation of the racial integrity of the white race.” Under pressure, Mrs. Hoover divided attendees into four groups and assigned Mrs. De Priest to the smallest group.
It wasn’t until after passage of the Voting Rights Acts of 1965 that the 91st Congress (1969-1971) finally surpassed the 44th Congress in the total number of Black lawmakers. While the 91st Congress had only twelve Black lawmakers out of 535 members, it included U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D – New York), the first Black woman elected to Congress, and U.S. Senator Edward William Brooke III (R – Massachusetts), only the second Black man elected to the Senate and first since Senator Bruce.
Unfortunately, it appears that history is repeating itself. After the swearing-in of the most racially diverse Congress in history, and the first non-white person and first woman as Vice President, 19 states enacted 33 laws making it harder to vote. In a recent 5-4 decision the United States Supreme Court allowed Alabama to ignore the 1965 Voting Rights Act in order to redraw its Congressional districts in a way certain to eliminate one of its minority majority districts and one Black member of Congress. Candidates doubting the legitimacy of the 2020 election are currently running for Secretary of State and County Election Commissioners across the country, many against incumbents of their own party, in order to seize control of the electoral process. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which would require states to seek approval from the Department of Justice before changing voting laws, is currently stalled in the United States Senate.
As history has taught us, racial progress is not inevitable, it must be fought for and defended.
For me, as a Christian pastor, this is not just a matter of history or politics, this is a spiritual issue. If we believe that God loves all people equally, then we must put that belief into practice by working towards equality and justice in all matters of our public life, including who we elect to represent us and who gets to vote. If we are apathetic or indifferent and allow sinister forces to roll back progress and restrict voter rights, then we are witnessing to a contrasting belief that God favors some people over others. As people of faith, we either actively bear witness to a loving God by putting our faith into action expanding access for all peoples, or we shrink back from our Christian duty, and from God, by allowing forces of evil to wipe away vital progress that has been achieved.
Pastor Nathan Pipho serves as the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, Worcester, and on the Board of Worcester Interfaith. Sermons and other writings can be read on his blog at nathanpipho.com
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Keep the Faith: Voting equality is a moral issue
