FL leaders perpetuating discrimination in voting Your Turn Michael Dobson, Guest columnist Tallahassee Democrat, 6/14/2020 Abraham Lincoln is surely rolling over in his grave. He freed the slaves in 1865, only to have Southern governors cook up a scheme to disenfranchise Black voters after Reconstruction. Afterward, for more than 100 years, Democratic and Republican governors kept that racist scheme in place. Southern governors also created new felonies they determined Blacks were more likely to commit – hence the percentage of felons denied the right to vote due to non-violent offenses. They even joked that certain infractions alone would keep at least 60% of Blacks from voting, as Blacks would be prosecuted more often than whites – which remains true today. As a Harvard-educated lawyer, Gov. DeSantis knows all of this. It’s in the history books. He knows why felony voter disenfranchisement exists. He knows it was done to keep the status quo of white political rule, to curtail the vote of Black men who had become empowered during Reconstruction. Today, Black history in America is being illuminated as a result of the broadcast coverage, conversations and protest stemming from the murder of George Floyd. Consequently, there is almost universal agreement that denying Blacks the right to vote because of a felony is a racist policy born of racist intent. Some argue about the Amendment 4 language, what it meant or what the voters understood it to mean – ad nauseam – never denying why the disenfranchisement policy exists in the first place: to keep Blacks from voting. In a beautiful tapestry of protest, holding hands, marching and praying, our nation has said it wants to move away from its racist past. However, our governor still seeks to maintain that past by appealing to the 11th Circuit – appealing a ruling that said if a person is genuinely unable to pay a bill, they should still have the right to vote. The world has said enough is enough, but our governor is holding onto that racist past as though it’s the holy grail – which, at the very least, is tone deaf. Demanding payment of fees for voting has a racially discriminatory impact, as even Blacks without a felony record have historically less income and disproportionately live in poverty. Thus Blacks are less likely to be able to pay fees and fines in order to vote. Our governor should side with eliminating the last vestige of slavery, Jim Crow and discrimination. Instead, he’s entrenched in an effort to sustain that racist policy of keeping felons from voting. Rather than using his office to help heal our nation from centuries of discrimination, DeSantis decided to sustain the disenfranchisement of Black voters unable to pay a bill during a recession. Each American has only one vote. Each vote carries the same weight, regardless of wealth, race, ethnicity or station in life. Its exercise is the essence of what was laid out as the ideals of a great nation in which all are equal. I implore Gov. DeSantis to withdraw his appeal and allow true freedom to ring in Florida. I ask him be the footnote of racial reconciliation, not a dogmatic gatekeeper of hate and sustained discrimination. - - - Michael Dobson is the CEO of the Dream Foundation, Inc. which oversees the nation’s first and only MLK license plate in Florida. Contact him at Michael@ livethedreamfoundation.org.