Power and the Vote
Explore the connection between voter turnout, voting rights, and redistricting—and why civic participation remains essential to democracy.
Gloria Steinem said it perfectly: “The voting booth is still the only place that a pauper equals a billionaire and any woman equals any man. It is the only place on earth in which everybody's equal."
Politics were an intrinsic part of our everyday lives growing up in 1980s Chicago. Migrants from Mississippi, my maternal relatives, immigrants from Europe, and neighbors in Chicago showed up at our local polling place every election—local and national—without fail to ensure they had a role in choosing who would represent them locally in the role of alderperson from one of Chicago’s 50 wards to our nation’s president. Our foundation in this area centered on the following principles: It is our responsibility to vote. It is our responsibility to ensure our family votes, our neighbors vote, our friends vote. And it is also our responsibility to look any of them in the eye when they come up with excuses as to why they will not vote and to question the soundness of such reasoning. Conversations held by our parents and neighbors over the backyard fence were anything but dispassionate as they discussed candidates’ positions, ranging from property taxes to schools and high prices; and there always was a critique of the candidates' eloquence.
It is our responsibility to vote. It is our responsibility to ensure our family votes, our neighbors vote, our friends vote. And it is also our responsibility to look any of them in the eye when they come up with excuses as to why they will not vote and to question the soundness of such reasoning.
As children, we stayed up with our parents to watch local election results pour into the evening news on our living room Zenith television. We accompanied our parents and watched as they greeted the election judges, one of whom was always Mrs. Allen, an older woman who lived two doors down from our house with her husband and teenage daughter on the Southwest side of the city. (She also had one of the best vegetable gardens on our block. Every summer our father—also an avid gardener— would invite himself to their backyard and review the growth of the year’s tomato plants and billowy greens.) There was humor and joy in the greetings but a seriousness when it was time to go behind a booth and carefully make the choices that would impact you for the next two years or more. I recall the excitement when Harold Washington became Chicago’s first African American mayor and the profound personal sorrow felt through the city at his unexpected death four years later. It was our turn to say, as our parents did when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot in Memphis, who will lead us now?
It was our turn to say, as our parents did when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot in Memphis, who will lead us now?
A mix of theater and substance, we eagerly awaited who would give the keynote address at the Democratic national conventions. Some of the most memorable addresses include those by former Texas Gov. Ann Richards who was Texas treasurer at the time in 1988; U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan from Texas, the first African American woman to give a keynote address in 1978; and of course, Barack Obama in 2004, then Illinois state senator and later president. These speeches are memorable in part because they tell the American story and as diverse as that story is, it evokes familiarity and empathy driving a call to action often seen in grassroots organizing, protests and ultimately in the democratic exercise of voting. In her keynote address, Richards quoted a letter she received from a young mother and the story resonates today:
Please don't think me ungrateful. We have jobs, and a nice place to live, and we're healthy.
We're the people you see every day in the grocery store. We obey the laws, we pay our taxes, we fly our flags on holidays. And we plod along, trying to make it better for ourselves and our children and our parents. We aren't vocal anymore. I think maybe we're too tired.
I believe that people like us are forgotten in America.
Richards responded,
Well, nothing's wrong with you. Nothing's wrong with you that you can't fix in November. … We're not going to have the America that we want until we elect leaders who are going to tell the truth. Not most days—but every day. Leaders who don't forget what they don't want to remember. … We've been told … that the interests of the South and the Southwest are not the same interests as the North and the Northeast. They pit one group against the other. They've divided this country. And in our isolation, we think government isn't going to help us, and that we're alone in our feelings. We feel forgotten. Well, the fact is that we are not an isolated piece of their puzzle. We are one nation. …
The divide in the United States is ever present and more intentional as witnessed by the Supreme Court ruling that upheld the blatant discrimination of African American voters in Alabama via the redrawing of districts to dilute the African American vote, increase the number of Republican seats and, ultimately, take away congressional representation—take away the power inherent in voting.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s Dissent to Alabama Redistricting Ruling, June 2, 2026:
Today, the Court vacates a District Court order enjoining Alabama’s 2023 Redistricting Plan and remands for reconsideration in light of the Court’s new interpretation of §2 of the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais. …There is no reason to do so. In addition to holding that Alabama’s 2023 Redistricting Plan violates §2, the District Court held, in one of the three cases before this Court, that Alabama violated the Fourteenth Amendment by intentionally diluting the votes of Black voters in Alabama. ...The Court today unceremoniously discards the District Court’s meticulously documented and supported discriminatory-intent finding and careful remedial order without any sound basis for doing so and without regard for the confusion that will surely ensue.
Call to Action
Learn about plans to redraw federal, state and local district lines; attend meetings where plans are presented; contact organizations willing to evaluate plan proposals and offer alternatives; write letters of support or opposition to elected officials; and seek legal guidance.
It’s one thing to talk about injustice and despair in the current political climate yet quite another to effectively take action.
Note the impact of May’s historic early voter turnout in South Carolina, which played a significant role in state lawmakers striking down the measure to redraw its congressional maps thereby preserving U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn’s seat. Turning out the vote in unprecedented numbers is more than a strategy, it is a necessity.
Learn more about voting rights and the individuals in the movement at Teach the Struggle for Voting Rights—Zinn Education Project.
Voting Rights in the United States
This collection of voting rights lesson plans helps educators teach the history, laws, and civic principles that shape voting in the United States.
2026 Election Lesson Plans and Resources
Explore our election resources to engage your students in learning about the election process and its significance at every level. Discover lessons on election fundamentals, laws, security, current events, youth involvement, and historic U.S. elections.
A passionate advocate on behalf of students with disabilities. Experience as an educator, consultant, and special education administrator.
Advertisement
