We have just celebrated the second Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday after the Ferguson uprising, the second MLK Day when protestors declared the need to “Reclaim MLK.” There can be no doubt that Dr. King’s fierce urgency has been tamed in the act of commemorating him for many years. Without question, many elected officials quote Dr. King with false piety at this time of year and then immediately return to pushing policies that undermine his life work.
That was clear in Missouri, where the Legislature returned to work after MLK Day and immediately took up bills designed to hinder, rather than expand, the right to vote. The bills, HJR 53 and HB 1631, are connected. HJR 53 is a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow for a photo ID requirement, and would need to first be passed by Missouri voters. HB 1631 is a bill that would implement the details of the photo ID requirement.
Republicans perennially claim such a law is needed to eliminate voter impersonation. Democrats perennially point out that there is no voter impersonation fraud in Missouri, though there are many low-income and otherwise marginalized people who will lose the right to vote if this legislation is passed – or be forced to pay to get an ID, making it a de facto poll tax. Needless to say, Republicans across the country have calculated that the voters denied the franchise by such legislation would likely vote Democrat.
In reclaiming MLK, we must not forget that his most basic struggles still require our attention and participation. Voter ID bills have been passed in Missouri twice before, but thrown out by the Missouri Supreme court and vetoed by Gov. Jay Nixon. As long as this Republican-dominated Legislature views selective disenfranchisement as helpful to its candidates, we will need to reclaim MLK by fighting against photo ID voter initiatives and bills.
On the other hand, the spirit of Dr. King surely would fight for Senate Bill 924, which would allow Missouri citizens convicted of a felony and on probation or parole to vote. State Sen. Jamilah Nasheed (D-St. Louis) actually found a Republican co-sponsor for this bill, state Sen. Rob Schaaf (R-St. Joseph), despite the expectation that the felons who regain the franchise through passage of this legislation would be likely to vote Democrat.
“Probation and parole are meant to prevent citizens convicted of crimes from doing bad things – not good things, like voting,” Schaaf said in a statement. “Not only does the current law undermine our democratic system, but it disproportionately affects African Americans, a group that has already been the object of far too much legal discrimination” – and a group that almost universally votes to defeat candidates from Schaaf’s party. We praise Nasheed and Schaaf for their leadership and encourage voters to pressure their legislators to support this bill.
Voting rights advocates also are watching how U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel rules on a suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (on behalf of district residents) alleging that the Ferguson-Florissant School District’s current process of electing school board members discriminates against African Americans. Student enrollment in Ferguson-Florissant is about 80 percent black, while African Americans are roughly half of the voting age population in the district. The current board – with all members elected at large, rather than by district – has two blacks and five whites, making blacks much less represented on the board than they are in the district or in the district’s classrooms. “The experience in the Ferguson-Florissant School District shows that equal opportunity has not yet arrived for African-American voters,” Tony Rothert of the ACLU argued before the court. As other districts also vote for school board members at large, including Hazelwood, Parkway, and Mehlville, this ruling could have a wide impact. We believe the ACLU reclaims MLK by raising this issue in the courts.
