Paint The Polls Black: Al Sharpton Talks Voter Suppression

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Transcript

00:00This is the first election that we're having after the Supreme Court outlawed affirmative

00:08action, which also put DEI on its deathbed, that we're trying to resurrect.

00:16It is the first time we've had an election since voting rights was taken out by the Supreme

00:24Court in terms of the guts of it.

00:26And it's the first time women's right to choose is taken out.

00:30I raise that to say that we have seen much of the gains around civil rights, voting rights,

00:38and women's rights wiped out in the last 18 months because we did not vote in the numbers

00:46we should have, could have, and in some ways, as Damon said, were blocked or in many ways

00:54obstructed by local, state, and county election boards.

01:00They knocked us out, and then many of us did not vote at the numbers we could.

01:05And we ended up with a president that was able to nominate three Supreme Court justices,

01:13confirm them through a Republican Senate, and was able then to surgically and strategically

01:21remove a lot of the rights that were gained.

01:24So when we talk about voter protection and fighting voter suppression, we're also talking

01:29about preserving what gains we already had.

01:33A lot of people are saying, what am I going to get out of voting?

01:38First we need to restore what we've lost, and then go forward on what we can gain.