Against the backdrop of anti-racism protest we head to Florida where the coronavirus
threatens voter turnout.
Activists have been fighting against the state's voter suppression
with lawmakers urging residents to vote by mail and early.
Black Americans aren't just rethinking where and when but how they vote.
We should change our name from democrats to Labourers.
I'm a Democrat what do that mean to me? If you tell people you're a Labourer, we're fighting
for you to get equal pay, for you to get a fair wage, for you to get a livable wage.
Florida ranks second in the nation in income inequality. The pandemic and recession that followed
only widen disparities between white and black Americans who are democrats most loyal voters.
They've been taking black women for granted and we've been the ones that have been turning out for
the longest.
The Republican party was set to hold their national convention here in Jacksonville
before they moved it to the White House lawn. Still the party spoke directly to a growing
number of Black Americans who say democrats no longer speak for them and not every black voter
is moving left.
Black women have definitely been a strong voice in voting what has that done for us?
The days of blindly supporting the Democrats are coming to an end.
Black people make up 13% of eligible voters in Florida and with protests and a
pandemic raging nationwide the fight for America's most powerful voting bloc had officially begun.
The fact that the RNC didn't come to Jacksonville may have saved the city
from an even worse surge of the coronavirus. Dr Ross Jones saw firsthand the spike in June
when the Republican governor reopened beaches and businesses.
People who went to the hospital or people who were already sick so even though they might have started
having a mild cough for a little shortness of breath, they waited until they, 'I just can't breathe anymore'.
As they start affecting people they noticed their church members, their neighbours
down the street, people start taking her a lot more seriously and so I think that's what it really
showed up as our increased hospitalisation rates and deaths among African-Americans.
Nationwide, Black Americans are 14% of the US population but a third of all covid19 cases
and deaths. Those disparities are why Angie Nixon's rallying voters — she's motivated by her daughters.
One due any day now.
I think it's really important that we work on legislation that
addresses systemic racism and that is not just band-aids.
Look i'm pregnant, yes, I have a degree,
yes I have a good paying job and I have health care but I'm still concerned that during this day
and age that if I go into the hospital will I be listened to?
You had covid19 while pregnant tell me about your experience.
I could barely breathe, I actually coughed up some blood ... Unfortunately gave
it to my mom because I had to quarantine with her because I wanted to stay away from our kids.
I don't want them to continue to fight for the same things that my mom and my grandmother had
to fight for so now we're like, you know what? We want to see it at the table and if you don't want
to allow us at the table we're going to create our own table and we are going to lead this movement.
And lead is what Angie is planning to do. Running uncontested, she's the next state representative
for Florida's 14th congressional district part of a record number of Black women running for office
across the country.
I think it's super important that ask progressives that we come in with a listening ear
And an open mind because we don't know all the answers and we're never going to get
anything done if we come in just pushing this hard core left agenda, we're not a monolithic people.
You have to be willing to have these conversations and to figure out some type of common ground for
the next generation.
But from literacy tests to poll taxes, voter suppression has been a part of Black history since Black men were first
granted their right in the 1860s.
Black women, most couldn't vote until nearly 100 years later and have been
at the forefront of the fight for voting rights ever since.
And you have your voter registration card? What were the obstacles or what did you have
to endure to just get that card? — I was so excited that I had got my rights back because
it was my first time voting in eight years and then to find out that they took them again, it's crazy ...
Activist Rosemary McCoy and Sheila Singleton are returning citizens or people with prior felony convictions.
For decades Florida law stripped them of the right to vote but in 2018 their right was restored temporarily.
State residents voted in favor of a ballot measure known as amendment 4 'striking
felony disenfranchisement' but in September a court ruled in favor of a Republican bill that
meant returning citizens had to pay restitution and court costs before casting their ballots.
These 1.5 million people has restitution to pay and they have no clue that they owe this money.
But it's unconstitutional for what they are doing as far as returning citizens.
It says nothing about what you can do, what you cannot do so the public believe that they can go
out there and they can vote. So that's a problem because it seems like it is a setup
so that this president can turn around and say that there's fraud.
Ahead of November, they're on a mission to register as many newly eligible returning citizens as possible
despite their legal challenges.
It's not going to stop me but what it did was energise me to get out there and get more people to vote
and help them understand why you need to vote.
Rosemary and Sheila believe Democrats have been guilty of pandering to black voters.
You want your people to vote Republican because of abortion,
because of same-sex marriages ... We're voting for our school system, we're voting for affordable health care,
we're voting for jobs, we're voting for other affordable housing ...
And yet the Democrats still assume that black people will vote for them no matter how much they
let us down and take us for granted.
We're sick of it. We're not going to take it anymore.
Politics is driving passion on both sides of the aisle and a democratic divide isn't just between black moderates
and progressives.
As we filmed a voting rights mural being painted by activists, we were stopped by an area resident.
We weren't asked what you were going to put on the buildings, not you but the artists.
They see images of people that are yelling on megaphones, they see images of females that are upset
or look angry or are frustrated and quite often the narrative is that we're upset
or we're frustrated.
She's a registered independent and asked us not to show her face
because she says 'black conservatives are often targeted for their views'.
You look at the Democratic party and you understand that the majority of what the democrats have done since
inception has not been for black people.
The pandemic has impacted her trucking business so she's also concerned about
the state of the country but she's not voting for Joe Biden or Donald Trump.
This Floridian is exercising her right not to vote at all.
But it is very American to exercise or choose not to exercise your right to vote and it is also very American
to choose which side you want to be on despite your heritage, despite the colour of your skin.
There's two responses that if our vote didn't matter, then why are there so many forces that's
investing so many resources to try to stop us from voting? Right?
The other piece to that is just a few days ago I voted for the first time in over 30 years
and when I went into that voting booth, I took the spirits of my ancestors with me
thinking about how many people have have died and were hung
on trees, bitten by dogs, sprayed with fire hoses ... Right? They overcame all that and and listen
covid is nothing compared to what our ancestors went through to actually be able to vote and
secure the right to vote for all of us.
Desmond Mead is a legal scholar and founder of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition in Orlando.
The group advocates for returning citizens gaining jobs,
housing and health care as well as their right to vote.
For one of Times most influential people, the fight for voting rights is personal.
You know, I'm a person who have previous felony convictions ...
I was standing in front of railroad tracks in south Florida waiting on a train to come so I can jump
in front of it and that day that I stood I was a broken man, I was homeless, I was addicted to drugs
recently released from prison and the only thing I owned were the clothes on my back
and I was ready to end my life.
I didn't see any light at the end of the tunnel
but the train never came that day.
I had committed my my life to overcome as a source of inspiration.
You may see that homeless person on the street or that drug addict or that person
that have a felony conviction ... You can never say that they will never amount to anything.
With the election just weeks away, Democrats are in a race to turn out the vote in Florida
even former Republican turned Independent turned Democratic candidate, Michael Bloomberg is spending
millions to clear returning citizens debts. Desmond wants to inform as many residents as
he can likening the fight to the common phrase: if you don't know your history you're bound to repeat it.
We have what I call the Juneteenth phenomenon.
Juneteenth refers to June 19, 1865, when on a plantation located in Galveston, Texas,
the last remaining enslaved African Americans learned of their freedom.
The interesting part about Juneteenth was that the slaves in Galveston did not find out
that they were free until two years after the emancipation proclamation.
Coincidentally we are coming up on the second year anniversary of the passing of amendment four and
they're still people who do not know that they're free.
But with his clemency deferred, Desmond's freedom is delayed.
Still, the work continues and he says from progressive advocates, voting rights activists
to community residents across Florida and the nation, Black voters are exercising their
freedom to hold Democrats, Republicans and everyone in between accountable to their vote.
We're just going to be voting for someone because they look like us, we're not going to be just voting
for someone because they have a D or an R next to their name, we're going to be voting for someone
that recognises and respects our humanity.