I just got registered to
vote for the first time
in 24 years.
I'm feeling excited.
And I'm happy for all the other felons that are able
to vote now. Because now we have a say-so
in what goes on.
The governor of
Virginia just
granted 200,000
people with felonies the right to vote.
Here in the capital of the old Confederacy, it's
important to realize this is a step toward racial justice.
All you have to do is fill out lines one through six.
The last time you voted was?
1992.
That's a long time.
I do know a lot of felons, and I've made sure that
all of them know that they are able to vote this year.
I was incarcerated for 11 years.
So have you voted before?
No.
Not even when I was 18.
Never got a chance to.
They didn't bring ballots and registration people to
Powhatan Correctional Center.
How long were you not able to vote?
Since 2002.
When I came home from the penitentiary.
Not having my right at first to vote, it hurts.
Felony disenfranchisement was written into Virginia's
constitution in 1902.
And it was about white supremacy
from the very beginning.
The US senator who wrote the consitution
said that his greatest achievement was to
"...eliminate the darky as a political factor in the state."
Because of the Fifteenth Amendment,
delegates couldn't just bar Black people from voting.
Instead, they barred criminals from voting.
And made Black people into criminals through
aggressive enforcement of Jim Crow laws.
The rest of Jim Crow voter intimidation tactics
are outlawed.
There's no more poll taxes or literacy tests.
One vestige of Jim Crow still remains.
And that's barring people with felonies from voting.
It's not just a Virginia problem.
Nationwide, 6 million Americans can't vote
because they have a felony.
And about 40% of those are Black.
About how many people do you register
who this is their first time ever voting?
I've registered
quite a few
that say this
was their first time.
A lot of them, they didn't believe me
I still get people that say, "Really?"
So when they tell me that,
I take this out.
And then they'll be like, "Oh okay!"
The whole genesis of what
we're talking about here, today.
goes to the core of
racism in this country.
Many African Americans were being arrested early-on
in the Southern states.
So predominantly African Americans were the ones
being charged with felonies.
So the next natural extension would be,
well since we're arresting and charging all these
African Americans with felonies,
what an easy way for us to keep them out of the
ballot box to say,
felons can't vote.
Now Republicans say he did it just
to get more Democratic voters.
And the governor is a Clinton ally in a swing state.
But no matter what the governor's motives are
the effect of the decision is a powerful reversal
of the racism written into the state's constitution
since Jim Crow.
A lot of people don't know what actually happened
back at that time.
And I remind the people of those things,
and that's why it's so important now that you take
advantage of this.
This was the capital of Confederacy
Let me come in, do what I do
serve you, Master.
But I can't vote.
Or I can't vote to put someone else in the seat
that you don't deserve, Master.
Finally, I got it.
Now, I can say who's going to what for me and when.
One time I couldn't even speak because
my voice wasn't able to be heard.
You can hear me, today.
Because I have a right to speak out
as being able to vote.
Mayors, senators, all those.
They are people that we could've been voting on,
and we never had the chance to
because we were felons.
Now, we have the chance.