To talk about the struggles people of color still face today when it comes to voting, the Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition, or OCCRC, is hosting a panel discussion this week called ‘African Americans and the Ballot: A Continuing Struggle for Freedom.’

Hosted by the OCCRC and Orange County Human Relations Commission, the African Americans and the Ballot panel will not only celebrate two important voting rights milestones, but also provide an update on recent attempts at voter suppression around the country and an overview of the history of voting rights laws in North Carolina.

This year is the 150th Anniversary of the 15th Amendment – prohibiting the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on their race or color – and the 55th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Formed roughly two years ago, the OCCRC was created as part of an effort to educate and engage the public on the history of racial terror within the state of North Carolina.

James Williams, Co-Chair of the OCCRC, said educating the public on the history of voter suppression is very important as it is rarely told and still impacts the world today.

“One of the reasons the OCCRC was so interested in doing this webinar is because of the strong nexus between racial terror and violence and voter suppression in the south and in North Carolina,” Williams said. “One example of this was in the state of Florida 100 years ago where on election day, on November 2 in Acoee, Florida, scores of Black people were killed simply because of an interest in excising their constitutional rights and voting. That’s how draconian this effort was and has been over the years and it may not be the blatant violence that was used in years past but the intent is quite the same and we’ve got to fight it and stand against it as diligently as those who came before us.”

The discussion will feature three key panelists: Ted Shaw – a Distinguished Professor of Law and the Director of the UNC Center for Civil Rights, Allison Riggs – the Interim Executive Director at the Voting Rights at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and Dr. James Leloudis – a Professor and Director of the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence at UNC.

The panel will be held this Thursday, August 6 at 6 p.m. To register for the event, click here.

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