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edition.cnn.com/2020/11/01/us/voter-suppression-jim-crow-blake/?iid=ob_article_footer_expansion&fbclid=IwAR2OiI0GpLyTu5wsenvmWPdEVePu5sF6yqSSdsybGhIT7bZFWCwJ_dF4ydA


On the first and third Monday of each month, Theresa Burroughs traveled to Alabama's Hale County courthouse to register to vote. On each trip, she was met by a group of White men playing dominoes.

One of those men oversaw voter registration in the county. He'd point to a jar of jelly beans on a nearby table and ask Burroughs, "How many black jelly beans are in a jar? How many red ones in there?"

It was the late 1940s, and Burroughs was a Black woman who knew she wasn't welcome at a voting booth in the Jim Crow South. But she was so determined to vote that she kept going to the courthouse every month for two years until she wore the voter registrar down. When he finally handed her a voter registration card, he didn't bother to hide his disgust.

"It was a joy," Burroughs said, recounting her first vote during a 2015 interview with a nonprofit group that collects oral histories. "But the thing about it is, I didn't feel it should have been this hard. I knew it shouldn't have been this hard."

More than 70 years later, it still is hard for many Black people to vote in America -- and the proof can be seen in how this year's presidential election has unfolded, voting rights advocates and historians say.

medium.com/equality-includes-you/what-white-people-can-do-for-racial-justice-f2d18b0e0234


An insanely comprehensive list complete with links.

Number 10

If you or a friend or family member is an educator, watch or share this video of Neil deGrasse Tyson speaking about his experience as a Black student telling people he wanted to be a scientist and astrophysicist. Tyson’s experience reminds me of a Black friend whose high school teachers tried to dissuade her from taking AP classes, because, with the best of intentions, they thought the AP classes would be “too much” for her. Be an educator who supports and encourages, not one who dissuades. Talk to educators you know about being educators who support and encourage, not educators who dissuade.



Number 42

Especially if you or a friend is an educator, read or share bell hooks’ Teaching to Transgress. Buy it from one of these Black-owned bookstores.


Number 46
Listen without ego and defensiveness to people of color. Truly listen. Don’t scroll past articles written by people of color — Read them.



Number 53

Seek out a diverse group of friends for you. Practice real friendship and intimacy by listening when POC talk about their experiences and their perspectives. They’re speaking about their pain. HUGE ONE


Number 66

When people ask, “Why aren't you talking about ‘black-on-black crime’?” and other myths about BLM, let Francesca Ramsey help you with those talking points.


Number 68

Be honest about our history. One genocide, another genocide, then apartheid. It sucks, but it’s true. We’ll never be free from our history unless we’re honest about it. Denial is our pathology, but the truth will set us free.


Number 73

Personally divest your investments in private prisons and detention centers. Start here. Many people are divesting from Wells Fargo for their substantial role in Standing Rock and from private prison companies Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), GEO Group, CoreCivic, and G4S.


Number 80

A wise former teacher once said, “The question isn’t: Was the act racist or not? The question is: How much racism was in play?” So maybe racism was 3% of the motivation or 30% or 95%. Interrogate the question “How much racism was in play?” as you think about an incident. Share this idea with the people in your life when they ask, “Was that racist?”


Number 84

Read this article by educator and activity Bettina L. Love about the harm done by schools to their Black students. Ensure your local school/School Board has a clear and strong policy of zero tolerance for racial slurs, physically touching a child to discipline them, invasions of privacy like strip searches, hair discrimination, etc. “Zero tolerance” means loss of a job, loss of a pension, and mandatory reporting to state Department of Education. If and when school officials don’t comply with their own policies, or when a school refuses to create these policies altogether, use resources at your disposal like social media, local news media, connections to the School Board, etc to hold them accountable.


Number 90


When people lament that the policing problem is just “a few bad apples,” share the following evidence that it is not: comedian Amber Ruffin discussing her police encounters, the Buffalo cop who intervened on a chokehold and lost her job and pension, the Minneapolis police union chief who used his powerful position to try to justify George Floyd’s torture and death, and the Philadelphia Police Union President who, in his position of authority, called Black Lives Matter protestors ‘rabid animals.’ Remember that the fourth stage of genocide is “dehumanization, wherein members of a particular group “are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases.”


Number 92

Don’t gentrify neighborhoods.


Number 99

Have an idea to fight white supremacy or sexism or homophobia, etc? Do the research to see if someone who’s Black is already doing it. A Black friend was contacted by a white woman who wanted to organize a BLM protest in her town — my Black friend’s first response was, “Do you know if any Black leaders are already doing it?” The white woman wasn’t sure. Similarly, if Alyssa Milano had checked for #metoo on Twitter before her tweet, she may have found Tarana Burke’s original #metoo tweet from 2006 — and could have rightly attributed the idea from the start and amplified a Black woman’s voice.

Day 11 of GirlTreks 21 days of prayer


Precious Lord, take my hand. Be with me this week as I walk in my purpose. Show me where I’ve lost expectancy. Deal with the places in my life where I’ve settled, gotten off track, or completely lost my way. Help me to trust your promises. Teach me to walk with wisdom and discernment. I am an heir. Teach me to act like one, pray like one, and believe like one. Give me holy gumption. Give me the presence of mind to be a witness through all of my words and actions. Let me never be blinded by the limitations of my physical circumstances. Help me to see beyond. Put a song in my heart as I walk through the day, welcoming and receiving with open arms the goodness that I know you have in store for me.

Spiritual Warrior of the Day:

“There is no music like that music, no drama like the drama of the saints rejoicing, the sinners moaning, the tambourines racing, and all those voices coming together and crying holy unto the Lord. I have never seen anything to equal the fire and excitement that sometimes without warning, fills a church, causing the church … to rock. – James Baldwin

This is a story about the father of gospel music. This is a story about a man who carried the rhythm and blues of southern pain all the way north to Chicago and combined it with the scripture of God to create a new sound that would express the joys and sorrows, hopes and despairs, and most of all - the collective faith - of Black people.

This is a celebration of the spiritual warrior, Thomas Dorsey.

Thomas Dorsey introduced the world to a new genre of music that would forever play as the soundtrack to the worship experience of Black people. His legendary life included authoring one of the most celebrated songs in the history of music, Precious Lord, written after losing both his wife and newborn son during childbirth. In that dark moment, this man called out to God in anger and God answered back, pouring into him a love song that would forever soothe the world.

That’s how powerfully God can transform your pain into purpose. Today’s walk will be a timely reminder for anyone who had forgotten. You might be in your darkest hour right now, but Thomas Dorsey’s story teaches us to keep holding on. There is life after death and in each day, always, a possibility of goodness.

Come get everything that you need today. We will be on the virtual sidewalk ready to walk and talk it all out. Can’t wait to see you.


Maternal death rates haven’t improved since Thomas Dorsey lost his family.

www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1125896