COMMENTARY: Will Voting Rights for Detroit Require Another Bloody Sunday?

By Sherry Gay-Dagnogo The first Census of the United States was taken in 1792; the basis by which our State Legislature, U.S. House of Representatives and Senate districts are drawn based on population.& African Americans had not yet received the right to vote until the passage of the 15th Amendment on February 26, 1869, 155 years ago to date. However, it still took 5 African American votes to equal 3 votes of our white counterparts, and discriminatory practices limiting access to the ballot box persisted.& As African Americans many of our rights had to be gained through the power of legal battles that took time, tenacity, and a will to fight back against injustice.& Jim Crow laws forced segregation, and the doctrine of Separate but Equal, birthed through the historic Plessy vs. Ferguson Supreme Court ruling, and later Brown vs. Education, both became the bedrock of separate but equal policies. & It took the audaciousness Frederick Douglass, a man born into slavery, to become a spokesperson and abolitionist against the oppressive grips of bondage, traveling the U.S. and abroad forcing a national discussion.& It also took the diligence of leaders like Educator and Writer Ida B. Wells, and countless others...