The Vermont Suffrage Centennial Alliance (VSCA), a project of the League of Women Voters of Vermont Education Fund, condemns police brutality and the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, and other people of color by police. Unjustified killing and violence against Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) continues at a rate that is more than double the rate experienced by white Americans¹. Vermont is not immune to systemic racism. Our per capita rate of incarceration for Black people is one of the country’s highest². Black drivers in Vermont are four times more likely to be searched by police during traffic stops³. Vermonters have work to do. VSCA has work to do.

VSCA reinforces its commitment to anti-racism goals. In our commemoration of the Suffrage Amendment Centennial:

  • We will continue to educate ourselves and Vermonters about the role that racism played in the suffrage movement, and the role that Black suffragists played as participants and leaders of the movement. 
  • We will continue to educate ourselves and Vermonters about the suffrage movement’s incomplete legacy: although women got the vote in 1920, access was not granted equally across race. Black women were frequently denied the right to vote until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Other people of color, people with disabilities, people of low income, and other marginalized groups have also had to fight for their right to vote free from legal restrictions, intimidation and threats of violence, a struggle that continues to this day. 
  • We will continue to educate ourselves and Vermonters about barriers to voting, especially for Black and Brown voters, and also about laws and practices that increase voter participation. We invite Vermonters to take the pledge to support full and fair access to voting for all citizens, and to vote in primary and general elections and on Town Meeting Day. 

Further, VSCA champions the right of all Americans to assemble peaceably to protest systemic racism. Suffragists marched in the streets for many years to bring about the Women’s Suffrage Amendment to the Constitution in 1920. When faced with injustice, protest is a vehicle for change. 

¹ https://www.statista.com/chart/21872/map-of-police-violence-against-black-americans

² http://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/color-of-justice-racial-and-ethnic-disparity-in-state-prisons/

³ https://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/vpr/files/201803/a_deeper_dive_into_racial_disparities_in_policing_in_vermont_3.26_final.pdf