A very informative and telling piece. Unfortunately there are still race hustlers( Whoopie, Jesse, Al, et al) who still go on about how the United States is every bit as racist as it was 100 years ago. Also unfortunate, these people have a big platform, and people like Mr Washington here do not get heard by nearly as many people as the hustlers do.
I can tell you don't know any Black folks if you actually believe we're taking cues from any of those people (and one is dead). It's 2026 and Black Americans are swayed by the stew of infomation, disinformation, censorship, etc. that's swirling on social media just like everybody else. Declining Black voter turnout in 2024 was significantly attributable to disinformation about Kamala's prosecutorial record and racial identity undergirded by a bit of sexism.
I try to never miss an article by you when it comes out on Free Black Thought, Mr. Washington! Indeed, I think many black people today have forgotten the sacrifices past generations of black Americans made to open doors and extend opportunities to them that they didn’t have. Im shocked by how low both black and white voter turnout is. But especially black voter turnout when one considers all the brave civil rights activists who risked their lives and some actually did lose their lives, to make that possible. Even with a black woman being nominated for President for the first time, close to 40% of black voters still stayed home. It’s appalling! John’s grandfather died in 1957 and in all the years he was alive, he never even once came anywhere close to being able to cast a vote. He never had that privilege when he was alive and he would be absolutely furious if he were alive today at black Americans who refused to cast their ballot. Black people in the 19th and 20th Centuries were second-class citizens in America. Especially in the South, where life consisted of being apprenticed, black codes, poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, lynching, Jim Crow laws, being called the n-word to one’s face, violence from groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the White League, law enforcement and white mobs, laws against interracial marriage, being forced to the back of the bus if a white person wanted that seat, being forced to get off the street if a white person was driving by, to move over if a white person was walking by, and to be murdered if you got “out of line” and no one would care. Emmett Till, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, The Scottsboro Boys, Jesse Washington, Isaac Woodard, George Stinney, Medgar Evers, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jimmie Lee Jackson, James Chaney, and the four little girls killed in the 1963 Birmingham Church Bombing all never could’ve dreamed of casting the vote in their lifetime before they were murdered. James Meredith was denied registration to Ole Miss, mob by angry white students, shot at, and shot in the shoulder before he ever could. John Lewis was beaten with a baseball bat, kicked and punched, spat on, and falsely arrested just to do so. At the March from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, an Alabama State Trooper actually hit him so hard he cracked his skull. That was the price John Lewis paid just to vote. The black community needs to look within and see that if they don’t cast their ballot at the polls a right their ancestors fought long and hard to secure them, they can’t complain if things don’t go the way they want or the changes they seek never come to pass. Voter apathy is a HUGE problem within the black community. John saw first hand what past generations dealt with when he and his grandfather had countless soda bottles thrown at them, racial slurs yelled at them, arms waved at them, and choruses of hate directed at them and they had to endure this for half a mile. John as a kid saw that as remarkable, but his grandparents did not because for them, this was just business as usual in the Jim Crow South. They endured such vitriol and bigotry directed at them everyday.
Black Americans need to look in the mirror. Racism absolutely exists in America against black people. No question about it, voter suppression, employment discrimination, hate crimes, racial stereotypes, racial profiling, police brutality, the authorities often reacting differently to a black person disappearing as opposed to a white person, and the prevalence of the far-right, are all very real. But they don’t explain entirely why black America is struggling. Internal issues that plague the black community are part of the picture as well. So many black people not bothering to vote is one of them for sure. If you don’t exercise the right to vote, you can’t hope to even begin to make change. Black Americans need to seize every single opportunity presented to them without hesitation. Yes, racism exists in America, but it is no longer to the degree where it can keep you from achieving your dreams. Stop using the existence of racism as an excuse not to exercise your right to vote as an American or as an excuse as to why you didn’t succeed in life! Let me tell you what, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Robert Smalls, John Lynch, Ralph Bunche, Adam Clayton Powell, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois, Thomas Fortune, Granville Woods, Bessie Coleman, Crispus Attucks, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Rev. C.T. Vivian, John Lewis, and Mamie Till-Mobley would never accept those excuses if they were alive and still with us today! They would tell the black community if they want to know what’s wrong to look within. I dare you to go to Emmett Till’s grave or visit the Lorraine Motel where Dr. King was assassinated and then come back and tell me voting doesn’t matter. I dare you to look at Barack Obama serving two terms in the White House as President and tell me voting doesn’t matter. I dare you to visit Little Rock Central High School and tell me voting doesn’t matter. I dare you to Google the Freedom Summer Murders in 1964 and tell me voting doesn’t matter. I’d love to see a black person who didn’t vote explain to the Tuskegee Airmen or the Monford Point Marines why voting is pointless.
Mr. Rutherford did not say that his father never voted.
And you might want to check on some history. It was democrats who made the Jim Crow laws that made voting difficult for blacks.
You reference Central High. It was democrat governor Orville Faubus who refused to honor a court order to allow blacksstudents. It was republican President Dwight Eisenhauer who forced the admission of the students. That's not an anomoly. Typically it was black politicians who fought integration and equality. You wonder why more blacks don't vote democrat. I wonder why any black votes democrat.
Think back to the 1950s and 1960s and ask yourself how sure you can be that MLK voted for democrats and not republicans.
John Albert Washington: The account you told us about your grandfather, I will remember forever. The whole movement needs to read it. You should have listened to your grandfather and did what he said to find cover in the wagon. He needed his grandson to respect his directives. Your grandfather was such a wonderful role model how a man is supposed to be-having fortitude, being a protector and preparing for the future!!
Black American voter turnout rose rapidly from 1996-2008, plateaued in 2012 which was the only time in American history when Black voter turnout exceeded White turnout in a presidential election, and was similar to 2008 and 2012 in 2020. However, there were significant dips in turnout in 2016 and 2024, the years the Democratic presidential ticket had a woman at the top--and I believe that's a relevant factor and that there was definitely some sexism at work. Both were characterized as possessing particularly punitive criminal justice stances towards Black men--Hillary's "superpredators" comment and support for the crime bill in '94; Kamala's supposed targeting of Black men for weed possession as SF DA. Also the '24 election featured rampant disinformation concerning Harris's Black racial identity which hurt her as well--and that's in addition to the abruptness of her candidacy given the circumstances.
Those two presidential elections are anomalies in terms of turnout trends since 1996 IMO. We'll see what the future holds on that front, but I believe that turnout in midterm and state elections are just as crucial. U.S. presidents don't have imperial unilateral authority to do whatever they want (although Trump's response has been "Hold my beer") which makes Congressional and state elections equally significant.
Good article. Voter Participation is bound to be a good measure of the health of a democratic republic. But, I could t help but think about your self-description as being politically “center left” .
I don’t know for sure what center left means, but if many Black voters feel as you do, maybe that partly explains the low turnout. When one looks at the driving forces in the democrats party today, the word “center” doesn’t come to mind. Maybe Black Americans weren’t excited about the removal of our borders, or the obsession with allowing men into women’s bathrooms and locker rooms, or allowing men to compete against women in sports. Maybe they didn’t like an ignorant old white guy telling them, “if you don’t vote for me, you ain’t black.”
Maybe they aren’t really Marxist at heart, which the party more and more seems to be. Maybe these things explain the low turnout and the bleeding out of the party to vote for Trump.
I respect your attachment to the old Democrat party, but I question whether the current one retains any respect for the term “center left”.
In 2022 Florida governor Ron DeSantis attempted successfully to suppress voter turnout among voters of color. The one incident among many that stands out was the 3 AM raid by a host of deputies on the house of a 60-something Black woman alleged to have voted illegally in 2020. There was a warrant served and the woman taken off to jail in her bedclothes-- all very legal. Voter turnout among voters of color fell off accordingly and DeSantis was re-elected by a landslide. Jim Crow in Florida isn't dead.
Are you saying that it's understandable that a black would vote for a black, but not that a man would vote for a man? Would you say that it's wrong for a woman to vote for a woman?
Personally, I vote for the most qualified, if I can find a qualified candidate amongst the political offereings.
I have to wonder, the distinctions we make. Why do we sort out by race and gender? Why aren't we sorting by honesty, integrity, accomplishment, and experience?
A registered Republican, I voted for Chase Oliver; would have made for a very gay White House, and we'd still have a Rose Garden. It was a write-in vote in NYS.
Then say that. Don't say the Rose Garden is gone when it's not.
In the grand saheme of things, if your dislike of Trump manifests itself in condemnation of replacing the lawn with tile, maybe you need to reconsider your perspective on things.
A very informative and telling piece. Unfortunately there are still race hustlers( Whoopie, Jesse, Al, et al) who still go on about how the United States is every bit as racist as it was 100 years ago. Also unfortunate, these people have a big platform, and people like Mr Washington here do not get heard by nearly as many people as the hustlers do.
I can tell you don't know any Black folks if you actually believe we're taking cues from any of those people (and one is dead). It's 2026 and Black Americans are swayed by the stew of infomation, disinformation, censorship, etc. that's swirling on social media just like everybody else. Declining Black voter turnout in 2024 was significantly attributable to disinformation about Kamala's prosecutorial record and racial identity undergirded by a bit of sexism.
Moving piece. Thanks.
I try to never miss an article by you when it comes out on Free Black Thought, Mr. Washington! Indeed, I think many black people today have forgotten the sacrifices past generations of black Americans made to open doors and extend opportunities to them that they didn’t have. Im shocked by how low both black and white voter turnout is. But especially black voter turnout when one considers all the brave civil rights activists who risked their lives and some actually did lose their lives, to make that possible. Even with a black woman being nominated for President for the first time, close to 40% of black voters still stayed home. It’s appalling! John’s grandfather died in 1957 and in all the years he was alive, he never even once came anywhere close to being able to cast a vote. He never had that privilege when he was alive and he would be absolutely furious if he were alive today at black Americans who refused to cast their ballot. Black people in the 19th and 20th Centuries were second-class citizens in America. Especially in the South, where life consisted of being apprenticed, black codes, poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, lynching, Jim Crow laws, being called the n-word to one’s face, violence from groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the White League, law enforcement and white mobs, laws against interracial marriage, being forced to the back of the bus if a white person wanted that seat, being forced to get off the street if a white person was driving by, to move over if a white person was walking by, and to be murdered if you got “out of line” and no one would care. Emmett Till, Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, The Scottsboro Boys, Jesse Washington, Isaac Woodard, George Stinney, Medgar Evers, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jimmie Lee Jackson, James Chaney, and the four little girls killed in the 1963 Birmingham Church Bombing all never could’ve dreamed of casting the vote in their lifetime before they were murdered. James Meredith was denied registration to Ole Miss, mob by angry white students, shot at, and shot in the shoulder before he ever could. John Lewis was beaten with a baseball bat, kicked and punched, spat on, and falsely arrested just to do so. At the March from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, an Alabama State Trooper actually hit him so hard he cracked his skull. That was the price John Lewis paid just to vote. The black community needs to look within and see that if they don’t cast their ballot at the polls a right their ancestors fought long and hard to secure them, they can’t complain if things don’t go the way they want or the changes they seek never come to pass. Voter apathy is a HUGE problem within the black community. John saw first hand what past generations dealt with when he and his grandfather had countless soda bottles thrown at them, racial slurs yelled at them, arms waved at them, and choruses of hate directed at them and they had to endure this for half a mile. John as a kid saw that as remarkable, but his grandparents did not because for them, this was just business as usual in the Jim Crow South. They endured such vitriol and bigotry directed at them everyday.
Black Americans need to look in the mirror. Racism absolutely exists in America against black people. No question about it, voter suppression, employment discrimination, hate crimes, racial stereotypes, racial profiling, police brutality, the authorities often reacting differently to a black person disappearing as opposed to a white person, and the prevalence of the far-right, are all very real. But they don’t explain entirely why black America is struggling. Internal issues that plague the black community are part of the picture as well. So many black people not bothering to vote is one of them for sure. If you don’t exercise the right to vote, you can’t hope to even begin to make change. Black Americans need to seize every single opportunity presented to them without hesitation. Yes, racism exists in America, but it is no longer to the degree where it can keep you from achieving your dreams. Stop using the existence of racism as an excuse not to exercise your right to vote as an American or as an excuse as to why you didn’t succeed in life! Let me tell you what, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Robert Smalls, John Lynch, Ralph Bunche, Adam Clayton Powell, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois, Thomas Fortune, Granville Woods, Bessie Coleman, Crispus Attucks, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Rev. C.T. Vivian, John Lewis, and Mamie Till-Mobley would never accept those excuses if they were alive and still with us today! They would tell the black community if they want to know what’s wrong to look within. I dare you to go to Emmett Till’s grave or visit the Lorraine Motel where Dr. King was assassinated and then come back and tell me voting doesn’t matter. I dare you to look at Barack Obama serving two terms in the White House as President and tell me voting doesn’t matter. I dare you to visit Little Rock Central High School and tell me voting doesn’t matter. I dare you to Google the Freedom Summer Murders in 1964 and tell me voting doesn’t matter. I’d love to see a black person who didn’t vote explain to the Tuskegee Airmen or the Monford Point Marines why voting is pointless.
Mr. Rutherford did not say that his father never voted.
And you might want to check on some history. It was democrats who made the Jim Crow laws that made voting difficult for blacks.
You reference Central High. It was democrat governor Orville Faubus who refused to honor a court order to allow blacksstudents. It was republican President Dwight Eisenhauer who forced the admission of the students. That's not an anomoly. Typically it was black politicians who fought integration and equality. You wonder why more blacks don't vote democrat. I wonder why any black votes democrat.
Think back to the 1950s and 1960s and ask yourself how sure you can be that MLK voted for democrats and not republicans.
John Albert Washington: The account you told us about your grandfather, I will remember forever. The whole movement needs to read it. You should have listened to your grandfather and did what he said to find cover in the wagon. He needed his grandson to respect his directives. Your grandfather was such a wonderful role model how a man is supposed to be-having fortitude, being a protector and preparing for the future!!
Black American voter turnout rose rapidly from 1996-2008, plateaued in 2012 which was the only time in American history when Black voter turnout exceeded White turnout in a presidential election, and was similar to 2008 and 2012 in 2020. However, there were significant dips in turnout in 2016 and 2024, the years the Democratic presidential ticket had a woman at the top--and I believe that's a relevant factor and that there was definitely some sexism at work. Both were characterized as possessing particularly punitive criminal justice stances towards Black men--Hillary's "superpredators" comment and support for the crime bill in '94; Kamala's supposed targeting of Black men for weed possession as SF DA. Also the '24 election featured rampant disinformation concerning Harris's Black racial identity which hurt her as well--and that's in addition to the abruptness of her candidacy given the circumstances.
Those two presidential elections are anomalies in terms of turnout trends since 1996 IMO. We'll see what the future holds on that front, but I believe that turnout in midterm and state elections are just as crucial. U.S. presidents don't have imperial unilateral authority to do whatever they want (although Trump's response has been "Hold my beer") which makes Congressional and state elections equally significant.
Good article. Voter Participation is bound to be a good measure of the health of a democratic republic. But, I could t help but think about your self-description as being politically “center left” .
I don’t know for sure what center left means, but if many Black voters feel as you do, maybe that partly explains the low turnout. When one looks at the driving forces in the democrats party today, the word “center” doesn’t come to mind. Maybe Black Americans weren’t excited about the removal of our borders, or the obsession with allowing men into women’s bathrooms and locker rooms, or allowing men to compete against women in sports. Maybe they didn’t like an ignorant old white guy telling them, “if you don’t vote for me, you ain’t black.”
Maybe they aren’t really Marxist at heart, which the party more and more seems to be. Maybe these things explain the low turnout and the bleeding out of the party to vote for Trump.
I respect your attachment to the old Democrat party, but I question whether the current one retains any respect for the term “center left”.
In 2022 Florida governor Ron DeSantis attempted successfully to suppress voter turnout among voters of color. The one incident among many that stands out was the 3 AM raid by a host of deputies on the house of a 60-something Black woman alleged to have voted illegally in 2020. There was a warrant served and the woman taken off to jail in her bedclothes-- all very legal. Voter turnout among voters of color fell off accordingly and DeSantis was re-elected by a landslide. Jim Crow in Florida isn't dead.
"Shall I vote for the woman or the man? The man, obviously." - male voters of all races, creeds, and colors
Are you saying that it's understandable that a black would vote for a black, but not that a man would vote for a man? Would you say that it's wrong for a woman to vote for a woman?
Personally, I vote for the most qualified, if I can find a qualified candidate amongst the political offereings.
It’s not wrong for a woman to vote for a woman, although IMO it’s misguided for a woman to vote for a woman simply BECAUSE she is a woman.
I have to wonder, the distinctions we make. Why do we sort out by race and gender? Why aren't we sorting by honesty, integrity, accomplishment, and experience?
A registered Republican, I voted for Chase Oliver; would have made for a very gay White House, and we'd still have a Rose Garden. It was a write-in vote in NYS.
The rose garden is still there. But I'm glad there are people who don't keep voting for the only choices the two parties give us.
Well, the lawn was replaced by a tiled patio in 2025, so it seems to have been trashed by our Dear Leader.
Then say that. Don't say the Rose Garden is gone when it's not.
In the grand saheme of things, if your dislike of Trump manifests itself in condemnation of replacing the lawn with tile, maybe you need to reconsider your perspective on things.
75+ years ago. Once the last of your generation passes, the country can finally get on with facing its future.