A Medley of Potpourri

"Strange Fruit" is a song written and composed by Abel Meeropol and recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. The lyrics were drawn from a poem by Meeropol published in 1937. The song protests the lynching of Black Americans with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees. Such lynchings had reached a peak in the Southern United States at the turn of the 20th century, and the great majority of victims were black. The song has been called "a declaration" and "the beginning of the civil rights movement".

Meeropol set his lyrics to music with his wife and the singer Laura Duncan and performed it as a protest song in New York City venues in the late 1930s, including Madison Square Garden. Holiday's version was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978. It was also included in the "Songs of the Century" list of the Recording Industry of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. The song has been covered by many artists, including Nina Simone, Jeff Buckley, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Robert Wyatt, and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Diana Ross recorded the song for her debut film, the Billie Holiday biopic Lady Sings the Blues (1972), and it was included on the soundtrack album. Andra Day also recorded the song for her award-winning acting debut in the 2021 Billie Holiday biopic The United States vs. Billie Holiday, and it was included in the film's soundtrack album.

In 2002, "Strange Fruit" was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

Poem and song

"Strange Fruit" originated as a poem written by the Jewish-American writer, teacher and songwriter Abel Meeropol, under his pseudonym Lewis Allan, as a protest against lynchings. In the poem, Meeropol expressed his horror at lynchings, inspired by Lawrence Beitler's photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana.

Meeropol published the poem under the title "Bitter Fruit" in January 1937 in The New York Teacher, a union magazine of the Teachers Union. Though Meeropol had asked others (notably Earl Robinson) to set his poems to music, he set "Strange Fruit" to music himself. First performed by Meeropol's wife and their friends in social contexts, his protest song gained a certain success in and around New York. Meeropol, his wife, and the black vocalist Laura Duncan performed it at Madison Square Garden.

Billie Holiday's performances and recordings

Meeropol cited this photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, August 7, 1930, as inspiring his poem.

One version of events claims that Barney Josephson, the founder of Café Society in Greenwich Village, New York's first integrated nightclub, heard the song and introduced it to Billie Holiday. Other reports say that Robert Gordon, who was directing Billie Holiday's show at Café Society, heard the song at Madison Square Garden and introduced it to her. Holiday first performed the song at Café Society in 1939. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances. Because of the power of the song, Josephson drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it; the waiters would stop all service in advance; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday's face; and there would be no encore. During the musical introduction to the song, Holiday stood with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer.

Holiday approached her recording label, Columbia, about the song, but the company feared reaction by record retailers in the South, as well as negative reaction from affiliates of its co-owned radio network, CBS. When Holiday's producer John Hammond also refused to record it, she turned to her friend Milt Gabler, owner of the Commodore label. Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" for him a cappella, and moved him to tears. Columbia gave Holiday a one-session release from her contract so she could record it; Frankie Newton's eight-piece Café Society Band was used for the session. Because Gabler worried the song was too short, he asked pianist Sonny White to improvise an introduction. On the recording, Holiday starts singing after 70 seconds. It was recorded on April 20, 1939. Gabler worked out a special arrangement with Vocalion Records to record and distribute the song.

Holiday recorded two major sessions of the song at Commodore, one in 1939 and one in 1944. The song was highly regarded; the 1939 recording eventually sold a million copies, in time becoming Holiday's biggest-selling recording.

In her 1956 autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues, Holiday suggested that she, together with Meeropol, her accompanist Sonny White, and arranger Danny Mendelsohn, set the poem to music. The writers David Margolick and Hilton Als dismissed that claim in their work Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song, writing that hers was "an account that may set a record for most misinformation per column inch". When challenged, Holiday—whose autobiography had been ghostwritten by William Dufty—claimed, "I ain't never read that book."

Billie Holiday was so well known for her rendition of "Strange Fruit" that "she crafted a relationship to the song that would make them inseparable". Holiday's 1939 version of the song was included in the National Recording Registry on January 27, 2003.

In October 1939, Samuel Grafton of the New York Post said of "Strange Fruit", "If the anger of the exploited ever mounts high enough in the South, it now has its Marseillaise." In an attempt to have a two-thirds majority in the Senate that would break the filibusters by the southern senators, anti-racism activists were encouraged to mail copies of "Strange Fruit" to their senators.

Notable covers

Notable cover versions of this song include Nina Simone, René Marie, Jeff Buckley, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Josh White, UB40, Bettye LaVette and Edward W. Hardy. Nina Simone recorded the song in 1965, a recording described by journalist David Margolick in the New York Times as featuring a "plain and unsentimental voice". René Marie's rendition was coupled with Confederate anthem "Dixie", making for an "uncomfortable juxtaposition", according to Pellegrinelli. Journalist Lara Pellegrinelli wrote that Jeff Buckley while singing it "seems to meditate on the meaning of humanity the way Walt Whitman did, considering all of its glorious and horrifying possibilities". LA Times noted that Siouxsie and the Banshees's version contained "a solemn string section behind the vocals" and "a bridge of New Orleans funeral-march jazz" which enhanced the singer's "evocative interpretation". The group's rendition was selected by the Mojo magazine staff to be included on the compilation Music Is Love: 15 Tracks That Changed The World .

Freedom songs

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_songs

Freedom Songs were songs which were sung by participants in the civil rights movement. They are also called "civil rights anthems" or, in the case of songs which are more hymn-like, they are called "civil rights hymns."

Freedom songs were an important feature of the way of life which existed during the civil rights movement. The songs contained many meanings for all of the participants in the civil rights movement. Songs could embody sadness, happiness, joy, or determination among many other feelings. Freedom songs served as mechanisms for unity in the black community during the movement. The songs also served as a means of communication among the movement's participants when words were not enough. The song "We Shall Overcome" quickly became the unofficial anthem of the movement. Guy Carawan taught the popular freedom song during the spring of 1960 in a workshop held at Highlander Folk School, making the song extremely popular within the community.

Music of the civil rights era was crucial to the productivity of the movement. Music communicated unspeakable feelings and the desire for radical change across the nation. Music strengthened the movement, adding variety to different freedom progression strategies. Music was highly successful in that the songs were direct and repetitive, clearly and efficiently getting the message across. The melodies were simple with repetitious choruses, which allowed easy involvement within both black and white communities, furthering the spread of their message. There was often more singing than talking during protests and demonstrations, showing how powerful the songs really were. Nurturing those who came to participate in the movement was vital, and it would be done with songs. Participants in the movement felt a sense of connectedness with one another and through the songs, they also felt a sense of connectedness with the movement . Politically, freedom songs were often sung in order to grab the attention of the nation and force it to address the severity of racial segregation in the United States.

Frequently, the songs had a Christian background, they were usually based on hymns. The words of hymns were slightly altered so their wording could be incorporated into civil rights protests, and reflect current situations as they were sung outside churches, particularly in the streets. Although most freedom songs were derived from hymns, some freedom songs were also derived from other genres. In order to accommodate people who were not very religious, rock and roll songs were altered and turned into freedom songs, this allowed a large number of activists to partake in the singing.

In several cases, these songs began as gospel songs or spirituals, the most famous of these songs were "We Shall Overcome," "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize", "This Little Light of Mine", and "Go Tell it on the Mountain".

Nina Simone and other professional artists are also known for either writing or singing such songs. Two of these songs are:

"Mississippi Goddam", from Nina Simone in Concert (1964).
"To Be Young, Gifted and Black", from Black Gold (1970).

Activist Fannie Lou Hamer is known for singing songs at marches or other types of protests, particularly "This Little Light of Mine." Zilphia Horton also played a role in the conversion of spirituals to civil rights songs.

Additional freedom songs

Some 100 or so songs were commonly sung during the Civil Rights Movement protests which occurred during the 1960s. Some of the best-known or the most-influential songs are:

"A Change Is Gonna Come (song)": Composed and performed by Sam Cooke; #12 on the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list of Rolling Stone magazine
"Oh, Freedom": a spiritual dating back to slavery times
"Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round"
"Certainly Lord": based on a spiritual
"Hold On" (also known as "Keep Your Eye On The Prize"): Based on a spiritual
"How I Got Over"
"I Love Everybody", the most important song in the civil rights movement according to SCLC's James Bevel and Andrew Young, sometimes sung for an hour at a time.
"If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus": Adapted from a composition by Chico Neblett
"I'm Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table": Adapted from a Spiritual
"I Woke Up This Mornin'": Adapted from a Spiritual
"Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing": Composed by James Weldon Johnson
"This Little Light of Mine": Originally a spiritual, associated with Fannie Lou Hamer.
"We shall not be moved": Also, likely originally, a labor union song.
"If I had a hammer": A labor union song by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays.
"Hymn to Freedom": Composed and performed by Oscar Peterson

Background

Many events took place between 1776 and 1866, some of there are the following:

Slavery in the United States (1776 - 1886)

An animation showing when United States territories and states forbade or allowed slavery, 1789–1861

United States of America allowed the enslavement of human beings, most of them Africans and African Americans that were moved from their continent and taken their freedom. The process of slavery started in the 16th century during the british colonization of the Americas.

Racial segregation in the United States

Racial segregation follows two forms;

De jure segregation mandated the separation of races by law, they were imposed by slave codes before the Civil War and by Black Codes and Jim Crow laws following the war.
De facto segregation, or segregation "in fact", is that which exists without sanction of the law.

Frederick Douglass and James N. Buffum

In 1841 Frederick Douglass and his friend James N. Buffum entered a train car reserved for white passengers in Lynn, Massachusetts, when the conductor ordered them to leave the car, they refused. Followed the action widespread organizing led the congress to approve the Civil Rights Act of 1875 which grant equal rights to Black citizens in public accommodations. In 1883 the Supreme Court overturned this victory declaring it unconstitutional.

Elizabeth Jennings Graham

On July 16, 1854, Elizabeth Jennings Graham, a 24-year-old schoolteacher opted for aboard a bus without the “Colored Persons Allowed” sign, the conductor used force to expel her.

Charlotte L. Brown

On 1863, San Francisco's horse-powered streetcar companies accepted only white passengers). On April 17, 1863, Charlotte L. Brown, an African American citizens began to directly challenge this discrimination and boarded a streetcar of the Omnibus Railroad Company, but she was forced off, she tried to do it two more time, but the same happen, each time legally sued the company.

Demand for women's suffrage in the United States

The demand for women's suffrage began to gather strength in the 1840s, emerging from the broader movement for women's rights. In 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention, passed a resolution in favor of women's suffrage despite opposition from some of its organizers, who believed the idea was too extreme. By the time of the first National Women's Rights Convention in 1850, however, suffrage was becoming an increasingly important aspect of the movement's activities.

Movement for civil rights from 1865–1896)

The civil rights movement (1865–1896) aimed to eliminate racial discrimination against African Americans, improve their educational and employment opportunities, and establish their electoral power, just after the abolition of slavery in the United States. The period from 1865 to 1895 saw a tremendous change in the fortunes of the black community following the elimination of slavery in the South.Copied content from Civil rights movement (1865–1896

End of slavery in the United States of America

The Emancipation Proclamation was an executive order issued by President Lincoln on January 1, 1863. In a single stroke it changed the legal status, as recognized by the U.S. government, of three million slaves in designated areas of the Confederacy from "slave" to "free". It had the practical effect that as soon as a slave escaped the control of the Confederate government, by running away or through advances of federal troops, the slave became legally and actually free. Plantation owners, realizing that emancipation would destroy their economic system, sometimes moved their slaves as far as possible out of reach of the Union army. By June 1865, the Union Army controlled all of the Confederacy and had liberated all of the designated slaves.

Civil Rights Act of 1866

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was the first United States federal law to define citizenship and affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law. It was mainly intended, in the wake of the American Civil War, to protect the civil rights of persons of African descent born in or brought to the United States.

The Act was passed by Congress in 1865 and vetoed by United States President Andrew Johnson. In April 1866 Congress again passed the bill to support the Thirteenth Amendment, and Johnson again vetoed it, but a two-thirds majority in each chamber overrode the veto to allow it to become law without presidential signature. John Bingham and other congressmen argued that Congress did not yet have sufficient constitutional power to enact this law. Following passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, Congress ratified the 1866 Act in 1870. In 1871 was passed the US Civil Rights Act of 1871, also known as the Klan Act. In 1875 the Civil Rights Act of 1875 Becomes law.

Katherine "Kate" Brown

Katherine Brown boarded a train in Alexandria, Virginia when traveling towards Washington, D.C. on February 8, 1868, Brow, She entered "what they call the 'white people's car.'" As she was boarding, a railroad policeman told her to move to a different car. He told her the car she had entered "was for ladies," and "no damned niger was allowed to ride in that car; never was and never would be." She replied, "This car will do." The railroad police officer and another employee grabbed Brown and, after a violent struggle that lasted six minutes, in which she was beaten and kicked, threw her on the boarding platform, dragged her along the platform and threatened to arrest her. She asked, "What are you going to arrest me for? What have I done? Have I committed robbery? Have I murdered anybody?" Brown's injuries were so severe that she was bedridden for several weeks and spit up blood.

Senators Charles Sumner and Justin Morrill called for a formal investigation, and Senator Charles Drake agreed. A resolution was passed on February 10, and Senate committee heard testimony later that month. Brown sued the railway company for damages and was awarded $1,500 in damages in the district court. The railway company appealed, and the case eventually went before the US Supreme Court. On November 17, 1873, in an opinion delivered by Justice David Davis, the Court held that racial segregation on the railroad line was not allowed under its Congressional charter, which stated "no person shall be excluded from the cars on account of race."Davis dismissed the company's "separate but equal" argument as "an ingenious attempt to evade a compliance with the obvious meaning of the requirement" of the 1863 charter and decided in favor of Brown.

The Court held that white and black passengers must be treated with equality in the use of the railroad's cars:

It was the discrimination in the use of the cars on account of color where slavery obtained which was the subject of discussion at the time, and not the fact that the colored race could not ride in the cars at all. Congress, in the belief that this discrimination was unjust, acted. It told this company in substance that it could extend its road within the District as desired, but that this discrimination must cease and the colored and white race, in the use of the cars, be placed on an equality. This condition it had the right to impose, and in the temper of Congress at the time, it is manifest the grant could not have been made without it.

Movement for civil rights from 1896 to 1954

The civil rights movement (1896–1954) was a long, primarily nonviolent series of events to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans. The era has had a lasting impact on American society – in its tactics, the increased social and legal acceptance of civil rights, and in its exposure of the prevalence and cost of racism.

Women's suffrage in the United States

Women's legal right to vote was established in the United States over the course of more than half a century, first in various states and localities, sometimes on a limited basis, and then nationally in 1920.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. It was accepted by the General Assembly as Resolution 217 during its third session on 10 December 1948 at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, France.

A foundational text in the history of human and civil rights, the Declaration consists of 30 articles detailing an individual's "basic rights and fundamental freedoms" and affirming their universal character as inherent, inalienable, and applicable to all human beings. Adopted as a "common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations", the UDHR commits nations to recognize all humans as being "born free and equal in dignity and rights" regardless of "nationality, place of residence, gender, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status".

The Declaration is considered a "milestone document" for its "universalist language", which makes no reference to a particular culture, political system, or religion. It directly inspired the development of international human rights law, and was the first step in the formulation of the International Bill of Human Rights, which was completed in 1966 and came into force in 1976. United States of America has ratified the nine binding treaties influenced by the Declaration.

Civil rights movement 1954—1968

The 1954–1968 civil rights movement in the United States was preceded by a decades-long campaign by African Americans and their like-minded allies to end legalized racial discrimination, disenfranchisement and racial segregation in the United States. The movement has its origins in the Reconstruction era during the late 19th century, although it made its largest legislative gains in the mid-1960s after years of direct actions and grassroots protests. The social movement's major nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience campaigns eventually secured new protections in federal law for the human rights of all Americans.

End of racial segregation in the United States

De jure segregation was outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. In specific areas, however, segregation was barred earlier by the Warren Court in decisions such as the Brown v. Board of Education decision that overturned school segregation in the United States.

Civil rights in the 21st century

De facto segregation continues today in areas such as residential segregation and school segregation because of both contemporary behavior and the historical legacy of de jure segregation.

Erradication of Homelessness has also been a major problem in the United States, in 2010 1,593,150 individuals experienced homelessness The Coronavirus pandemic of 2019 to 2021 forced governments to mandate lockdowns and thousands of companies to close business temporarily or permanently, leaving them without resources to pay the rent and the salary of their employees, forcing them to close business permanently, being evicted and lost their equipments. Millions of Americans lost their jobs and were unable to pay the rent, 7 millions of them are facing eviction in October 2021.

Various laws have both directly and indirectly criminalized people that are homeless and people attempting to feed homeless people outdoors. At least 31 cities have criminalized feeding people that are homeless.

Origins as gospel, folk, and labor song

"I'll Overcome Some Day" was a hymn or gospel music composition by the Reverend Charles Albert Tindley of Philadelphia that was first published in 1901. A noted minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Tindley was the author of approximately 50 gospel hymns, of which "We'll Understand It By and By" and "Stand By Me" are among the best known. The published text bore the epigraph, "Ye shall overcome if ye faint not", derived from Galatians 6:9: "And let us not be weary in doing good, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." The first stanza began:

The world is one great battlefield,
With forces all arrayed;
If in my heart I do not yield,
I'll overcome some day.

Tindley's songs were written in an idiom rooted in African American folk traditions, using pentatonic intervals, with ample space allowed for improvised interpolation, the addition of "blue" thirds and sevenths, and frequently featuring short refrains in which the congregation could join. Tindley's importance, however, was primarily as a lyricist and poet whose words spoke directly to the feelings of his audiences, many of whom had been freed from slavery only 36 years before he first published his songs, and were often impoverished, illiterate, and newly arrived in the North. "Even today," wrote musicologist Horace Boyer in 1983, "ministers quote his texts in the midst of their sermons as if they were poems, as indeed they are."

A letter printed on the front page of February 1909, United Mine Workers Journal states: "Last year at a strike, we opened every meeting with a prayer, and singing that good old song, 'We Will Overcome'." This statement implied that the song was well-known, and it was also the first acknowledgment of such a song having been sung in both a secular context and a mixed-race setting.

Tindley's "I'll Overcome Some Day" was believed to have influenced the structure for "We Shall Overcome", with both the text and the melody having undergone a process of alteration. The tune has been changed so that it now echoes the opening and closing melody of "No More Auction Block For Me", also known from its refrain as "Many Thousands Gone". This was number 35 in Thomas Wentworth Higginson's collection of Negro Spirituals that appeared in the Atlantic Monthly of June 1867, with a comment by Higginson reflecting on how such songs were composed (i.e., whether the work of a single author or through what used to be called "communal composition"):

Even of this last composition, however, we have only the approximate date and know nothing of the mode of composition. Allan Ramsay says of the Scots Songs, that, no matter who made them, they were soon attributed to the minister of the parish whence they sprang. And I always wondered, about these, whether they had always a conscious and definite origin in some leading mind, or whether they grew by gradual accretion, in an almost unconscious way. On this point, I could get no information, though I asked many questions, until at last, one day when I was being rowed across from Beaufort to Ladies' Island, I found myself, with delight, on the actual trail of a song. One of the oarsmen, a brisk young fellow, not a soldier, on being asked for his theory of the matter, dropped out a coy confession. "Some good spirituals," he said, "are start jess out o' curiosity. I been a-raise a sing, myself, once."
My dream was fulfilled, and I had traced out, not the poem alone, but the poet. I implored him to proceed.
"Once we boys," he said, "went for to tote some rice, and de nigger-driver, he keep a-calling on us; and I say, 'O, de ole nigger-driver!' Den another said, 'First thing my mammy told me was, notin' so bad as a nigger-driver.' Den I made a sing, just puttin' a word, and den another word."
Then he began singing, and the men, after listening a moment, joined in the chorus as if it were an old acquaintance, though they evidently had never heard it before. I saw how easily a new "sing" took root among them.

Coincidentally, Bob Dylan claims that he used the very same melodic motif from "No More Auction Block" for his composition, "Blowin' in the Wind". Thus similarities of melodic and rhythmic patterns imparted cultural and emotional resonance ("the same feeling") towards three different, and historically very significant songs.

Music scholars have also pointed out that the first half of "We Shall Overcome" bears a notable resemblance to the famous lay Catholic hymn "O Sanctissima", also known as "The Sicilian Mariners Hymn", first published by a London magazine in 1792 and then by an American magazine in 1794 and widely circulated in American hymnals. The second half of "We Shall Overcome" is essentially the same music as the 19th-century hymn "I'll Be All Right". As Victor Bobetsky summarized in his 2015 book on the subject: "'We Shall Overcome' owes its existence to many ancestors and to the constant change and adaptation that is typical of the folk music process."

Role of the Highlander Folk School

In October 1945 in Charleston, South Carolina, members of the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers union (FTA-CIO), who were mostly female and African American, began a five-month strike against the American Tobacco Company. To keep up their spirits during the cold, wet winter of 1945–1946, one of the strikers, a woman named Lucille Simmons, led a slow "long meter style" version of the gospel hymn, "We'll Overcome (I'll Be All Right)" to end each day's picketing. Union organizer Zilphia Horton, who was the wife of the co-founder of the Highlander Folk School (later Highlander Research and Education Center), said she learned it from Simmons. Horton was Highlander's music director during 1935–1956, and it became her custom to end group meetings each evening by leading this, her favorite song. During the presidential campaign of Henry A. Wallace, "We Will Overcome" was printed in Bulletin No. 3 (September 1948), 8, of People's Songs, with an introduction by Horton saying that she had learned it from the interracial FTA-CIO workers and had found it to be extremely powerful. Pete Seeger, a founding member of People's Songs and its director for three years, learned it from Horton's version in 1947. Seeger writes: "I changed it to 'We shall'... I think I liked a more open sound; 'We will' has alliteration to it, but 'We shall' opens the mouth wider; the 'i' in 'will' is not an easy vowel to sing well ...." Seeger also added some verses ("We'll walk hand in hand" and "The whole wide world around").

In 1950, the CIO's Department of Education and Research released the album, Eight New Songs for Labor, sung by Joe Glazer ("Labor's Troubador"), and the Elm City Four. (Songs on the album were: "I Ain't No Stranger Now," "Too Old to Work," "That's All," "Humblin' Back," "Shine on Me," "Great Day," "The Mill Was Made of Marble," and "We Will Overcome".) During a Southern CIO drive, Glazer taught the song to country singer Texas Bill Strength, who cut a version that was later picked up by 4-Star Records.

The song made its first recorded appearance as "We Shall Overcome" (rather than "We Will Overcome") in 1952 on a disc recorded by Laura Duncan (soloist) and The Jewish Young Singers (chorus), conducted by Robert De Cormier, co-produced by Ernie Lieberman and Irwin Silber on Hootenany Records (Hoot 104-A) (Folkways, FN 2513, BCD15720), where it is identified as a Negro Spiritual.

Frank Hamilton, a folk singer from California who was a member of People's Songs and later The Weavers, picked up Seeger's version. Hamilton's friend and traveling companion, fellow-Californian Guy Carawan, learned the song from Hamilton. Carawan and Hamilton, accompanied by Ramblin Jack Elliot, visited Highlander in the early 1950s where they also would have heard Zilphia Horton sing the song. In 1957, Seeger sang for a Highlander audience that included Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who remarked on the way to his next stop, in Kentucky, about how much the song had stuck with him. When, in 1959, Guy Carawan succeeded Horton as music director at Highlander, he reintroduced it at the school. It was the young (many of them teenagers) student-activists at Highlander, however, who gave the song the words and rhythms for which it is currently known, when they sang it to keep their spirits up during the frightening police raids on Highlander and their subsequent stays in jail in 1959–1960. Because of this, Carawan has been reluctant to claim credit for the song's widespread popularity. In the PBS video We Shall Overcome, Julian Bond credits Carawan with teaching and singing the song at the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1960. From there, it spread orally and became an anthem of Southern African American labor union and civil rights activism. Seeger has also publicly, in concert, credited Carawan with the primary role of teaching and popularizing the song within the civil rights movement.

Use in the 1960s civil rights and other protest movements

In August 1963, 22-year old folksinger Joan Baez, led a crowd of 300,000 in singing "We Shall Overcome" at the Lincoln Memorial during A. Philip Randolph's March on Washington. President Lyndon Johnson, himself a Southerner, used the phrase "we shall overcome" in addressing Congress on March 15, 1965, in a speech delivered after the violent "Bloody Sunday" attacks on civil rights demonstrators during the Selma to Montgomery marches, thus legitimizing the protest movement.

Four days before the April 4, 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., King recited the words from "We Shall Overcome" in his final sermon, delivered in Memphis on Sunday, March 31. He had done so in a similar sermon delivered in 1965 before an interfaith congregation at Temple Israel in Hollywood, California:

We shall overcome. We shall overcome. Deep in my heart I do believe we shall overcome. And I believe it because somehow the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. We shall overcome because Carlyle is right; "no lie can live forever". We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant is right; "truth crushed to earth will rise again". We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell is right:.

Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne.
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And behind the then unknown
Standeth God within the shadow,
Keeping watch above his own.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to speed up the day. And in the words of prophecy, every valley shall be exalted. And every mountain and hill shall be made low. The rough places will be made plain and the crooked places straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. This will be a great day. This will be a marvelous hour. And at that moment—figuratively speaking in biblical words—the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy.

"We Shall Overcome" was sung days later by over fifty thousand attendees at the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.

Farmworkers in the United States later sang the song in Spanish during the strikes and grape boycotts of the late 1960s. The song was notably sung by the U.S. Senator for New York Robert F. Kennedy, when he led anti-Apartheid crowds in choruses from the rooftop of his car while touring South Africa in 1966. It was also the song which Abie Nathan chose to broadcast as the anthem of the Voice of Peace radio station on October 1, 1993, and as a result it found its way back to South Africa in the later years of the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

The Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association adopted "we shall overcome" as a slogan and used it in the title of its retrospective publication, We Shall Overcome – The History of the Struggle for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland 1968–1978. The film Bloody Sunday depicts march leader and Member of Parliament (MP) Ivan Cooper leading the song shortly before 1972's Bloody Sunday shootings. In 1997, the Christian men's ministry, Promise Keepers featured the song on its worship CD for that year: The Making of a Godly Man, featuring worship leader Donn Thomas and the Maranatha! Promise Band. Bruce Springsteen's re-interpretation of the song was included on the 1998 tribute album Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The Songs of Pete Seeger as well as on Springsteen's 2006 album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions.

Widespread adaptation

"We Shall Overcome" was adopted by various labor, nationalist, and political movements both during and after the Cold War. In his memoir about his years teaching English in Czechoslovakia after the Velvet Revolution, Mark Allen wrote:

In Prague in 1989, during the intense weeks of the Velvet Revolution, hundreds of thousands of people sang this haunting music in unison in Wenceslas Square, both in English and in Czech, with special emphasis on the phrase 'I do believe.' This song's message of hope gave protesters strength to carry on until the powers-that-be themselves finally gave up hope themselves. In the Prague of 1964, Seeger was stunned to find himself being whistled and booed by crowds of Czechs when he spoke out against the Vietnam War. But those same crowds had loved and adopted his rendition of 'We Shall Overcome.' History is full of such ironies – if only you are willing to see them.
— 'Prague Symphony', Praha Publishing, 2008

The words "We shall overcome" are sung emphatically at the end of each verse in a song of Northern Ireland's civil rights movement, Free the People, which protested against the internment policy of the British Army. The movement in Northern Ireland was keen to emulate the movement in the USA and often sang We shall overcome.

U.S. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and their wives link arms and sing "We Shall Overcome" at the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in 2011

The melody was also used (crediting it to Tindley) in a symphony by American composer William Rowland. In 1999, National Public Radio included "We Shall Overcome" on the "NPR 100" list of most important American songs of the 20th century. As a reference to the line, on January 20, 2009, after the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States, a man holding the banner, "WE HAVE OVERCOME" was seen near the Capitol, a day after hundreds of people posed with the sign on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

As the attempted serial killer "Lasermannen" shot several immigrants around Stockholm in 1992, Prime Minister Carl Bildt and Immigration Minister Birgit Friggebo attended a meeting in Rinkeby. As the audience became upset, Friggebo tried to calm them down by proposing that everyone sing "We Shall Overcome." This statement is widely regarded as one of the most embarrassing moments in Swedish politics. In 2008, the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet listed the Sveriges Television recording of the event as the best political clip available on YouTube.

On June 7, 2010, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame, released a new version of the song as a protest against the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

On July 22, 2012, Bruce Springsteen performed the song during the memorial-concert in Oslo after the terrorist attacks in Norway on July 22, 2011.

In India, the renowned poet Girija Kumar Mathur composed its literal translation in Hindi "Hum Honge Kaamyab (हम होंगे कामयाब)" which became a popular patriotic/spiritual song during the 1970s and 80s, particularly in schools. This song also came to be used by the Blue Pilgrims for motivating the Indian national football team during international matches.

In Bengali-speaking India and Bangladesh, there are two versions, both of which are popular among school-children and political activists. "Amra Korbo Joy" (আমরা করবো জয়, a literal translation) was translated by the Bengali folk singer Hemanga Biswas and re-recorded by Bhupen Hazarika. Hazarika, who had heard the song during his days in the US, also translated the song to the Assamese language as "Ami hom xophol" (আমি হ'ম সফল). Another version, translated by Shibdas Bandyopadhyay, "Ek Din Shurjer Bhor" (এক দিন সূর্যের ভোর, literally translated as "One Day The Sun Will Rise") was recorded by the Calcutta Youth Choir and arranged by Ruma Guha Thakurta during the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence and it became one of the largest selling Bengali records. It was a favorite of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and it was regularly sung at public events after Bangladesh gained its independence in the early 1970s.

In the Indian State of Kerala, the traditional Communist stronghold, the song became popular on college campuses during the late 1970s. It was the struggle song of the Students Federation of India SFI, the largest student organisation in the country. The song translated to the regional language Malayalam by N. P. Chandrasekharan, an activist for SFI. The translation followed the same tune of the original song, as "Nammal Vijayikkum". Later it was also published in Student, the monthly of SFI in Malayalam as well as in Sarvadesheeya Ganangal (Mythri Books, Thiruvananthapuram), a translation of international struggle songs.

"We Shall Overcome" was a prominent song in the 2010 Bollywood film My Name is Khan, which compared the struggle of Muslims in modern America with the struggles of African Americans in the past. The song was sung in both English and Hindi in the film, which starred Kajol and Shahrukh Khan.

Copyright status

The copyright status of "We Shall Overcome" was disputed in the late-2010s. A copyright registration was made for the song in 1960, which is credited as an arrangement by Zilphia Horton, Guy Carawan, Frank Hamilton, and Pete Seeger, of a work entitled "I'll Overcome", with no known original author. Horton's heirs, Carawan, Hamilton, and Seeger share the artists' half of the rights, and The Richmond Organization (TRO), which includes Ludlow Music, Essex, Folkways Music, and Hollis Music, holds the publishers' rights, to 50% of the royalty earnings. Seeger explained that he registered the copyright under the advice of TRO, who showed concern that someone else could register it. "At that time we didn't know Lucille Simmons' name", Seeger said. Their royalties go to the "We Shall Overcome" Fund, administered by Highlander under the trusteeship of the "writers". Such funds are purportedly used to give small grants for cultural expression involving African Americans organizing in the U.S. South.

In April 2016, the We Shall Overcome Foundation (WSOF), led by music producer Isaias Gamboa, sued TRO and Ludlow, seeking to have the copyright status of the song clarified and the return of all royalties collected by the companies from its usage. The WSOF, which was working on a documentary about the song and its history, were denied permission to use the song by TRO-Ludlow. The filing argued that TRO-Ludlow's copyright claims were invalid because the registered copyright had not been renewed as required by United States copyright law at the time; because of this, the copyright of the 1948 People's Songs publication containing "We Will Overcome" had expired in 1976. Additionally, it was argued that the registered copyrights only covered specific arrangements of the tune and "obscure alternate verses", that the registered works "did not contain original works of authorship, except to the extent of the arrangements themselves", and that no record of a work entitled "I'll Overcome" existed in the database of the United States Copyright Office.

The suit acknowledged that Seeger himself had not claimed to be an author of the song, stating of the song in his autobiography, "No one is certain who changed 'will' to 'shall.' It could have been me with my Harvard education. But Septima Clarke, a Charleston schoolteacher (who was director of education at Highlander and after the civil rights movement was elected year after year to the Charleston, S.C. Board of Education) always preferred 'shall.' It sings better." He also reaffirmed that the decision to copyright the song was a defensive measure, with his publisher apparently warning him that "if you don't copyright this now, some Hollywood types will have a version out next year like 'Come on Baby, We shall overcome tonight'". Furthermore, the liner notes of Seeger's compilation album If I Had a Hammer: Songs of Hope & Struggle contained a summary on the purported history of the song, stating that "We Shall Overcome" was "probably adapted from the 19th-century hymn, 'I'll Be All Right'", and that "I'll Overcome Some Day" was a "possible source" and may have originally been adapted from "I'll Be All Right".

Gamboa has historically shown interest in investigating the origins of "We Shall Overcome"; in a book entitled We Shall Overcome: Sacred Song On The Devil's Tongue, he notably disputed the song's claimed origins and copyright registration with an alternate theory, suggesting that "We Shall Overcome" was actually derived from "If My Jesus Wills", a hymn by Louise Shropshire that had been composed in the 1930s and had its copyright registered in 1954. The WSOF lawsuit did not invoke this alternate history, focusing instead on the original belief that the song stemmed from "We Will Overcome". The lawyer backing Gamboa's suit, Mark C. Rifkin, was previously involved in a case that invalidated copyright claims over the song "Happy Birthday to You".

On September 8, 2017, Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York issued an opinion that there were insufficient differences between the first verse of the "We Shall Overcome" lyrics registered by TRO-Ludlow, and the "We Will Overcome" lyrics from People's Songs (specifically, the aforementioned replacement of "will" with "shall", and changing "down in my heart" to "deep in my heart") for it to qualify as a distinct derivative work eligible for its own copyright.

On January 26, 2018, TRO-Ludlow agreed to a final settlement, under which it would no longer claim copyright over the melody or lyrics to "We Shall Overcome". In addition, TRO-Ludlow agreed that the melody and lyrics were thereafter dedicated to the public domain.

Background

Stop the Steal signs seen in front of the Capitol

Historical efforts

For decades, the Republican Party has supported "election integrity" initiatives—measures purportedly intended to reduce voter fraud (which is exceedingly rare in the United States) but which critics have alleged are attempts at voter suppression. As summarized by the Associated Press, "stronger voting regulations have long been a conservative goal, driven by old — and some say outdated — conventional wisdom that Republicans thrive in elections with lower turnout, and Democrats in ones with more voters. That has translated to GOP efforts to tighten voter identification laws and require more frequent voter roll purges. Both efforts tend to disproportionally exclude Black and Latino voters, groups that lean Democratic."

In recent history, there have been several waves of increased voter restriction proposals. The first came in the years following the 2000 presidential election when, according to Lawrence Norden, "political operatives realized that small shifts in voting laws could potentially alter the outcome of an election". This was followed by a marked uptick in voting restrictions proposals after 2013, when the Supreme Court struck down the preclearance provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which required southern states with histories of racial discrimination in voting to pre-clear any changes to voting administration with the federal government. Finally, there was heightened interest after the 2016 presidential election, which Donald Trump (the winner of the election) baselessly claimed was marred by voter fraud (likely as an attempt to explain away, at first, the expectation that he would be defeated and then, after unexpectedly winning, to explain away his loss in the popular vote^[d]). Still, the scale and coordination of these efforts were far smaller in comparison to the surge that would follow the 2020 United States presidential election.

2020 presidential election

The 2020 election took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, many states implemented measures to expand voting access. In particular, mail-in voting (which was seeing significantly increased use in states that already offered no-excuse absentee voting) was expanded in many states. In response, incumbent President Donald Trump (who was running for re-election) spent weeks baselessly speculating that mail-in voting would allow the election to be "rigged" against him. This echoed his 2016 strategy of making unfounded and often conspiratorial claims of voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election.^[e]

Immediately following the 2020 election, Donald Trump and his allies in the Republican Party used the false claims of electoral fraud Trump had been teasing for months, as well as a fabricated narrative of an international communist conspiracy involving Hugo Chavez and Dominion Voting Systems, as pretext to initiate an unprecedented effort to overturn the victory of Democratic candidate Joe Biden. They launched over 60 lawsuits, encouraged officials in states with close results (particularly those which Biden won) to throw out legally-cast ballots and challenge vote certification processes, and attempted to reject the results of several states Joe Biden had won during the congressional certification of the Electoral College results, including by trying to force Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally reject those states' electoral votes. Supporters of Trump engaged in a "Stop the Steal" protest movement while right-wing media networks and political commentators, including Newsmax, One America News Network, and Fox News commentators like Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs, amplified election falsehoods and conspiracy theories. Trump personally pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes" (the number of votes needed to flip the state), repeatedly urged Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to convene a special session of the legislature to overturn Biden's certified victory in the state, fired the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) shortly after he refuted claims of election fraud, and pressured Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally and illegally reject electors from several states at the Congressional certification of the Electoral College. The effort ultimately culminated in the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, in which supporters of Donald Trump violently stormed and occupied the Capitol building in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the Electoral College (Donald Trump, for his part, was impeached for his role in inciting the mob).

As a result of this effort, a substantial numbers of Republicans—with some polls indicating well over half—continue to believe that the election was stolen from Donald Trump. This belief, often referred to as the "Big Lie", has supercharged Republican "election integrity" efforts, with Republican officials frequently citing false claims of election fraud or the fact that many in the public believe there was fraud as reason to tighten election laws. Beyond election falsehoods, the effort has also been linked to an attempt to entrench minority rule for the Republican Party. According to the New York Times, "Out of power in both Congress and the White House, the [Republican] party views its path to regaining a foothold in Washington not solely through animated opposition to Mr. Biden's agenda, but rather through an intense focus on re-engineering the voting system in states where it holds control". Benjamin Ginsberg, a prominent election lawyer for the Republican Party, has aired a similar sentiment, saying that "a party that's increasingly old and white whose base is a diminishing share of the population is conjuring up charges of fraud to erect barriers to voting for people it fears won't support its candidates". Additionally, some Republican politicians and conservative commentators have simply argued that fewer people ought to be permitted to vote.

Altogether, this has led to a concerted effort to enact voting restrictions, particularly on mail-in and early voting, automatic and same-day voter registration, the use of ballot drop boxes, and voting without a photo ID. It has been particularly pronounced in several swing states—especially traditionally red states that swung to Biden in the 2020 election like Georgia and Arizona—as well as in Texas, a red state that has long been viewed as trending towards the Democratic Party.

State laws

Alabama

Lawmakers in Alabama have introduced more than two dozen election-related bills since the 2020 presidential election, including Republican-backed bills that would restrict early and absentee voting. House Bill 285, for instance, would ban curbside voting (the bill passed the Alabama House of Representatives in a party-line vote on March 18, 2021) while another would shorten the time voters have to mail in absentee applications from five days before an election to 10. Republican Rep. Danny Garrett actually proposed a bill that would increase the number of sites that voters can drop off their absentee ballots, which recently passed the Constitution, Campaigns and Elections House committee, but it has faced consternation among other members of his party, with some objecting that it would "provid[e] for early voting". Rep. Chris Pringle, for instance, claimed that it would lead to "primaries that are going to be stolen using this...they’re going to bus them in and pack them out". Republicans have also broadly opposed bills proposed by Democratic lawmakers that would authorize no-excuse absentee voting (existing law requires voters to provide a valid excuse) and institute two weeks of early voting.

Following the announcement in early March that Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill would be appointed co-chair of the Republican State Leadership Committee's group on election integrity, which is set to make recommendations on new policies related to voter rolls, voter ID, and absentee voting, Republican "election integrity" efforts are expected to accelerate.

Arizona

Arizona state Rep. John Kavanagh (R) defended Republican proposals to restrict Arizona's vote-by-mail system by stating: "Everybody shouldn't be voting...quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes, as well."

At least two dozen Republican voting measures have been introduced in Arizona. A measure passed in the Arizona Senate would require voters to include photo identification with mail-in ballots (which account for 80% of ballots cast in Arizona). Proposed bills include provisions that would limit or eliminate no-excuse absentee voting, require signatures on absentee ballots be notarized, allow officials to purge voters from the Permanent Early Voting List (a list of people automatically sent mail-in ballots) if they have not voted in both the primary and general elections for two consecutive cycles, require absentee ballots be turned in by hand rather than by mail, require mail-in ballots be postmarked by the Thursday before the election, even if they arrive by Election Day, preemptively forbid same-day voter registration (which the state does not currently offer), outlaw private donations to help conduct elections, including for voter education, and give the state legislature the power to choose the state's electors in the Electoral College, regardless of the outcome of the state's popular vote. Another proposal would significantly decrease the number of polling locations in the state, including decreasing the number of locations in Maricopa County from 100 to 15. Rep. Athena Salman (D), the top-ranking Democrat on the House Government and Elections Committee, argued that "[Republicans] definitely came in with a plan to make sure the historic voter turnout we saw in 2020 never happens again".

Republicans in Arizona have also initiated an unprecedented audit of the results in Maricopa County in response to baseless claims of fraud. The audit has drawn controversy for perceived bias: the head of Cyber Ninjas, the firm hired by Republican state senators to oversee the audit (despite the firm having no election experience), has endorsed conspiracies of election theft—including that Dominion Voting Systems is part of a plot by Hugo Chávez to rig elections—and has suggested without evidence that Donald Trump actually won Arizona by 200,000 votes. Auditors have also entertained various conspiracy theories related to the election; they have, for instance, looked into whether the paper in any ballots contains bamboo based on a conspiracy that 40,000 ballots were flown into Arizona from southeast Asia. Cyber Ninjas has so far refused to disclose who is counting the ballots and who is paying the company (though it is known that the audit is being at least partially funded by the Arizona Senate as well as One America News Network, a TV Network that extensively promoted election conspiracies in the months after the 2020 election). The state Senate initially refused to allow media members to observe the audit, only allowing One America News Network to livestream it. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which is dominated by Republicans, has opposed to the audit.

Further controversy around the audit flared when it was revealed that former Arizona State Representative Anthony Kern, who was a leader in the Arizona Stop The Steal movement and had been photographed on the steps of the U.S. Capitol during the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, was among those hired to recount ballots. Other points of contention have surrounded the location of the audit; for much of the audit the Crazy Times Carnival has operated in the parking lot of the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where the audit is taking place, and the entire operation will have to be temporarily moved into storage in late May to make way for high school graduation ceremonies.

Arkansas

On March 3, 2021, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson signed into law House Bill 1112, which eliminates a provision that allows voters to sign a sworn statement in order for their provisional ballots to be counted in lieu of presenting a photo ID. On March 4, 2021, Hutchinson signed into law House Bill 1244, which eliminates non-photo ID's as valid forms of identification to vote. Republicans have also introduced a bill that would shorten early voting (Senate Bill 485).

Florida

On February 19, 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis introduced a slate of voting proposals focused largely on making vote-by-mail more restrictive. These included a ban on vote-by-mail ballots from being automatically sent out to voters, restrictions on ballot boxes, stricter signature verification, a ban on ballot collection, a prohibition on counties accepting financial help from private organizations for get-out-the-vote initiatives and a requirement that counties report voter turnout data in real-time. DeSantis had earlier advocated for faithless electors from states President Donald Trump had lost in the 2020 election to vote for him anyway, circumventing their states' voters.

DeSantis also called for a measure that would cancel current absentee ballot requests for the 2022 gubernatorial election. The state legislature's Republican leaders announced that they "join the Governor in his efforts to continue to make Florida the national leader on election integrity" and "look forward to working with him on this important issue". According to a Tampa Bay Times analysis, DeSantis's signature match proposal could have led to rejections of his own mail-in ballots due to changes in his signature history over time; voting rights experts argued that the signature matching proposal could be used to disenfranchise voters whose signatures varied over time.

Opponents of the governor's agenda argue that DeSantis used false claims of widespread voter fraud pushed by Trump to advance voter suppression efforts to give advantage to Republicans. Arguing that the measures are politically motivated, they point out that Florida Republicans had praised the state's 2020 election as "the smoothest, most successful election of any state in the country", that the push to limit mail-in voting came only after Democratic voters outnumbered Republican voters in vote-by-mail for the first time in 2020 and that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

The changes to mail-in voting were notable given that Republicans had traditionally voted by mail more than Democrats, though Democrats had outvoted Republicans by mail in 2020. Fearing that traditionally Republican-leaning constituencies, such as the elderly and members of the military, would vote in lower numbers under stringent mail voting rules, Republicans sought to exempt those two groups from the requirements that other voters would face. However, in Republican negotiations over the language of the legislation, the exemptions were rejected because it would be legally impermissible.

DeSantis officially signed the measures into law on May 6, broadcast live on Fox & Friends. Media outlets that weren't Fox News were banned from attending the event.

Georgia

In his first speech on the Senate floor, the newly elected Senator from Georgia Raphael Warnock (D) declared that "We are witnessing right now a massive and unabashed assault on voting rights and voter access unlike anything we have seen since the Jim Crow era".

On March 25, 2021, Georgia became the first swing state to impose new voting restrictions following the 2020 presidential election, in which Joe Biden became the first Democratic candidate since 1992 to carry the state (additionally, both of the state's senate seats flipped to the Democratic Party in that year's Senate elections). The 98-page Election Integrity Act of 2021 (SB 202) was the culmination of a months-long flurry of proposals; it includes a great many of the proposals floated, like voter identification requirements for absentee ballots, restrictions on ballot drop boxes, and a prohibition on handing out food and water to voters waiting in line, but drops some of the more controversial proposals, most notably the attempt to ban Sunday early voting, when Black churches traditionally run "Souls to the Polls" get-out-the-vote efforts. Supporters argue the bill is needed to combat voter fraud and restore confidence in the state's elections, which have seen significant decreases in public trust after the state became a focal point of then-President Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which centered on false claims of widespread voter fraud. Opponents argue that it is little more than an effort to push back against the victories of President Joe Biden and Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock and appears targeted at Black voters, with Democratic voting rights activist Stacey Abrams going so far as to call it "nothing less than Jim Crow 2.0". It also follows a controversial statewide voter roll update in 2019 that a report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) concluded likely wrongfully removed nearly 200,000 people from voter rolls. The act has already prompted a number of ongoing legal challenges.

The Republican effort began in early January, when Georgia Republicans appointed state representative Barry Fleming chair of the Georgia Special Committee on Election Integrity (as attorney of Hancock County, Fleming had earlier defended a controversial voter roll update that challenged the eligibility of nearly 20% of Sparta, Georgia's residents—almost all Black). By late February, the first elections bill had cleared a chamber of the Georgia General Assembly. Passed in the Georgia State Senate on February 23, 2021, in a nearly party-line vote, Senate Bill 67 would have require a photo ID when requesting an absentee ballot.

Concurrently, a broader elections bill, House Bill 531, was being considered in the Georgia House of Representatives. The bill would have restricted where ballot drop boxes can be located and when they can be accessed, required photo identification for absentee voting, shifted back the deadline to request an absentee ballot, made it a misdemeanor for political organizations to hand out food or drink to voters waiting in line, and limited early voting hours on weekends, among many other changes. Most controversially, it would have restricted early voting on Sundays, when Black churches traditionally run "Souls to the Polls" get-out-the-vote efforts; according to The Economist, Black voter turnout is 10 percentage points higher on Sundays. The Sunday restriction is similar to a North Carolina law that also would have ended Sunday early voting but was struck down in 2016 by a federal court for targeting black voters. The restriction has been defended on the basis that there should be no voting on the Sabbath. House Bill 531 passed the House in a party-line vote on March 1, 2021. After outcry, the Sunday early voting restriction was dropped in the Senate version of the bill.

While House Bill 531 was being considered in the Senate, and nearing the March 8 deadline a bill must pass one of the two chambers, the Senate passed Senate Bill 241, which would have eliminated no-excuse absentee voting (something the state has offered since 2005), restricting it only to those who are over 65 years old, have a physical disability, or will be out of town on Election Day, and Senate Bill 202, which would have prohibited organizations from sending absentee ballot applications to voters who have already requested a ballot.

On March 12, 2021, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, an organization representing businesses based in Georgia like Coca-Cola and Home Depot, issued a statement opposing the Republican voting reforms.

As the end of March neared, with no election bill passed by both chambers (the Georgia General Assembly adjourns on March 31), Republicans raced to finalize changes to their election law proposals. Republican efforts consolidated around two omnibus bills: the 45-page House Bill 531, passed in the House on March 1, 2021; and the significantly expanded 95-page Senate Bill 202, passed in the Senate on March 8, 2021. On March 25, 2021, both chambers passed Senate Bill 202, now called the "Election Integrity Act of 2021"; it was signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp that evening. The bill imposes voter identification requirements on absentee ballots, gives the legislature greater control over election administration, limits the use of ballot drop boxes, reduces the amount of time people have to request an absentee ballot, and makes it a crime for political organizations to give food or water to voters waiting in line (although poll workers are still allowed to). It also shortens runoff elections—a Republican priority in the state after both of its 2020 Senate runoffs were won by the Democratic candidates—and includes a provision removing the Secretary of State from the Board of Elections, a measure seemingly targeted at Brad Raffensperger, the Republican Secretary of State who oversaw the 2020 election in Georgia and famously rebuffed attempts by Donald Trump and state lawmakers to overturn Georgia's election results. Providing justification for itself, a preamble to the bill declares that "many electors [are] concerned about allegations of rampant voter fraud"—despite no evidence of meaningful levels of fraud.

The bill quickly drew a number of legal challenges, with groups challenging the law including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the League of Women Voters of Georgia, the New Georgia Project, Black Voters Matter, the Sixth District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Lower Muskogee Creek Tribe, the Georgia Muslim Voter Project, Women Watch Afrika, the Latino Community Fund Georgia, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. They argue that the bill violates the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution and Section Two of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which forbids racially discriminatory voting rules. The Georgia NAACP further alleges that Republican officials are purposefully attempting to discriminate against black Georgians "in order to maintain the tenuous hold the Republican Party has in Georgia" (Democratic wins in the state in 2020—especially the two Senate races—were fueled by high black turnout).

The bill also drew condemnation from a number of companies, including Georgia-based Delta Air Lines and The Coca-Cola Company. Georgia House Republicans retaliated against Delta by passing a bill ending a tax break on jet fuel (it failed to advance in the state Senate). Commenting on the bill, state House Speaker David Ralston quipped, "You don't feed a dog that bites your hand". Additionally, Major League Baseball announced plans to move the 2021 All-Star game out of Atlanta in protest of the law. Former president Donald Trump, who was the central promoter of false claims of widespread election fraud and the principal agent in the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, called on Republicans and conservatives to boycott Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola, and Delta Air Lines, as well as a host of other companies that condemned the bill.

Republican lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan said during an April 2021 CNN interview that momentum for the legislation grew from "the fallout from the ten weeks of misinformation that flew in from former President Donald Trump. I went back over the weekend to really look at where this really started to gain momentum in the legislature, and it was when Rudy Giuliani showed up in a couple of committee rooms and spent hours spreading misinformation and sowing doubt across, you know, hours of testimony."

Idaho

Republicans in Idaho have introduced bills that would make ballot collection a felony, bar absentee ballots for presidential elections except for active-duty members of the military, limit which forms of photo ID can be used to vote (e.g. student IDs would no longer be accepted), and make it more challenging to qualify voter initiatives for the Idaho ballot. While defending recent Republican voting proposals in the state, Representative Mike Moyle stated, "You know what? Voting shouldn’t be easy".

The first bill to advance was the ballot collection bill (HB 88, introduced by Mike Moyle), which has been amended to be less restrictive. Moyle has justified his bill by pointing to false claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Iowa

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (R) signed into law the first bill restricting the vote following the 2020 presidential election.

On March 8, 2021, Iowa governor Kim Reynolds signed into law a Republican-backed bill reducing early voting by 9 days, requiring most mail-in ballots to be received by Election Day, banning county election officials from sending out absentee ballot request forms unless requested, and shortening Election Day voting by one hour. Republicans claim the bill is necessary to defend against voter fraud, despite no history of meaningful levels of fraud in the state. During debate over the bill, Republican State Senator Jim Carlin stated that "Most of us in my caucus and the Republican caucus believe the [2020 presidential] election was stolen".

An earlier proposed bill would have required mail-in ballots to be turned into the US Post Office ten days before Election Day.

Kansas

Shortly after the inauguration of Joe Biden, Republicans in the state began rolling out a number of voting reform proposals. Among them, one would make it a felony for anyone besides a family member or caregiver to return another person's absentee ballot; one would disallow the Kansas Secretary of State from extending the deadline absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day must be received by the state, which critics worry could disenfranchise voters if the US Postal Service were to experience delays; and one would call on Congress to oppose H.R. 1, a voting rights bill.

In late March, the state Senate approved a number of measures that would, according to the Kansas City Star, "give the Legislature virtually complete control of elections" by stripping the governor, the secretary of state, and the courts of their ability to regulate elections. Another bill passed would limit ballot collection by churches, civic groups, neighbors and candidates; Republicans cited the example of former Democratic state Representative Tim Hodge, who won his 2018 election by only 88 votes—some of them picked up and returned by his campaign—as reason to end ballot collection. The ballot collection bill was opposed by the NAACP, the ACLU, and the Disability Rights Center of Kansas.

HB2183 and HB332 were both passed and went into effect on July 1, 2021. HB2183 made an expanded definition of impersonation of an election official a felony. The District Attorney of Douglas County, Kansas said the provisions were too vague and that she would not enforce them. But the state Attorney General Derek Schmidt promised to do so, causing the non-partisan organizations League of Women Voters of Kansas and Loud Light to halt voter registration drives, including those on college campuses at the beginning of the school year.

The state is also being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for $4 million worth of legal fees after the organization's successful five-year legal effort to overturn a Kansas law that required potential voters to prove their citizenship when registering to vote, which blocked the registrations of more than 35,000 eligible Kansas voters.

Kentucky

Republicans in Kentucky have largely bucked the trend of state Republicans advancing partisan bills that would make voting laws more restrictive, instead backing a bipartisan bill that would make certain policies implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure voter access permanent, including a short period of early voting (prior to the pandemic, Kentucky was one of only a few states not to offer early voting) and allowing voters to fix errors made on mail-in ballots. This distinction was made explicit by the Republican Secretary of State, who told lawmakers, "In many other states right now, legislatures are debating restricting access of their voters to the ballot. Not here in Kentucky. What you all are debating today, and hopefully considering, is actually making it easier for our voters to vote". The bill does also include certain election security provisions popular with Republicans nationwide, including a ban on ballot collection and rules making it easier to remove people who have moved out of Kentucky from the state's voter rolls, but the bill is generally considered to expand voting access rather than restrict it. The bill passed the Kentucky House of Representatives 93–4 in late February.

Montana

In March 2020, in a party-line vote the Montana House passed a bill that would end same-day voter registration, which has been offered in the state since 2005, and instead require voters to register by noon on the Monday before Election Day. Supporters say it would ease the workload of election officials on Election Day, while critics say it would unnecessarily eliminate an effective voting measure and may disproportionately impact Native Americans living on tribal reservations, who often face long travel times to polling locations.

Another proposed bill would make Montana's voter ID laws more stringent, requiring voters to present a second form of identification when using certain forms of photo identification that are currently accepted, like student IDs. Opponents say the bill could disenfranchise otherwise eligible voters, including college students and disabled or elderly people who don't drive, and would disproportionately affect Native Americans, who are more likely to lack photo ID and often have non-traditional addresses.

Some Republicans are backing a bill introduced by Democratic Representative Sharon Stewart Peregoy that would make voting easier for Native Americans by requiring at least two satellite elections offices on every reservation and allow tribal citizens to vote using a nontraditional address on their reservation.

Nevada

Republicans in Nevada have proposed a bill (AB 163) that would require voters to provide proof of identity at the polls and require absentee ballots to be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day (under existing law, as long as ballots are turned into the Post Office by Election Day they are accepted up to a few days after Election Day). It also includes a provision requiring the Nevada Secretary of State to crosscheck the names of dead Nevadans with voter registration lists at least once a month, likely prompted by former President Donald Trump's false claims that over 1,500 deceased people voted in Nevada in the 2020 presidential election.

Nevada was one of six states targeted by Donald Trump and his Republican allies in their attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. However, with Democrats in charge of both chambers of the legislature and the governor's office, Republican election bills have almost no chance of passing.

New Hampshire

With more students per capita than any other state (fully 12% of the state's overall population are university students), Republican efforts have focused on student voting. As reported by Abigail Weinberg in Mother Jones:

After Republicans took control of the state’s legislature in 2020, House lawmakers introduced three bills restricting student voting: HB 554, HB 362, and HB 429. HB 554 prevents people from voting in New Hampshire if they maintained a domicile address in another state; HB 362 forbids students from registering to vote at their college address; and HB 429 prohibits the use of a college ID as a voter ID.

As of February 8, 2021, at least seven other bills that would restrict voting access have been introduced. Another bill would end the winner-take-all system for New Hampshire's electoral votes in the Electoral College, replacing it with a district system similar to Maine's.

On July 30, 2021, Governor Chris Sununu signed SB 89, which rejects For the people act. In case the latter becomes a law, it will not apply to the local elections in New Hampshire.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma Rep. Sean Roberts (R) introduced a bill that would have required every registered voter in Oklahoma to re-register before the next general election

In February 2021, Republican State Representative Sean Roberts introduced two election-related bills, one that would prohibit the use of electronic voting machines and another that would require all registered Oklahoma voters to re-register before the next general election. Another bill would call for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would prohibit absentee ballots from being mailed to voters unless their absentee ballot application had been notarized or signed by two witnesses.

In November 2020, shortly after the 2020 presidential election, two Republican Senators introduced a bill that would "call on the legislatures of each state that did not report results on Election Day to use their power to audit and recount their election results" and another that would require the Oklahoma state legislature to select the state's electors for the Electoral College—rather than have the state's electors determined by the statewide popular vote—unless Congress were to pass an election integrity bill.

Texas

Allen West, the Chairman of the Texas Republican Party, has said "election integrity" is among the party's highest priorities following the 2020 election. He previously faced controversy over a December 2020 comment in which he seemingly suggested secession from the United States after the Supreme Court rejected Texas' attempt to invalidate election results from four states.

According to the Texas Tribune, "Republicans are staging a sweeping legislative campaign to further tighten the state's already restrictive voting rules and raise new barriers for some voters, clamping down in particular on local efforts to make voting easier". State GOP Chairman Allen West has declared that "election integrity" would be a top priority in the 2021 legislative session, a sentiment that was affirmed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who proclaimed "election security" to be an emergency legislative item. Bills proposed would ban drive-thru voting and reduce early voting hours, restrict the number of voting machines allowed at polling centers, and prohibit local election officials from sending out mail-in ballot applications to all voters. Republicans are placing special emphasis on targeting procedures that were used in Harris County, a heavily Democratic county that includes Houston, Texas, which offered more expansive voting options like drive-through voting and longer hours at polling locations.

By February 1, 2021, eight bills that would reduce voting access had been introduced, including House Bill 25 and Senate Bill 208, which would limit who can send absentee ballot applications to voters without an affirmative request; House Bill 1924 and House Bill 335, which would expedite removal of deceased persons, the mentally incapacitated, and those charged with felonies from voter rolls; House Bill 61, which would tighten signature requirements on absentee ballot requests; House Bill 329, which would require the Texas secretary of state to cross-reference its voter registry with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's non-citizen resident database at least twice a year; and House Bill 895, which would allow election officials to photograph the faces of voters if the officials question the authenticity of the documentation presented by the voters.

In March 2021, Texas Republicans rolled out a slate of "restrictive election bills". Among the over two dozen proposals are initiatives to make voter ID laws more stringent, cut early voting hours in urban areas, restrict drive-through voting, ban the sending of absentee ballots to PO boxes, and increase criminal penalties for fraud or mistakes made by voters or officials.

By late March, Republican efforts had consolidated around two election bills: House Bill 6 (HB6), introduced by Rep. Briscoe Cain (who had previously volunteered with the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania as it attempted to overturn the outcome of the presidential election), and Senate Bill 7 (SB7), introduced by Sen. Bryan Hughes et al. HB6 would ban drive-through voting, make it a felony for local election officials to send unsolicited absentee ballot request forms, require counties to provide the same number of voting machines in each polling location regardless of population density, and tighten the state's already strict absentee ballot qualifications (only the elderly, people with disabilities, and those who will be away from home can vote by mail) by requiring voters with disabilities to provide proof that they are incapable of voting in person (which critics argue amounts to a poll tax, since it would require disabled people who are unable to vote in person to pay for a doctors visit). SB7 would similarly limit drive-through voting, prohibit sending unsolicited absentee ballot request forms, and require disabled voters to provide proof they are unable to vote in person, and would also limit voting hours from 7 A.M. to 7 P.M.—a "direct response to Harris County having voting centers open until 10 P.M". On April 1, 2021, the state Senate passed SB7, amended to allow voting hours from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Republicans argue these bills are necessary to prevent voter fraud, despite fraud being nearly nonexistent in the state. State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a cosponsor of SB 7, has defended Republican election bills by saying "The November 2020 election demonstrated the lack of transparency and lack of integrity within the election process", drawing on claims from the months-long effort by Republican officials to de-legitimize the 2020 election. Critics, including former House Representative Beto O'Rourke, have decried the efforts as "voter suppression". The Texas Democratic Party called the bills an "assault on voting rights". On July 12, 2021, at least 59 Democratic lawmakers left the state to prevent Republicans from having quorum to act on their legislation.

Utah

On February 15, 2021, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed into law House Bill 12, which the Brennan Center for Justice claims will "make faulty [voter] purges more likely". Specifically, the Brennan Center explains that:

The bill requires county clerks to cross-reference all death certificates against voter registration rolls and remove the names of dead voters within 10 days. Because the law does not require any notice to the voters being removed, does not require auditing of the source data, and does not specify how many data points must be matched, it creates a risk that county clerks will remove the wrong names from their voter registration rolls.

Wyoming

On February 8, 2021, the Wyoming Republican Party published a resolution calling for a significant tightening of the state's election laws, including a ban on mail-in voting, curbside voting, and ballot drop boxes, strict limits on who qualifies for absentee voting (currently, the state has does not require an excuse to vote absentee), a requirement that people register to vote in person rather than on the internet or by mail, and a prohibition of electronic voting machines. According to the Casper Star-Tribune, the resolution "parrot[s] numerous concerns pushed by former President Donald Trump, who claimed numerous instances of voter fraud in several states he lost despite providing no evidence to support those claims". The state party has also called H.R. 1, a federal voting rights and campaign finance reform bill, a "federal invasion" of states' rights.

On April 6, 2021, Republican lawmakers passed HB0075, which requires residents to present an ID to vote (previously, voters had to present an ID when registering to vote, but not when voting). Supporters say the bill is necessary to prevent voter fraud, despite no evidence of significant levels of fraud in the state (there have been only four convictions for voter fraud in the state over the past several decades).

State bills

Alaska

The first bill to be heard in the 2021 session of the Alaska legislature was Senate Bill 39 , which would "partially dismantle voting-by-mail systems used by Anchorage, Juneau and other cities across the state", according to the Associated Press, by prohibiting cities and boroughs from automatically sending ballots to registered voters. Supporters say it would strengthen the security of the state's election system, while opponents have called it an attempt at voter suppression.

Colorado

Republicans in Colorado have introduced five election-related bills since the 2020 presidential election. The bills would repeal automatic mail ballots, require an annual audit of voter rolls, allow any voter to request a recount, require proof of citizenship to register to vote, and not count ballots received after Election Day, even if they are postmarked by Election Day. With Democrats in control of both chambers of the Colorado legislature, the bills are not expected to pass.

Connecticut

The Republican minority in the Connecticut General Assembly is opposing two elections-related constitutional amendments Democratic lawmakers hope to put on the ballot in 2022 (changes to voting law in Connecticut require amending the state constitution): one that would allow no-excuse absentee voting and another that would allow early voting. Republican lawmakers have also proposed bills that would end same-day voter registration and make signature verification of absentee ballots stricter.

Maryland

On February 4, 2021, Maryland Republicans introduced a slate voting proposals, including bills that would require photo identification to vote, restrict ballot collection, and strengthen signature verification on absentee ballots.

Michigan

On March 24, 2021, Michigan Republicans introduced a package of 39 election reform bills that would introduce new restrictions to voting access, targeting in particular forms of voting that were the focus of former President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election (which focused heavily on Michigan and five other six swing states). The bills would limit the availability of ballot drop boxes, require photo ID when applying for an absentee ballot, prohibit absentee ballot applications from being made available online, bar the Secretary of State from sending out absentee ballot applications unless specifically requested by the voter, and ban clerks from supplying prepaid return postage for absentee ballots. Another bill would allow election challengers and poll watchers to videotape the tabulating of votes after Trump and his supporters made poll watching in Detroit a centerpiece of their effort to discredit 2020 election results in Michigan. The bills also contain two provisions that would expand ballot access: one that would require local clerks to open for early voting on the second Saturday before an election and another that would pre-register 16 and 17-year-olds who get their drivers license.

Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R) said the bills are intended to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat while State Sen. Erika Geiss (D) said the bills "put lipstick on Jim Crow". The Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich (D) argued that the bills emanate from Republican attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, saying "No one should be fooled: This is nothing more than an extension of lies and deceit about the last election. We cannot and should not make policy based on the Big Lie".

The bills are unlikely to become law (with the exception of several inoffensive measures that may draw bipartisan support) in the current legislative session as the state's Democratic governor would almost certainly veto them. However, Republican leaders in the state have developed a plan to subvert the governor's veto power by using a statute that allows the legislature to avoid a governor's veto if enough signatures (in this legislative session, more than 340,000 would be needed) are collected.

Minnesota

Republicans in Minnesota are focusing on efforts to limit the number of people who can vote by mail and to require photo identification to vote. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, Minnesota introduced no-excuse mail-in voting, enabling a record 58% of Minnesota to vote by mail; several Republican proposals would revert Minnesota to its pre-pandemic system, which required voters to have a valid excuse to qualify for absentee voting.

The Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon criticized the voter ID bill as unnecessary, saying voter fraud in Minnesota is "minuscule" and that the ID requirement could disenfranchise "hundreds of thousands of eligible voters", particularly older people. Republican-backed bills introduced in the state Senate, where Republicans have a majority, are unlikely to become law, owing to opposition in the Democratic-controlled state House of Representatives.

Mississippi

On February 12, 2021, the Mississippi Senate passed Senate Bill 2588 in a party-line vote. The bill allows for quicker purging of names from voter rolls and requires county election commissioners to remove the name of any person who does not vote at least once during a four-year period and fails to respond to a mail notice. Estimates for the number of people who would receive notices, which if not responded to would result in removal from the voter roll, range from 250,000 to 600,000.

State Republicans argue the bill would prevent voter fraud. Opponents note that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Mississippi and argue that the bill amounts to voter suppression. The Mississippi branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has called the bill a "serious attempt at voter suppression". Democratic state lawmakers have derided the bill, with state Senator David Lee Jordan arguing that the bill could disenfranchise Black Mississippians and state Senator Hob Bryan saying "For tens of thousands of people in Mississippi, eligible voters who haven’t done a thing in the world except choose not to vote in every single election and didn’t get a postcard, or whatever the thing is, they are going to be denied their right to vote by the tens of thousands". A senior staff attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund has argued that the bill violates the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which prevents voters from being removed from registration rolls for unnecessary or discriminatory reasons.

Other bills introduced include HB 543, which would prohibit driver's licenses from states other than Mississippi from being used as photo identification for the purposes of voting, and MS SB 2254, which would require people attempting to register to vote to present a birth certificate, passport, naturalization document, or other method of proof of citizenship established by the federal Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

Missouri

In Missouri, which has voting laws that are among the strictest in the country, at least 9 bills that would restrict voting access have been introduced. The largest effort is to restore voter ID provisions that were struck down by the Missouri Supreme Court in 2020 as unconstitutional. Such a photo ID bill was passed by the Missouri House of Representatives on February 24, 2021.

Republican state lawmakers are also advancing a bill that would make it harder for voters to amend the state constitution through ballot initiatives, raising the share of votes needed from a simple majority to a two-thirds supermajority.

Nebraska

A bill introduced by Republican state senator Julie Slama (LR3CA) would require photo identification to vote. Slama also proposed a second bill (LB76) that would revert the state to a winner-take-all system in the Electoral College.

North Carolina

In March 2021, several Republican lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 326, also known as the "Election Integrity Act", which would reduce the amount of time voters have to turn in absentee ballot requests by one week, require absentee ballots to be received by 5pm on Election Day (existing law allows ballots that are turned into the Post Office by Election Day to be received by county officials up to three days after Election Day), and prohibit county boards of election and the state board of election from accepting private donations to administer elections. It would also set aside $5 million from the state's General Fund to help those without a photo ID obtain one (North Carolina requires a photo ID to vote). Several Democrats have registered their opposition to the bill, with State Senator Don Davis (D) saying "I believe that we should make [voting] easier. If that ballot is cast by Election Day, then that ballot should be counted."

North Dakota

Republicans have introduced a number of bills that would tighten election laws. House Bill 1289 would lengthen residency requirements, House Bill 1312 would place additional restrictions on who can vote absentee, and House Bill 1397 would adjust the congressional redistricting process. Senate Bill 2271, introduced by Republican Senator Robert Erbele and passed 43-3 (Republicans hold a 40-vote majority in the Senate), would withhold the state's vote count from the public until after votes in the Electoral College have been cast; the measure is intended to prevent the implementation of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, a multi-state agreement to implement a national popular vote for the election of the president.

Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, at least 8 laws that would restrict voting access have been introduced. A central focus of Republicans in the state in 2021 has been eliminating no-excuse absentee voting, which was enacted in 2020 in a bipartisan vote. Bills tightening voting laws are not expected to pass in Pennsylvania, as the state's Democratic Governor has stated he is "opposed to any efforts to disenfranchise voters".

South Carolina

Republicans in South Carolina are advancing a bill that would make it harder for voters to meet witness requirements for absentee ballots. Another bill (H.3444) would tilt the partisan balance of the State Election Commission towards the Republican Party (shifting it from a 4–4 split to 6–3 in favor of Republicans) while simultaneously granting the Commission greater power to regulate election procedures.

South Dakota

Republicans in South Dakota are pushing a series of bills that would make election laws more stringent, including one (passed by the state House) that would bar the secretary of state from sending out applications for absentee voting and another that would increase scrutiny of ballot initiatives. Republicans say the bills are needed to prevent fraud that Donald Trump falsely claimed affected the 2020 presidential election, while state Democrats say they are worried Republicans are using falsehoods to clamp down on voting access.

Tennessee

Republican bills to restrict voting access include one introduced by Republican state Senator Janice Bowling, which would abolish early voting, end the use of voting machines, and require watermarked paper ballots hand-marked by voters (it was later withdrawn); one that would require voters to provide a fingerprint to vote; and another that would mandate the names of people who request absentee ballots to be posted to the county election commission website. The Republican-dominated state House is also moving forward with a bill that would remove the judge who approved an expansion of absentee voting in the 2020 presidential election, sparking concerns of an "unprecedented breach of judicial independence".

Washington

Two bills introduced by a number of Republican state lawmakers (Senate Bill 5143, House Bill 1377) would limit or eliminate all-mail voting, which has existed in Washington since 2012. The bills cite false claims that there were "credible allegations of voter fraud, ballot tampering, and foreign interference" in the 2020 election as justification for the overhaul of the state's election system. Another bill would require photo identification to vote by mail.

Wisconsin

In Wisconsin, Republicans are supporting a series of bills intended to limit absentee voting (some are also backing bipartisan election reforms that would institute ranked choice voting and open primaries). The measures on absentee voting were introduced by two Republican state senators on February 24, 2021, as a package of 10 bills. Important provisions include those that would require absentee voters to provide an ID for every election and limit who can automatically receive absentee ballots. The bills also include new regulations on ballot boxes, bar election officials from adding missing information (like an address) to a voter's absentee ballot envelope (even if they have access to official government documents that provide the missing information), restrict ballot collection to immediate family members, and prohibit people who work for political advocacy groups from serving as poll workers.

Responding to a political controversy over indefinitely confined voters (voters who have a medical condition) in the 2020 presidential election, the lawmakers included a significant number of provisions related to indefinitely confined voters, including:

Eliminating the voter ID exemption for indefinitely confined voters
Requiring indefinitely confined voters to affirm they are medically afflicted under oath
Requiring indefinitely confined voters who are over 65 to provide documentation from a health care provider
Clarifying that a pandemic or other outbreak of a communicable disease does not qualify voters as indefinitely confined
Removing anyone who qualified for indefinitely confined status between March 12 and November 6, 2020, from the list of indefinitely confined individuals
Making it a felony, punishable by up to $10,000 or imprisonment for up to three and a half years, for falsely declaring oneself indefinitely confined.

One of the Republican lawmakers who introduced the bills says they are necessary because "far too many people have sincere concerns about our electoral system...These bills will help restore trust and make sure our elections are handled fairly for everyone." Wisconsin Democrats have meanwhile labelled them an "attack on voter rights", with the three Democratic members on the Assembly Elections Committee going so far as to say they are a "full-on assault on our elections and the ability for Wisconsinites to vote". Republican leaders in the state say the measures represent a legislative priority for them and intend to move forward with the bills, even though Democratic governor Tony Evers is unlikely to sign them into law (according to the Associated Press, the measures are intended to show "what [Republicans] may try to enact if a Republican is elected governor in 2022.").

Ballot initiative restrictions

The New York Times reported in May 2021 that so far that year, Republicans had introduced 144 bills to restrict ballot initiatives in 32 states, 19 of which had been signed into law by nine Republican governors. Although ballot initiatives had historically been used by both parties, Democrats had been especially successful using the process in recent years in states where they do not control the state government. In three states, Republican legislators asked voters to approve ballot initiatives that would restrict their right to bring and pass future ballot initiatives.

Fundraising

Following the 2020 presidential election, conservative political organizations began a major fundraising effort to advance Republican voting restriction efforts. The Republican National Committee (RNC) created an "election integrity" committee consisting of 24 members, many of whom were "deeply involved" in the Stop the Steal effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election, to develop election law proposals. Heritage Action, the lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation, announced a $24 million effort to back Republican efforts to amend state voting laws, including a $700,000 ad campaign in Georgia; internal documents indicate that Heritage plans to coordinate with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the State Policy Network. The anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List and the American Principles Project partnered together to create the Election Transparency Initiative, which started with $5 million in funding. FreedomWorks has dedicated $10 million to Republican efforts to tighten voting laws. Kelly Loeffler, after being unseated by Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock in the 2020–21 United States Senate special election in Georgia, launched Greater Georgia, an effort to promote Republican electoral policies in Georgia, as well as register likely conservative voters; Loeffler (whose net worth is estimated at over $800 million) has personally invested at least $1 million in the organization.

Relatedly, in January 2021 CNBC revealed that the dark money organization Donors Trust had funneled millions of dollars toward conservative organizations that pushed claims of election fraud in the 2020 election. A report by Public Citizen revealed that a variety of corporations, including AT&T, Comcast, Philip Morris USA, UnitedHealth Group, Walmart, Verizon Wireless, General Motors, and Pfizer, had in recent years donated over $50 million to politicians who have proposed voting restrictions or voted in favor of them.

Reactions

A statement signed by over 300 companies, executives. and celebrities opposing voting rights restriction efforts

Some major corporations voiced opposition to Georgia's Election Integrity Act and faced backlash from Republican politicians, including calls to boycott the companies. On April 10, 2021, more than 100 corporate CEOs and leaders gathered online to discuss options in response to the new laws, including halting donations to politicians who support the bills and suspending investments in states that enact the laws. On April 14, 2021, a letter published in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, among other outlets, and signed by over 300 companies, executives, and celebrities stated they "stand for democracy" and stated opposition to the efforts. A coalition of sixty major law firms said it would “challenge any election law that would impose unnecessary barriers on the right to vote and that would disenfranchise underrepresented groups in our country,” according to the group's organizer.

Republicans have opposed corporate efforts against their voting laws with Mitch McConnell calling on corporations to "stay out of politics" and that it will "will invite serious consequences" if they continue to oppose the law. McConnell later clarified that his statement did not exclude corporate donations to the Republican party, which created calls of hypocrisy by liberals. Ted Cruz also claimed on Fox Business's Varney & Co. that corporations "the woke enforcers of the Democratic Party." While he was responding to why he is calling for pulling the MLB's anti-trust exception should be removed after the MLB pulled the 2021 MLB All-Star Game from Atlanta due to Georgia's voting law. Observers have argued that this increased republican criticism of corporations are part of the parties rebrand into a more "working class" party and of a growing shift between Republicans and corporate America though, others have argued that this shift is not happening. Some Republicans have also called out companies that operate in China, claiming their opposition to voting restrictions is hypocritical due to their perceived silence on human rights abuses in China.

Former President Donald Trump has called on his supporters to boycott "woke companies" that are in opposition to voting rights restrictions.

President Joe Biden has called Republican efforts to limit voting rights "un-American" and "sick" and compared them to Jim Crow voting restrictions.

Polls

A YouGov/Economist poll from March 20–22 found that 44% of Americans oppose more restrictive voting laws compared to 39% who support them. A Hill/HarrisX poll of 2,827 registered voters conducted in April 2021 found that 43% (including 70% of Republicans and 41% of Independents) supported stricter voting laws, while 31% (including 50% of Democrats) stated that new laws should be passed to make voting more accessible. Another 27% expressed opposition to changing existing voting laws.

Effects

There is debate over the effects Republican proposals would have. Available evidence on the effects of forms of voting being targeted by Republicans are as summarized below:

Mail-in voting: Studies have tended to show that offering no-excuse mail-in voting modestly increases voter turnout, particularly in midterm elections. Universal mail-in voting, in which every voter is automatically sent a mail ballot, appears to increase turnout by slightly more—about 2%. Studies of the 2020 presidential election found that mail-in voting did not produce a partisan benefit for either party.
Voter ID: Studies on voter ID have tended to show that voter ID laws have no detectable effect on voter fraud (which is already exceedingly rare) and little to no effect on voter turnout—though certain studies have found a depressing effect, particularly among minorities. Estimating the effects of voter ID laws, however, is complicated, and strict voter ID laws are only a recent phenomenon, leading some researchers to conclude that further election data is needed to conclusively pin down the effects of voter ID. What is certain, however, is that among people in the United States without photo ID (in Michigan, for example, there are roughly 28,000 registered voters without photo ID, or 0.6% of registered voters), racial minorities make up a disproproportionately large number of them—with one study estimating that nonwhite voters were between 2.5 and 6 times as likely as white voters to lack voter ID.
Early voting: Analysis by FiveThirtyEight has concluded that, while early voting shifts when many voters cast their ballots, it has little effect on turnout. It does, however, appear to lead to shorter lines and fewer ballot errors.
Automatic voter registration: Automatic voter registration increases the number of people registered to vote and appears to modestly increase turnout.
Same-day voter registration: Same-day registration appears to modestly increase voter turnout, with a 2004 summary of the literature finding that the impact of same-day registration on voter turnout is "about five percentage points".
Long lines: Lines with long wait times significantly depress turnout. An analysis of the 2012 United States presidential election in Florida by Ohio State University researcher Theodore Allen, for instance, estimated that more than 200,000 would-be voters did not cast a ballot in the 2012 election due to long lines. Additionally, another study found that voters forced to wait in long lines are less likely to vote in future elections. Racial minorities face longer wait-times on average than white voters.

Federal bills proposed by Democrats

Democratic Congressmembers holding a press conference in support of the For the People Act in March 2021.

The Republican effort has been contrasted with a simultaneous effort by Democratic Party lawmakers to expand voting access. At the federal level, Democrats are advancing the For the People Act, a voting rights and anti-corruption bill (see below). In state legislatures, Democrats are advancing bills to expand mail-in and early voting, enact automatic and same-day voter registration, loosen photo ID laws, and increase the use of ballot drop boxes, and have already approved certain landmark bills like the Voting Rights Act of Virginia.

For the People Act (H.R. 1)

Many of the proposals being advanced by state Republicans would be prohibited under the For the People Act (H.R. 1), a voting rights bill currently being taken up in the Senate after it was passed in the House of Representatives on a nearly party-line vote (one Democrat voted against) in early March. The bill would mandate automatic and same-day voter registration, require states to offer 15 days of early voting, expand mail-in voting, and place restrictions on voter ID laws and so-called "voter roll purges", among other things.

The legislation will almost certainly face a filibuster by Senate Republicans, making it unlikely the bill will pass unless Senate Democrats reform Senate rules related to the filibuster.

John Lewis Voting Rights Act

The John Lewis voting rights act would restore the federal pre-clearance requirement in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that was struck down by the Supreme Court in a 2013 decision. This would mean that states with a history of voting rights violations would have to seek approval from the federal government to change voting policies. If the VRA's pre-clearance requirement had been left in place, it may have blocked new restrictive election laws like the one passed in Georgia.

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Sunday, September 12, 2021

Poem and song

Billie Holiday's performances and recordings

Notable covers

Additional freedom songs

See also

Background

Slavery in the United States (1776 - 1886)

Racial segregation in the United States

Frederick Douglass and James N. Buffum

Elizabeth Jennings Graham

Charlotte L. Brown

Demand for women's suffrage in the United States

Movement for civil rights from 1865–1896)

End of slavery in the United States of America

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Katherine "Kate" Brown

Movement for civil rights from 1896 to 1954

Women's suffrage in the United States

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

Civil rights movement 1954—1968

End of racial segregation in the United States

Civil rights in the 21st century

See also

Origins as gospel, folk, and labor song

Role of the Highlander Folk School

Use in the 1960s civil rights and other protest movements

Widespread adaptation

Copyright status

See also

Background

Historical efforts

2020 presidential election

State laws

Alabama

Arizona

Arkansas

Florida

Georgia

Idaho

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Montana

Nevada

New Hampshire

Oklahoma

Texas

Utah

Wyoming

State bills

Alaska

Colorado

Connecticut

Maryland

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Nebraska

North Carolina

North Dakota

Pennsylvania

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Washington

Wisconsin

Ballot initiative restrictions

Fundraising

Reactions

Polls

Effects

Federal bills proposed by Democrats

For the People Act (H.R. 1)

John Lewis Voting Rights Act

See also