black history month

Local Radio Show Host DeDe McGuire Pivots Foundation to Encourage Black Voters

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The history of Black people fighting for the right to vote goes back centuries.

The passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870 made it illegal to turn people away from voting because of their race, but it still left the door open for states, namely in the south, to make it difficult for Black people to make their voices heard through voting.

The Jim Crow era effectively perpetuated that.

Despite the efforts behind it, the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 did little to fix the unfair treatment of Black people at the polls. Thanks in large part to the unrelenting push from Civil Rights leaders, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law in 1965. It was that piece of legislation that banned tactics that were keeping Black Voters away from the polls.

Voter suppression is still an issue, it has just taken on different forms. That's the cause Dede McGuire, host of syndicated radio show DeDe in the Morning, took up just before the 2020 presidential election. It was a non-partisan effort through the DeDe McGuire Foundation to push Black North Texans, who were eligible to vote, to register.

McGuire said it was about more than just their votes but understanding voting in local elections is just as important, if not more than the Presidential election itself when it comes to seeing change in your own community.

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