NOTE: In the video above Roland Martin speaks to Black women who mobilized voters in Alabama on Election Day (unrelated to story).
How Black Women Saved Alabama — and Democracy
By Kerra Bolton (CNN) – America, you were in danger, girl.
That is until 96% of African-American voters saved democracy and human decency by defeating Republican Roy Moore on Tuesday in Alabama’s US Senate race.
Equally revealing in the exit polls was the widening chasm between white and black female voters. This mirrors America’s unspoken, yet persistent, whitewashing of feminism.
Nearly two-thirds of white women in Alabama voted for Moore, even though exit polling showed a slight majority of all voters believed the allegations of Moore’s sexual misconduct were “definitely or probably true.” Moore denied the accusations.
Meanwhile, 98% of black women voted for Doug Jones. But many of those votes weren’t as much cast for Jones as they were cast against Moore, who said the last time America was great was during slavery and championed eliminating all constitutional amendments after the 10th. This would include the 13th and 14th amendments, which abolished slavery and promised “equal protection under the law.”
Read the full story at CNN.com.
Kerra L. Bolton is the founder of Unmuted Consulting, a strategic political communications consultancy and online academy that helps individuals, communities and organizations spark and drive change. She also is a freelance writer and former political reporter and analyst in North Carolina. The views expressed in this commentary are her own.