Black People Vote Too

Black people vote too, yes they sure do vote.

Thank God Joe Biden. Blacks do vote in large numbers in the states where they reside. Mostly in the south, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, well, you get the picture.

Even though Black people vote in prodigious numbers, the fake news media have written Joe Biden out of the race. These fakers want a fresh face to talk about in 2020. Biden does not fit the bill as he has been around much longer than this writer, who has been around far longer than he cares to admit on most days.

Biden, who superbly had President Obama’s back for eight years, has put his presidential hopes in the hands of the Black electorate. The former Vice President is banking Black people will not forget his loyalty to Obama in the days when White Americans criticized Obama’s every move and motive.

Thus far, about one percent of Blacks have cast a primary or caucus vote in 2020. Biden’s strength in the Black community gets tested in South Carolina in two weeks.

A strong vote from the Black community in South Carolina will cause Biden to owe a considerable debt to African Americans. A Biden win in South Carolina will remove all doubt about the importance of the Black vote in Democratic politics.

Should Biden win in the Palmetto State, then the nomination on the way to the White House, and not deliver a substantial Black uplift program, the Democratic Party can kiss the Black vote goodbye for some time to come.

There is more riding on South Carolina than a win for Biden, a whole class of people are counting on his leadership to improve conditions that other President have merely paid lip service.

While Biden is putting his quest for the presidency into the hands of Black South Carolinians, Blacks are putting, to paraphrase the gospel choir that sung at a recent Biden rally, “all of their burdens, problems, and oppressions” in Biden’s hands.

Harold Michael Harvey is the author of Freaknik Lawyer: A Memoir on the Craft of Resistance. He is a Past President of the Gate City Bar Association. He is the recipient of Gate City’s R. E. Thomas Civil Rights Award, which he received for his pro bono representation of Black college students arrested during Freaknik celebrations in the mid to late 1990s. An avid public speaker, contact him at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com.