On June 11, as a part of its We Got Us campaign, Black Voters Matter (BVM) launched its new series called Declaration of a New Nation, to expose the lie of equality and due process in U.S. jurisprudence and life, while also offering an alternative U.S. Constitution and society that will truly build and reflect a multi-cultural democratic nation where all citizens will truly share power, prosperity, liberty, and resources. 

The Declaration of a New Nation takes a multifaceted approach to exploring what true democracy looks like through the eyes of those who have historically been excluded. The series will share thought-provoking, historically accurate information across social media and other digital platforms through compelling infographics, video vignettes, and a documentary short series that explores not only the current problems with the existing constitution and governing structures, but also the pathways to create something new through discussions with special guests, scholars, and activists. In addition, BVM will host four in-person town hall style conversations to help unpack these complex topics and collectively reimagine what we need and want this country to be. The first town hall will take place on June 19th in Galveston, TX, the birthplace of Black Freedom, ahead of the annual Juneteenth celebration.

BVM launched this series to counter the aggressive rollback of voting rights and civil rights protections of Black and marginalized people happening in Southern, former confederate states, all while the Supreme Court is working to enshrine white supremacist/patriarchal power not seen since the Dred Scott and Jim Crow era. The Declaration of a New Nation series aims to encourage everyday folks across the country to see themselves as “Architects of a New Nation” and imagine a new America, in the same way that formerly enslaved people reimagined the United States and launched the Negro Convention in the 1830s, which led to the 14th Amendment, and women reimagined the countryat Seneca Falls in 1848 that birthed the 19th amendment. And again, in the 1960s, when Black people and allies reimagined our democracy and created both the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act.

“We have seen what the U.S. looks like without strong and definitive protections to protect the political rights of those in the margins. It looked like 100 years of lynching, state-sanctioned murder, denial of voting, separate and unequal institutions and funding, and the inability to do anything about it AFTER the ratification of the 13th,14th, and 15th amendments. But no more. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments were only the floor. We are going to embrace the promise announced in the Declaration of Independence and stop what is wrong and create something new, just as our collective ancestors did, ” said April England Albright, National Legal Director of Black Voters Matter. 

“The power of the people is our best defense against autocracy. We’ve got to engage people where they are and inspire them to think beyond the limitations of the Constitution and the racist systems that counted our ancestors as three-fifths of a person. Now is the time for us to think long and hard about the kind of country we want because we have the power to change it,” said Cliff Albright, Co-Founder of Black Voters Matter. 

“America is broken; it was flawed from the moment the framers conceived the Constitution within the framework of white patriarchy,” said LaTosha Brown, Co-Founder of Black Voters Matter. “For those of us who love democracy and freedom, we cannot see ourselves merely as citizens of this nation. We must see ourselves as founders of the America still to come. We are the architects with the vision and the responsibility to tear down a broken system and build in its place the America we desire, and we deserve.”

For more information on this and other news from Black Voters Matter, visit the website. Questions and Interview requests should be sent to  media@blackvotersmatterfund.org.

Source: Black Voters Matter