Al Sharpton Quotes

Many have fought for and even lost their lives to end segregation, to win the right to vote. It disappoints me to now have to cajole people to register and to vote.

If people of colour do not exercise their democratic right to vote, they will remain an invisible, voiceless, and largely ignored part of the electorate.

A lot of states that pass voter ID laws have little to no evidence of in-person voter impersonation fraud, which is the only kind of fraud that voter ID laws could guard against.

Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.

For our white members, voting is something they have done for hundreds of years. But for us, it is not such a traumatic thing, because we have never participated in an election.

There are some rights that are so fundamental to our society that you'd think the public debate would be closed on them. The right of every American citizen to vote - regardless of age, race, or income level - is one of them.

I don't think everyone should vote. If you have to be dragged into the polls, carried into the polls and smelling salts have to be used, you probably shouldn't be voting. However, we shouldn't be putting up barriers to voting that target certain groups.

Calling out people for not voting, what experts term 'public shaming,' can prod someone to cast a ballot.

Americans of our own time - minority and majority Americans alike - need the continued guidance that the Voting Rights Act provides. We have come a long way, but more needs to be done.

It was to carry the American democratic journey beyond these failings that Black citizens and civil rights workers risked unemployment, violence and death.

There's a temptation not to vote at all as a protest, but it's definitely not a protest. In fact, all it does is keep the people in power in power, and I don't think they should be.

Voter caging and voter ID laws exist to disfranchise voters.

The more I ponder some of the boneheaded decisions GOP candidates have made of late, I can't bring myself to believe that they are serious about capturing more than about 8 percent of the black vote.

I admit that we are not encouraging Negro voting. The Negroes prefer that control of the government remain in the white man’s hands.

Let the black man vote when he is fit to vote; prohibit the white man from voting when he is unfit to vote.

End racial and ethnic gerrymandering, stop voter I.D. laws that seek to suppress voters of color, and make sure everyone can add their voice and their vote to this great democracy.

I was born in Decatur, was raised there, but I never in my life was permitted to vote there.

Voting shouldn't be a challenge. It should be as easy and accessible as possible. We shouldn't require forms of ID that folks don't have. We shouldn't restrict days or hours that allow working people a chance to both do their job and exercise their democratic right, and we damn well shouldn't be throwing up new obstacles midstream.

Voter ID laws have a disproportionate impact on groups that lean democratic - including blacks, hispanics and students.

Black Lives Matter was born out of our unwavering love for black people and our undeniable rage over a system that has historically dehumanized black people.

During my time in the Texas State Legislature, I witnessed firsthand the lack of evidence behind the rampant claims of voter fraud and the obstacles voters would face if the 2011 photo Voter ID were put in place.

That's what Democrats do best: breed black votes.

When the primary people who have influence and power in our communities are not even really allowed to educate you on who to vote for and against, we're in trouble.

Everybody's life matters. But that's why we have to say black lives matter, because the highest disproportionality, police brutality, disenfranchisement, education disproportionality in school discipline, curriculum, misrepresentation, all of this.

There is no actual need to tighten voter ID rules: there have been extraordinarily few instances of people committing fraud at the polls.