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PRESS STATEMENT
Dr. Lenora Fulani
Atlanta, GA
March 17th, 2006
Issues of racial diversity, rank and file democracy and independence are at the heart of a complaint that was recently brought to the Justice Department. I am a complainant in that matter, as are Al Bartell, Audrey Mowdy, Ron Parker, and six other individuals from a total of seven states. The controversy arose in New York, where I live and work. But it has implications for independents—and for African American independents in particular, all across the country.
The controversy is about events taking place in the New York Independence Party—an independent party that became a legally recognized ballot status party in 1994. But it grows out of a history of struggle on the part of black people, a struggle dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are equal before the law and that the fundamental right to vote must be granted to all American citizens regardless of race, color, creed or political affiliation.
I stress political affiliation, because the controversy in New York, the matter we have brought to the Justice Department, is first and foremost about the right of black voters to determine for ourselves who we vote for, what parties we belong to, what issues we embrace and what partnerships we form.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965—passed by a reluctant Congress confronted by mass social protest demanding the right to vote—did not confer upon us the right to only vote for Democrats. It confers the right to vote and to participate politically no matter how one chooses to do so.
Today, these issues are more than abstract constitutional ideals. There are very real attacks on black voters moving independently. And we are taking steps to respond.
The background to the controversy in New York is straightforward. Following years of growth and increasing political impact, the Independence Party became the state’s third largest party and most influential minor party. In New York City, the impact was so significant that in 2001, the Independence Party provided the margin of victory for a Republican/Independent outsider—Michael Bloomberg—who defeated the Democratic clubhouse favorite in a hotly contested race for mayor of New York City. In 2005, the Independence Party helped elect him to a second term, this time peeling away 47% of black voters who abandoned the Democratic Party and joined me in backing Bloomberg. It was a full scale electoral revolution.
In response, Democratic and Republican Party leaders—working on concert with the state leadership of the Independence Party—moved to recall the party’s Black leadership, dissolved the duly elected and constituted local organizations in New York City, and took control of the New York City party. In so doing, they violated the voting rights of Black and other minority voters, and triggered the need for Voting Rights Act protections. This is what we are pursuing with the Justice Department at this time.
Today, I have delivered a letter to every member of the Congressional Black Caucus asking them to carefully review this complaint and add their voice to those of many others in asking for a full investigation into the actions taken against minority and independent voters. I am well aware that I am asking Democratic Party elected officials to support an investigation of illegal and inappropriate actions by their own party. But that is connected to what this case is all about. I am asking them to act as black leaders, not simply as black Democrats, because American democracy depends on being able to make that distinction.
It is especially important in times such as these—when dissatisfaction with the political process among Americans is climbing to new heights— that efforts to restrict and restrain the success of new political paradigms must themselves be checked and challenged.
I want to add that I am very glad to be here in Atlanta with these very important independent leaders. They have taken up the cause of this Justice Department complaint because they believe it impacts directly on their efforts here. And they are right. We cannot allow it to be the case that when an independent political party reaches a certain level of political power, that the black people who built it, who are represented by it and who participate in it are disenfranchised, disempowered and expelled. That is a violation of the most basic and fundamental principles of democracy. And that is why every person who believes in democracy must support this effort, regardless of their own partisan commitments or beliefs. That is the spirit in which I call upon the CBC to act. | 
