President Joe Biden is suggesting some parts of the United States are going back to “the days of Jim Crow.”
While delivering remarks at the National Action Network’s annual convention, Biden said, “This organization has always been an essential voice, but never more essential than it is today. Upholding and advancing the security and prosperity of health and well-being, dignity, possibilities of all Black Americans.”
He continued, “It’s at a time when the pandemic and the economic crisis continue to devastate Black communities, at a time when the cry for justice four hundred years in the making is ringing out across our nation.”
Claiming “parts of our country are backsliding into the days of Jim Crow,” Biden argued some parts of the country are “passing laws that harken back to the era of poll taxes, when Black people were made to guess how many beans – how many jelly beans in a jar, or count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap before they could cast their ballot.”
Watch his remarks below:
Biden made similar comments on Twitter earlier this month when discussing Georgia’s new election law.
“The Georgia voting law — like so many others being pursued by Republicans in statehouses across the country — is a blatant attack on the right to vote, the Constitution, and good conscience,” Biden wrote.
He went on, “It’s Jim Crow in the 21st Century — and it must end.”
The Georgia voting law — like so many others being pursued by Republicans in statehouses across the country — is a blatant attack on the right to vote, the Constitution, and good conscience.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 26, 2021
It’s Jim Crow in the 21st Century — and it must end.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) fired back at Biden for his remarks, “There is nothing ‘Jim Crow’ about requiring a photo or state-issued ID to vote by absentee ballot — every Georgia voter must already do so when voting in-person.”
He added, “President Biden, the left, and the national media are determined to destroy the sanctity and security of the ballot box.”