The truth is, many mentions of historic events in this country leave out key players in movement and moments that define us.

Vital voices are often overlooked or forgotten. While this may happen unintentionally by educators, political leaders, and storytellers it is our duty as activists to bring light and representation to the leaders who paved the path for us to be where we are today. 

With the centennial of the 19th Amendment approaching, we are reminded of the countless women and people who made this possible. We often remember people like Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Margaret Sanger, and other (mostly white) women mentioned in our history classes. But it’s likely that you haven’t heard of folks like Ida B. Wells, Anna Julia Cooper, or Crystal Eastman. 

Scroll down and get to know them. Then share this article with a friend on Aug. 18. 

Women like Ida B. Wells led one of the initial crusades against the lynching of Black people. Her work also laid the foundation for the NAACP and she even helped form the National Association of Colored Women. Wells’ work is the pinnacle of intersectionality within a movement, working for the advancement of all people within disenfranchised groups.

Anna Julia Cooper was an educator and distinguished scholar. Anna Julia Cooper was among the educators who emphasized the power of communal care as a method of addressing larger structural ills. Her political activism began at age 9 when she protested the preferential treatment of men and boys at her school. Cooper dedicated her life to the advancement of Black women, describing her own work as “the education of neglected people.” Cooper was a gifted orator, speaking about her activism at events like the 1893 Chicago World Fair. Here are Cooper’s words on having an insatiable desire for truth and knowledge: “I constantly felt (as I suppose many an ambitious girl has felt) a thumping from within unanswered by any beckoning from without.”

Crystal Eastman, the ACLU’s most under-appreciated founding mother, was a preeminent organizer of her day. She fiercely championed major movements for social change in the early 20th century. The year 1920, in particular, was a watershed year for Eastman for many reasons. An active organizer for women’s suffrage, Eastman was unusual in not wanting to declare victory when the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. In a celebrated 1920 speech, “Now We Can Begin,” she set out to persuade resistant suffragist groups that their true goal should be not only equal suffrage but equal rights for all women. 

It is thanks to women like Crystal, Anna, and Ida that we are able to cast our ballots today.

I hope you join me in honoring these women by voting on Nov. 3 or casting an absentee ballot. It is on us to ensure the ability to participate in this process that impacts our lives, our communities, and our futures remains possible for everyone. 

For decades, the ACLU of North Dakota has activated members and supporters to vote in state and local elections.

In an effort to increase eligible voter participation in LGBTQ+ and Two Spirit, Indigenous and communities of color, we’ve put together downloadable and digitally shareable Get Out the Vote kits with resources and printables to educate your peers on their voting rights.  

We believe it is the duty of eligible voters in North Dakota to forge equitable paths for their peers who may not be able to make their voice heard at the ballot box. That means showing up on Election Day or voting absentee starting on Sept. 24, 2020. In doing so, we can address and undo decades of deeply rooted tactics aimed to suppress voters in various communities. To get your work started in the right direction, scroll through our checklist and download the kit. Please email us at northdakota@aclu.org if you have any questions.

NORTH DAKOTA VOTER CHECKLIST

ACTIVATE YOUR PEERS

We all have that friend who just isn’t into politics or a family member who just turned 18. Guess what? You can help them see the impact of their vote! Encourage them to pledge to vote with you this election and then remind a friend or two to do the same. While in-person engagement efforts might be difficult or impossible right now, you can still help new voters in your community by sharing voter information with them via text message, email, or social media.

Spread the information on this page with your community! Share this page digitally through social media, text, email, or in person and do so as often as you can.

Support local organizations in their Get Out The Vote efforts, or host your own voter engagement event virtually or in-person at a safe distance! Whether it’s volunteering to plan or participate by offering to help your local organizations translate existing materials into additional languages, helping with virtual voter education events, or simply lifting up efforts through social media, we each have a duty to empower our community. 

PLEDGE TO VOTE

Make sure to encourage your friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors to do the same by tagging them on social media or texting them today. 

Better understand the election process in North Dakota and how lawmakers once elected, impact your community. The 2020 General Election will be held on Nov. 3 in North Dakota, but the voting process – including deadlines, options, and potential barriers can be hard to track. Check in with your county auditor to familiarize yourself with election related information and deadlines.

Develop your plan to vote! Will you be voting absentee or in person? Will you vote on Election Day? Will you volunteer as a precinct worker? Whatever your plan comes down to, consider adding reminders of upcoming deadlines to your calendar, and pick three friends, family members, colleagues, or neighbors who might otherwise not vote, and encourage them to put together their own voting plan. (You could even share yours for them to model off of!) 

Elevate your voice on social media to hold your peers accountable! In particular, we encourage you to support and embolden LGBTQ+ and Two Spirit North Dakotans, Indigenous communities, disability communities, and communities of color to get to the polls. We want to make sure that the experiences, needs, and concerns of all marginalized communities are heard and understood on Election Day. Amplify this message and use the hashtag #NDVotes on all of your social media channels. To get started, share this page with the hashtag along with your reason(s) to vote! 

SHOW UP ON ELECTION DAY OR VOTE ABSENTEE

Whether voting early in person at your county auditor’s office, absentee, or on Nov. 3, follow through on your plan to vote and remind your peers to do the same. Keep our voting rights guide handy while you’re in line and in the voting booth. 

If you have problems voting or have additional questions, please call the national, non-partisan Election Protection hotline:

• English: 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683)
• Spanish: 1-888-VE-Y-VOTA (1-888-839-8682)
• Arabic: 1-844-YALLA-US (1-844-925-5287)
• Bengali, Cantonese, Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Mandarin, Tagalog, or Vietnamese: 1-888-274-8683

After a rebuke from the Supreme Court, President Trump is again trying to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — a program that protects over 700,000 people from deportation and allows them to work and attend school in the United States, their home. The White House is replacing the full DACA program with a skeleton program that will accept no new applicants and renew protection for only one year, instead of two. 

I served in the Obama administration at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the government agency responsible for creating and launching DACA. It was the result of over a decade of brave advocacy by undocumented youth, who rallied the country’s support by sharing their stories and demanding that the United States see them as the Americans that they are. While we were proud of the program, we knew that DACA was not the end goal for this movement. While critically important, it would only temporarily protect Dreamers for two years at a time. Without permanent, legislative protections, the fate of Dreamers and their families would continue to be at risk. 

When President Trump took office, our fears came true. In the first year, his administration threw the lives of DACA recipients into limbo and attempted to end the program, leaving Dreamers unable to plan for their futures, living under a constant threat of potential deportation. As the country waited for a DACA decision from the Supreme Court, ICE promised to start deporting DACA recipients if given the opportunity. 

But on June 18, 2020, DACA recipients — and America — won. The Supreme Court sided with the lower courts and the American people by declaring the Trump administration’s process of rescinding DACA illegal, “arbitrary, and capricious.” The Trump administration was ordered to accept DACA renewals and new DACA applications, and restore the DACA program to its original state. Instead, the White House is hell-bent on ripping the rug out from underneath 700,000 Americans in waiting, even though he knows that the American people, including most Trump supporters, support Dreamers. Trump’s recent changes to DACA shut hundreds and thousands of immigrant youth out of the program’s protections, leaving them at continued risk of deportation. We know and fear that his next step is a complete end to DACA.  

Our immigration system remains unjust, inhumane, and irrevocably broken, and the ACLU will continue to fight in Congress for permanent legislative protections for all undocumented youth. We will also keep fighting for automatic extensions of DACA and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) work permits during the pandemic.

The Senate must act now to take up and pass the American Dream of Promise Act, which would provide protection from deportation and a fair path to citizenship for Dreamers and immigrants eligible for TPS and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). While the ACLU remains troubled by provisions in the bill that run counter to basic due process principles, it would nonetheless benefit more than two million people and represent a crucial step toward fundamental reform of an unjust system. 

And as Black and Brown communities fight for historic, overdue reforms to state and local law enforcement, it is critical not to forget that ICE and Customs and Border Protection sow fear and uncertainty in communities of color every day. Congress must divest funding from the federal police forces within these agencies that threaten DACA recipients, their families, and our communities writ large.

We will also be fighting for so much more. States must take steps to vastly improve the wellbeing of undocumented youth and protect them from the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant crusade. States should remove barriers that prevent Dreamers from pursuing their education and careers by allowing access to in-state tuition, financial aid, and professional licenses for all, regardless of immigration status. They must also reject the administration’s promise to deport Dreamers and refuse to do ICE and CBP’s bidding. Governors should take steps to restrict their states from spending any resources to collaborate with immigration enforcement agencies. 

As long as Congress refuses to provide a path to citizenship for undocumented youth, we will advocate for broad administrative relief that expands the number of people eligible for protection. DACA was designed narrowly, and forces recipients to spend enormous resources — $495 for the application, plus legal fees —  to renew their status originally every two years, and now every year. We will advocate for DACA to provide longer periods of protection between renewals and for application fees to be truly affordable. And finally, we will keep fighting for a fair, humane, and affordable path to citizenship in Congress so that DACA recipients, their undocumented family members, and all immigrant communities can access full citizenship. 

While Dreamers won in the Supreme Court, Trump continues his anti-immigrant crusade. The fight for permanent protections and a humane immigration system continues.