Walker Rolls Back Civil Rights.

• Author: Kemble, Rebecca
• Position: Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

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On March 4, Jesse Jackson was on his second of several visits to Madison in support of the Wisconsin upsurge. Addressing a large crowd, Jackson said, "This is the week we went across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma for the right to vote. We have gone from Wallace trying to deny us the right to vote to Walker trying to deny workers the right to bargain. We have gone from Wallace to Walker."

This wasn't just another clever rhetorical move from a veteran orator. It accurately describes the nature of the legislative onslaught spearheaded by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Walker has signed into law dozens of measures that systematically dismantle the institutions and practices that have served as the foundation for civil rights in the state. More than any other group, African Americans in Wisconsin are going to feel the brunt.

The hard-won gains of civil rights struggles in the 1950s and 1960s--voting rights, fair housing, equal access to quality public education, decent jobs, and anti-discrimination laws--are all under attack by the Walker administration and his allies in the Republican-controlled state senate and assembly. From a constitutionally questionable voter ID law to the wholesale gutting of public education and the repeal of antiracial profiling legislation, Republicans are leaving no stone unturned in their zeal to roll back all manner of progressive policy and democratic practice.

"Jim Crow, move over, the Wisconsin Republicans have taken your place," said state Democratic senator Bob Jauch during debate on the voter ID law that requires voters to present a specific form of photo identification with a current address. The law also extends the residency period from ten to twenty-eight days before one can vote in a particular ward.

In some areas, the nearest DMV office where the officially sanctioned ID can be obtained is several hours away and open for only a few days per month. For people who do not have their own transportation, temporarily live in nursing homes, or cannot afford to miss a day of work, this represents an expense and a hardship they may not be able to manage.

A 2004 Rutgers University study found that voter ID legislation had a marked effect on turnout in communities of color. Comparing states that did and did not require voter ID at the polls, this study showed that turnout was 10 percent less for Hispanic voters, and 6 percent less for African American voters in those states that required ID.

Milwaukee lawmakers are quick to point out that this disproportionately disenfranchises their constituents.

"This bill has a chilling effect on the vote of the majority," state senator Spencer Coggs said during a truncated and chaotic debate on the bill. "But when the majority gets a chill, the African American community in the state of Wisconsin gets pneumonia."

Republican legislators also drew up highly partisan Congressional and state legislative redistricting maps in secret, and rammed them through the legislature within ten days...