Barriers to voting in the black community: Dr. Yvette Alex-Assensoh

“There are populations and segments of populations that don’t vote because they are disengaged, they are demobilized, and don’t really understand the important impact one vote can make,” said Dr. Yvette Alex-Assensoh. “But when you look at the South, in general, the South has actually taught the rest of the country the importance of the vote. And, in fact, the Black vote in the South has actually turned the tides in terms of shifting power.”

Today on Voting Now: Turning Rights into Reality, our guest host Janice Hebert, a retired assistant US attorney, who has spent 23 years at the Department of Justice focusing on civil rights cases in Louisiana and Oregon, talks with Dr. Yvette Alex-Assensoh about how systemic and structural discrimination has diminished the electorate and has discouraged people from voting—and what we can do about it. Alex-Assensoh is the vice president for Equity & Inclusion at University of Oregon, an award-winning researcher, university professor, equity strategist, and a member of the Oregon and Indiana Bar Associations.