Type: Public event

Continuing Challenges to Suffrage in Michigan in 2020: Who Still Can’t Vote?

Democracy & Debate Theme Semester Event

Date & time

Oct 12, 2020, 4:00-5:30 pm EDT

Location

This is a Virtual Event.

Free and open to the public. Viewing information will be available here.

This panel will address the long struggle for women’s right to vote in the U.S., officially secured 100 years ago, and—equally importantly—the continuing struggle to secure full democratic participation in Michigan. Panelists will describe real barriers to voting in Michigan today, as well as efforts to change rules and regulations to expand access to voting, and what it will take to increase access for some groups in the upcoming election.

Panel discussion with:

  • Stephanie Chang,  Michigan State Senator and a board member of Rising Voices of Asian American Families
  • Dessa Cosma, Executive Director of Detroit Disability Power and a founding partner of the People with Disabilities Voting Rights Coalition
  • Reverend Wendell Anthony, President of the Detroit Branch of the NAACP and leader of voting rights campaigns, including Take Your Souls to the Polls and Promote the Vote
  • Matthew L.M. Fletcher, law professor and director of the Indigenous Law and Policy Center at Michigan State University, as well as an appellate judge for numerous tribal courts
  • Michael Steinberg (moderator), Professor from Practice and Director of the Civil Rights Litigation Initiative, U-M Law School, former legal director, Michigan ACLU.

Organized by Women and Gender Studies, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Sponsored by the entire Suffrage 2020 Collaboration and the Democracy and Debate Theme Semester.

For more information on U-M Suffrage 2020, visit: http://sites.lsa.umich.edu/umsuffrage2020/