WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Just Democracy, Demos, and Truth and Conciliation released a new report detailing the racist history of the filibuster. Authored by a team of change-making women, this report fills a critical void of research on how the filibuster has been and continues to be leveraged as a cudgel of white supremacy. The study exposes how an arcane loophole has protected slavery, upheld Jim Crow, and consistently blocked voting rights for for Black and Brown Americans. These progressive groups released the report right as the For the People Act (H.R. 1), the Enhanced Background Checks Act (H.R. 8), and other bills advancing civil rights stand to be blocked in the Senate by this Jim Crow relic.  

Reverend and Professor Stephany Spaulding, Founder of Truth and Conciliation, Coalition Member of Just Democracy, and one of the authors of the report, issued the following statement:

“Our report not only outlines how the filibuster was designed to be a racist weapon against civil rights legislation, but it makes the case, through facts and historical context, for abolishing the filibuster to unrig the rules of our democracy. The filibuster has blocked background checks, criminal justice reform, over 200 anti-lynching bills, and more. Progressives cannot allow this “cherished tool of white supremacists'' to continue suppressing Black and Brown voices in our democracy.

Data shows that most Americans don’t fully understand what the filibuster is — it’s cloaked in obscurity so that Republican Senators can manipulate it to their advantage. Once explained, Americans recognize that getting rid of the filibuster would make our government work better for them. For our democratic institutions to finally value Black and Brown communities, we have to abolish this racist tool.”

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