working to take that right from marginalized communities.

After the election in 2020, many states are moving to make it harder for people to vote.

Their actions are similar to those of the days of Jim Crow when governmental officials in the South created barriers to voting for African-Americans.

Whether it was violence, literacy tests, property tests or poll taxes, poor whites and blacks were hindered from casting their ballots.

Why are states moving to block the vote of certain peoples?

Is it constitutional to deny people the right to vote?

What are they afraid of?

Are you courageous enough to have this conversation?

Hello, I'm Phillip Davis, the host of Courageous Conversations.

We're broadcasting from the PPL Public Media Center in Bethlehem.

Joining me today to talk about voting and their experience in fighting against racist voting policies are Representative Park Cannon.

She's a state representative in Georgia.

58th district.

Michael Laws, political consultant, PA Democratic Party, and the vice chair of the Black Caucus.

He is also on the board of directors for the Lehigh Valley Justice Initiative.

And of course, Judge Lane.

She is running for Appellate Court in Pennsylvania in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

We are so grateful to have each of you.

Thank you for joining us.

Representative Cannon, I want to start with you.

You were arrested while attempting to witness the signing of Bill 202 on March 25th.

Why were you arrested?

Did you have a right to be there as a state representative?

- Thank you for having me.

I am so proud to be a millennial who is elected in the South, but more than that, I take my role as caucus secretary very seriously.

So that day was just like any other day, where I was headed to the governor's office to be present for a bill signing, which is the last step in a legislator's bill-making process, and was unlawfully arrested.

And I'm not afraid to admit that during the arrest I was afraid of what would happen to me.

But the case was dropped.

The charges were labeled as unnecessary.

And right now I stand here as a legislator ready to continue fighting for the right to vote in Georgia.

- Well, thank you so much.

On January 6th, you know, there was a storming of the Capitol.

Pictures show that many of the police stood by and watched that happen.

You were handled significantly differently.

What do you attribute that to?

- As a black woman in America, I can only hear my grandmothers and my community members speaking through me and speaking to me and saying the idea that we believe that our vote counts is so concerning to those who want to suppress our vote that they will do anything to stop us.

In 2018 State Senator Nikema Williams was arrested in the Georgia state capital as well on the same types of felonies, and those charges were dropped.

So at this point in Georgia, we as lawmakers are looking for that statute to be ruled unconstitutional.

And as it relates to Senate Bill 202, there are multiple lawsuits challenging its inaction in the courts right now.

- Well, thank you so much.

Now, Judge Lane, you're running for a historic seat here in the state of Pennsylvania Superior Court.

And tell us about your run and why you believe that it is significant at this time.

- Well, thank you so much.

And again, thank you for having me.

So the Superior Court is a state-wide Appellate Court in Pennsylvania.

So if you go to trial and you lose, you have an absolute right to appeal.

And that's the Superior Court.

So it's so important, because most people in Pennsylvania, their cases will stop there.

Last year they heard 8,000 cases.

70% of those cases were criminal cases.

And we know, unfortunately, that that disproportionately affects marginalized communities such as black and brown communities.

So it's very important that we have a voice there.

There is only one person of color on our appellate bench, out of 31 judges in Pennsylvania.

And if I were to be elected, I would be a third black person ever on this court.

So it's very significant.

Yes.

- So, yeah, you're talking about probably 300 years.

And so you said the third in, you know, in that period of time, you would be the African-American representative on that on that bench.

That's amazing.

I do have a question, though.

Do the courts affect, like, the decision that was made in Georgia in regards to Bill 202?

Will the courts have any insight into whether that bill actually is passed?

- Well, the Superior Court would not.

That's something... We have a court called Commonwealth Court that was specifically created to deal with election law and to deal with the state agencies and things of that nature.

So they will go to the Commonwealth Court and then ultimately the Supreme Court.

- OK, OK.

Thank you, Michael, now, you're a political consultant and you do great work for the Democratic Party.

Would you call what happened to Representative Cannon voter suppression?

And do you believe this was an attempt at going back to racist practices from the past?

- Oh, absolutely.

When we talk about voter suppression, I think that's a kind word.

It actually is vote blocking.

That's exactly what it was.

In addition to that, when you look at what happened, you know, they signed the bill in front of a picture of a plantation where they had over 100 slaves, and they had the nerve to actually arrest an elected official that was supposed to be there.

Now, that's just not suppression.

That's intimidation.

And if they want to basically say, I will arrest the actual official, a government official that should be there, imagine what I'm going to do to you if you decide to vote.

I mean, in Georgia...

Think about it.

Fulton County is the biggest area full of African-Americans in Atlanta.

They actually have a suppression bill that said, we're going to take it down from 28 voting boxes, 28 voting blocks all the way down to eight.

Does that suppress the vote?

No, that's putting the collective knee on black and brown people that actually vote in Georgia.

And so when you think about what's really taken place, it really is a Southern strategy on steroids.

Their planning is just like the Empire Strikes Back.

The antebellum Southern South is striking back.

That's what happened.

And why are they doing it?

Because we won.

And when we win, we put two senators.

And we actually won for the very first time.

And the controls that they're putting on are even worse than that actually happened during reconstruction.

During reconstruction, we just go through these periods all again.

At first, take two steps forward and it takes three steps back.

Reconstruction.

We had elected officials, right?

Great move.

Right?

After that, we have Barack Obama.

What happened?

Directly after Barack Obama, you know, backlash again, and now because of Georgia, another backlash.

But the people in Georgia are going to wake up.

They're going to see what they're going to do, because who in the world, and help me understand, is going to make water equivalent to an illegal substance on the voting line?

I totally understand that.

- There's no understanding.

There's no understanding of that.

It is similar to the days of Jim Crow, right, when this type of intimidation was utilized to suppress the black vote, you know, the rise of the KKK and so forth and so on.

And, you know, we're many years into this century, and yet the same practices are being exercised to suppress and hinder the vote.

I think Georgia turned blue.

So some people were very upset about that.

And this is not about partisanship, right?

This is just about basic civility towards humanity.

Representative Park, you've had to deal with a significant impact to you personally, emotionally and politically.

Talk about what you've had to go through since this arrest happened to you.

- As I've stated, I am not afraid to admit that I was afraid, just like any other black mother or community member who was watching along, with my unlawful arrest.

The question was, where are they taking me?

Why is this happening?

Why are my rights not being read to me?

How am I able to actually communicate with you?

If my earpod is in my ear and my mask is over and I'm wearing high heels and you have me in cuffs, how in the world is this lawful and where is this going to get us to a positive end?

So at this time, we are doing know your rights training for community members about the Senate Bill 202.

There are additional criminal penalties that are misdemeanors and felonies because of this bill.

And we want people to know that we can outvote the voter suppression.

We will have to be savvy.

These are crooked rules, but we can do it.

When they codify conspiracies, we keep knocking.

- That's amazing.

And I'm going to come back to you at some point because I want to hear a little bit more about what's racist about this bill that was passed.

But I want to go to Judge Lane.

As a Democratic executive director for the Pennsylvania State Senate Government Committee, you worked on many issues concerning restrictive photo ID laws, drafted legislation to protect minorities, LGBTQ and senior populations.

Why was that work important to you?

And what was the outcome of some of your work?

- Well, it definitely was very important to me and I was very passionate about it in that role, because we know that everyone is granted the right to vote, and anything to do to suppress that right or to negate that right, that was extremely problematic.

Everyone's voice should be heard and that's how democracy works.

And I was able to join in with the ACLU.

We worked with AARP, we worked with the NAACP.

We worked with various groups to make sure that everyone's voice was heard, because the photo ID in Pennsylvania that was passed at that time was one of the most restrictive in the country.

And we drafted... And I say we.

I drafted the amendments that our Democratic caucus got to introduce to try to minimize the impact that would have because the Democrats were in the minority then.

And it ultimately did pass and it was later declared unconstitutional.

But again, it's...

I can't say much as a judge or judicial candidate, but at that time fighting on behalf of our community and making sure our voice was heard was paramount.

- Thank you for that.

And it's so true, Michael, when you think about what some folks deny as systemic racism.

Right?

And, you know, I believe that is the system that is built to support white supremacy, suppressing others.

And can you talk a little bit about how systemic racism is evident in politics and how it affects our people and sometimes in feeling like our votes don't count?

- Yeah, well, you know, when you think about systemic racism, especially in voting, you can look back and see what the organization and sometimes what legislation has been passed.

And historically, just so that you know, there were rules that basically said that you had to get voters identified before you passed laws in the Southern states.

But what took place in 2019... Actually, 2013, there was a rule passed by the Supreme Court.

It was called Shelby.

And Shelby basically allowed the Southern states to actually go and actually do anything that they wanted to do in terms of passing voter suppression bills.

So directly after Shelby was signed, North Carolina actually passed suppression bills that were actually knocked down by the Supreme Court.

The challenge we have to deal with as a people, I find, is that we have to really educate them.

We have to educate them to understand that there are different levels that exist.

And there is something called a state representative.

One of my friends, Chris Rock, he actually said the importance of explaining exactly what he does once he steps out of his home in Philadelphia and somebody said to him, hey, can you fix the street?

And he says, actually, I'm a legislator, but if you want to fix the street, you have to talk to a City Council person.

And what we really have to do is educate people on the different levels and responsibilities of state, local, and also city and county.

And once we do that, we educate those voters to say your vote matters, because if you're looking at a tax, a sort of a bill, that's your county.

If you're looking at the courts, that's your county.

If you're looking at the streets, that's your city, depending on who owns the street and who owns the rich.

So it's really educating them and allowing them to understand that your votes matter.

But understand, you have to have a seat at the table, which also means when you elect people, you have to understand and look at the boards and authorities that determine and make decisions, and you can have that impact.

Do you have a civil service where they control who's hired by the police?

Do you have a civil service review board with teeth that can hold the police accountable?

These are some of the things that we educate people to demystify the process so they can actually participate, get a seat at the table and it will make change.

And that's what we did.

- That's great.

And that education piece is so important, because people don't know...

Many times they vote in a presidential election, but they forget about the local elections.

And that's so important.

You know, Georgia did an amazing job this year.

As I said, this is not about partisanism, but Georgia did an amazing job, Representative Cannon, in turning the state blue and deliver two senators to the Senate.

That literally changed the face of politics in many ways.

Now, this voter suppression, do you believe that this is an attempt to hold on to power at the state level as it relates to this new bill that was passed, to really suppress the vote?

- Absolutely.

When you look at the factions that are happening between Republican leadership in Georgia, you have some who are still talking about the big lie.

They are still codifying conspiracies.

Then you have the other group that are just voting party line, which is why Senate Bill 202 was passed straight party line.

The issue that we are concerned about is these same 100 legislators voting in favor of suppressing your right to vote and actually using the state election board to take over local election boards.

We are ready to talk about how this will impact redistricting, which will happen this fall in Georgia.

- Think about the long legacy of voter suppression and racism in the South.

And it seems that even though, as Michael said, we take two steps forward, there is always this pushback to keep folks in their place, essentially, if you will.

What does it say about the long legacy of voter suppression in the South?

Representative Cannon?

- What we know to be clear is that the same voting rights groups that were effective those days are going to have to rejuvenate and be effective these days, because this legislation is very savvy.

It will navigate itself through the courts, but it will cost our state so much money.

Let me be clear.

Our state still has not expanded Medicaid.

We have had Covid-19 outbreaks that have specifically damaged the African-American and black communities.

So at this moment, we are in a harm reduction situation.

We call it trauma informed voting.

That's how we turned Georgia blue.

If people were waiting six hours in line, just like a trauma informed health care worker would provide someone with water if they were seeming to need that, we provided those people with water.

And this legislation has been so specific in targeting the ways that nonprofits and community groups were able to support the right to vote.

We won't turn back.

We know this game all too well.

- Yes.

And it seems that, you know, we just, of course, had our president address the nation and he talked about white supremacy being a very serious issue in our country.

I'm sure he got some pushback about that.

But at least he spoke to terrorism in America and the largest threat being white supremacy and white nationalist groups.

Can you talk a little bit about, Judge Lane, from a judiciary perspective, how you can maybe address issues of disparity within our community from a judge's bench?

- I want to go back to what Mike Law said.

It goes back to education.

I'm a co-chair...

I was co-chair of this program called Advancing Civics Education with the Bar Association.

So judges and lawyers, we go into public schools and we actually teach civics, because we know now more than ever the importance of civics.

And our kids want to be change agents.

They just don't always know how.

So I love that program.

And he's right about education.

People don't realize how important the judicial branch is or what a judge does.

We can take away your life, your liberty, your money, your family, your children.

It has such an impact.

And sometimes people don't realize until something's happened to them or someone that they care about.

And we've seen the impact... We've seen the attacks, rather, than have happened on the courts in the last four years, and specifically this last election cycle.

And we saw that the courts were that barrier.

We were the ones here protecting democracy, specifically here in Pennsylvania, with these repeated attacks on voter suppression.

So I think that it is our job as judges to get out in the community, to make sure the community knows their rights, they understand how the system works.

And he's absolutely right that it goes down to education, education, education.

But we as judges have to uphold our oath and do our job.

We have to make sure that everyone is treated fairly.

with dignity and respect, no matter if you're black, white, rich, poor, who you love or where you're from, or if you have an accent.

Who cares?

The Constitution demands we treat everyone equally.

- That's wonderful.

And it is so true.

But a lot of times that's not the case, as we're seeing happening in our courts.

Mike, so since we're all in the area of education, how can we preprogram our children to make a difference now and in the future?

What would be your thoughts on how we can really reach our kids?

- Well, you know, one of the things that I did as a parent at a young age, I told my daughters, you know, at a very young age, you basically have two choices in terms of college.

It's either going to be Rutgers or it's going to be Harvard.

And believe it or not, we preprogrammed her and did everything we could do to push and teach and actually set goals that were so, so high.

Everybody thought we were crazy.

But, you know, if you speak to children and tell them what they're going to do, they're gonna do it.

And my daughter ended up going to Harvard.

- Wonderful.

- And I'm just telling you right now, her son is Miguelito Jr. Miguel Sanchez, Junior.

He will be running for president in 2064.

- I love it.

I love it.

I love it.

Right.

So the power of being a parent and speaking...

The Scripture says the power of life and death is in the tongue.

So you spoke life into your daughter and she's at Harvard.

Well, that's amazing.

I do want to get back to Representative Park.

You ran for office in 2015.

What was it like?

What was the thing that motivated you to get out there and really run for office?

- The lack of justice in Michael Brown's ruling is absolutely why I ran for office.

I have a brother who looks just like Michael Brown.

And so when we saw that no-one would face the face of the community for taking away the face of our community, the city of Atlanta erupted.

There were a number of community members who shut down the highway.

I ended up going to the state capital and just envisioning an office for myself.

I was 24 years old and so many people told me I couldn't do it.

They told me I was too young.

But here I stand today, making it very clear that representation matters.

On issues like Uber and Lyft, if we're legislating them in state law, I actually know about them sometimes more than my colleagues because I actually take it.

But then with issues like voter suppression and Medicaid expansion, I'm on the front lines as a health care worker all throughout Covid-19, and really bringing a progressive and grassroots team to the state capital has made a big difference.

- Thank you.

Thank you so much for that.

And I think it will be inspirational to other young people to engage and get involved in community work and even to run for office, because I do believe if change comes, it's going to come from this generation.

Judge Lane, what do you want people to know about your candidacy and why are you the best candidate for the court at this time?

- Well, Representative Park Cannon just spoke it.

It is the truth.

Representation matters, and we have to make sure that our voices are heard throughout this Commonwealth.

And as I stated earlier, this is the final stop for most people in Pennsylvania.

if they have a criminal matter, a civil matter, family matter, anything dealing with children.

And for that to be the final step, we need to make sure that we have our voice represented and people who actually have real life experiences.

I didn't grow up rich.

I grew up in humble means.

And my grandmother always said, it ain't about you, child.

It's not about you, honey.

And she's right.

It's not about me.

It's about others.

And I'm not running for myself.

I'm running for all of us.

And I'm first generation college.

I'm first generation law school.

And I'm a cancer survivor and I'm a fighter.

I know what it's like when you had to adjust to a new normal.

And most people, when they interact with our judicial system, they do as well, be it divorce...

It could be something with their family.

It could be child custody.

They could be a victim of a crime, accused of a crime.

And it impacts not only them, but people who love them as well.

And we need people who are there who understand that that.

- Yeah, that is so true.

That is so true.

How can people learn more about your campaign?

- Oh, they can visit JudgeLane.com and I'm also on Facebook and Instagram, and I would love if they follow and just watch.

Because we're really excited, because we really feel this momentum.

It's a record-breaking year this year as far as black women who are running for Appellate Court.

So we are really trying to do this and we need everyone's help.

We need everyone to vote.

- Thank you so much.

Michael.

You know, there has been a rash of shootings, and this may be off a little bit, but I want to get your impact or your response on this.

After the George Floyd verdict, there were just multiple shootings of African-Americans by police.

What do you think that message is saying?

And what do you think the response should be?

- Well, I think that because of the video, we're seeing more of those shootings.

I think the shootings have been taking place all the time.

It's just that what is really being publicized, right?

What is being advertised and what is the coverage that we're seeing?

I don't know if the change has been really an improvement.

It's, you know, it's really going up.

But I think the important thing is now people are holding police accountable.

And I think now when you see for the very first time police are actually being prosecuted and held accountable.

And that's a good thing, you know, because, finally, people are starting to stand up and say, hey, we're done dying.

Right?

We want to make sure if anything takes place like this any more, we need to have police reform.

So that's one of the things I'm working with, with the Justice Institute, to make sure that we have that police reform, the training that they need, so it doesn't happen.

I'm not trying to get into discussion about police, you know, but I can just say right now we need to make sure that, you know, there's change, positive change, and it's going to stop affecting black and brown folks, because that's who it was affecting mostly.

- Thank you, Michael.

And it's important to have Courageous Conversations like this.

Representative Cannon, we've got two minutes left.

So I'd really like for you to give us the last word on, you know, voting, the importance of it and why we need to engage.

- Here in Georgia, we want to be very clear.

The right to vote still exists.

There are just new rules and we have to get to know the rules so that we can outvote the voter suppression, because when we vote, we are voting on the issues, not just the candidates who are going to carry the issues, but the issues of police accountability.

We saw last year, Georgia passed the hate crime bill, and this year Ahmaud Arbery's attackers and murderers were charged with a hate crime because we now have that statute in Georgia.

I encourage you to keep knocking and to run for office.

If I can be of help, please reach out.

And I thank you all so much for having me.

This Courageous Conversation has been so delightful and timely, as well as necessary.

- Well, I think that we realize that voting is a right in America.

And, yes, there are people who are moving to suppress that.

But people like yourselves who are actually doing the work, running for office, advocating for our community to be engaged, are the type of people that will make a change and hopefully inspire a generation to get involved.

I'd like to thank you all for taking the time to join me today for this important Courageous Conversation.

You know, there are many people right here in the Lehigh Valley doing courageous work to engage and enhance the lives of others.

And we would like to put them in the spotlight.

If you would like us to highlight the courageous work of someone in your community, let us know by going to... Make sure you stick around for Counter Culture with one of my favorite people, Grover Silcox.

His show is coming up right after this program.

I'm Pastor Phil Davis.

And on behalf of everyone here at PBS39, thanks for watching.

Make sure that you tune in Tuesday nights at 6.30pm.