Providence Journal: June 10th, 2026 by Shahidah Ali, Guest Columnist
Key Points:
Today, after months of organizing, lobbying, testifying, collecting postcards, and showing up at the State House, we received devastating news:
The Rhode Island Voting Rights Act is dead for this legislative session.
I am angry.
But more than anything, I am disappointed.
For months, grassroots organizations, community leaders, and us commonfolk worked to convince lawmakers that voting rights are worth protecting. Week after week, organizations like the Rhode Island Coalition of Black Women, Common Cause, and The Womxn Project walked the halls of the State House explaining why this legislation mattered.Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!
Post cards were mailed. Meetings were held. Testimony was given. People took time away from work to go to the State House to speak with reps and senators about the necessity of this bill.
We believed protecting democracy was important enough to show up for. In March, the campaign launched with leaders Rep. Gabe Amo, Rep. Seth Magaziner and Secretary of State Gregg Amore. On that March afternoon after our elected officials spoke, I went to the podium to contribute my words to what I viewed as part of a historic moment for Rhode Island.
Apparently, not enough lawmakers agreed.
Maybe some thought I was being too dramatic when I spoke on the violent history of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. When history and race come into the conversation it is always assumed that Black people are being hyperbolic.
We aren’t.
Because shortly after my speech the Supreme Court completely gutted the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 and within days southern states moved quickly to re-draw maps.
Now through inaction and weakened protections those states gerrymandered heavily Black districts, diluting their votes and representation.
What happened in the southern states is exactly why Rhode Island needed its own Voting Rights Act.
Not because voter suppression only happens somewhere else.
Not because democracy is guaranteed.
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We needed it because rights that are not protected are rights that can be taken away.
We needed it because history teaches us that progress can be reversed.
And yet, after all the advocacy, we are told the bill was too complicated.
A bill designed to protect voters from intimidation.
A bill designed to prevent racial gerrymandering.
A bill designed to stop the dilution of Black political power.
A bill designed to ensure that every Rhode Islander has a fair voice in our democracy.
That was too complicated?
The people who fought and died for the right to vote faced literacy tests, poll taxes, fire hoses, police dogs, beatings, bombings, and murder. They crossed bridges knowing they might not make it home.
Yet we are expected to accept that a voting rights bill could not move forward because it was difficult to understand.
I cannot accept that.
What hurts most is the message this sends to Black communities.
We were told to engage our elected officials. We did.
We were told that our voices mattered. We believed it.
Then, when the moment arrived to act, the legislation died.
I am gutted.
We lost an opportunity.
An opportunity for Rhode Island to declare that regardless of what happens in Washington, this state will protect the voting rights of all its people.
An opportunity to tell Black voters that their representation matters.
An opportunity to tell marginalized communities that their voices will not be diluted, ignored, or bargained away.
An opportunity to lead.
Instead, lawmakers chose delay.
When voting rights are under attack across the country, choosing not to act is a choice.
And communities that are most vulnerable to voter suppression understand that better than anyone.
The Rhode Island Voting Rights Act may be dead this session, but our commitment to protecting democracy is not.
My ancestors fought this fight 61 years ago. They endured violence, humiliation, and hatred so future generations could exercise a fundamental right.
I refuse to believe that their sacrifice should be met with excuses.
The Rhode Island Voting Rights Act is dead.
Shahidah Ali is political action chair and board member for the Rhode Island Coalition of Black Women and board member of The Womxn Project.
